Product Description

The Peony Pavilion is a representative work by the outstanding Chinese dramatist Tang Xianzu of the 16th century. The work, through the romantic love story between Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei, reflects the persistent aspiration for ftee love and exposes the evil of the feudal ethics. With its complicated plot and magnificent structure, The Peony Pavilion in 55 scenes is particularly known for its excellent character portrayals. Its 160 odd characters provide a panoramic picture of social life in the Ming Dynasty. The work is renowned for its beautiful verses and has much influence on the development of drama in China in later days. The English translation of this version is the first versified version of The Peony Pavilion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2228993 in Books
• Published on: 2000-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Library Binding
• 985 pages

Customer Reviews

Great Play, Brilliant Translation
Tang Xiansu was a contemporary of Shakespeare (and Cervantes!). His masterpiece, _The Peony Pavilion_, a musical drama in the Kunqu style, is Shakespearean in its literary quality--as translated by Cyril Birch--and super-Shakespearean in its length and scope. Its 55 scenes, playing 20 hours, include all of Shakespeare's genres: romance, history, comedy, tragedy, lyric poetry. A magnificent work and vital theatre as done complete in New York in 1999. Birch's brief intro helps you get into the piece; his short book, "Scenes for Mandarins: The Elite Theater of the Ming" (Columbia University Press), tells more and also introduces other playwrights and plays in his elegant translations.

Great Book
I love this book. It's so romantic and it has a lot of suspense in it.

Painful
It is painful to read this book.

The book itself has no definite structure. The plot is very predictable and rather boring (not to mention it makes very little sense). I would highly suggest that you avoid this Chinese Classic.