The peony pavilion - Xiaoping Yen

A sixteen-year-old girl visits a forbidden garden and falls in love with a young man she meets in a dream. She has an affair with her dream-lover and dies longing for him. After her death, her unflagging spirit continues to wait for her dream-lover. Does her lover really exists? Can a youthful love born of a garden dream ever blossom? Based upon a famous sixteen-century Chinese opera written by Tang Xianzu, 'the Shakespeare of China', the novel leads the reader into a mythical world of passion and romance. Its many fascinating characters include a failed scholar, a Taoist nun, a husband and wife rebel team, a dissolute emperor, and Tartar invaders from the North.