Download or read book Pavilion of Women written by Pearl S. Buck and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2012-08-21 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “vivid and extremely interesting” novel of an upper-class Chinese wife’s quest for freedom, from the Nobel Prize–winning author of The Good Earth (The New Yorker). At forty, Madame Wu is beautiful and much respected as the wife of one of China’s oldest upper-class houses. Her birthday wish is to find a young concubine for her husband and to move to separate quarters, starting a new chapter of her life. When her wish is granted, she finds herself at leisure, no longer consumed by running a sixty-person household. Now she’s free to read books previously forbidden her, to learn English, and to discover her own mind. The family in the compound are shocked at the results, especially when she begins learning from a progressive, excommunicated Catholic priest. In its depiction of life in the compound, Pavilion of Women includes some of Buck’s most enchanting writing about the seasons, daily rhythms, and customs of women in China. It is a delightful parable about the sexes, and of the profound and transformative effects of free thought. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.
Download or read book An inconvenient woman The character of Madame Wu from Pavilion of Women by Pearl S Buck written by Sabine Buchholz and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2008-01-30 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Siegen (FB 3: Literatur-, Sprach- und Medienwissenschaften), course: Nobel Prize Winners in English: Instantly Canonized?, language: English, abstract: In 1946, Pearl S. Buck, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1938, published Pavilion of Women, a novel about a Chinese woman who withdraws from married life by ordering a concubine for her husband. The inspiring work deals with Chinese traditions in particular as well as with general questions of individual freedom and existence, possession, love, religion, (female) psychology, gender issues and human interrelations. Although critics tend to complain especially about the story’s sentimentalism, there are, however, many colourful descriptions of Chinese habits and customs, which may not only teach Western readers a great deal about the exotic culture but also about divergent philosophical and psychological issues. This essay is, above all, to concentrate on the extraordinary female protagonist, Madame Wu, the matron of an influential aristocratic Chinese family. At this, focuses on questions like the following: How is the specific woman presented with regard to her (outer) physical appearance and body features, but also concerning her (inner) characteristic attributes, in other words, her mind? In what way are symbols employed to undermine her characteristics? And, how is the character development – from the indifferent rationalist to the woman capable for love – underlined?
Download or read book Peony written by Pearl S. Buck and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2012-08-21 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young Chinese woman falls in love with a Jewish man in nineteenth-century China in this evocative novel by the Nobel Prize–winning author of The Good Earth. In 1850s China, a young girl, Peony, is sold to work as a bondmaid for a rich Jewish family in Kaifeng. Jews have lived for centuries in this region of the country, but by the mid-nineteenth century, assimilation has begun taking its toll on their small enclave. When Peony and the family’s son, David, grow up and fall in love with one another, they face strong opposition from every side. Tradition forbids the marriage, and the family already has a rabbi’s daughter in mind for David. Long celebrated for its subtle and even-handed treatment of colliding traditions, Peony is an engaging coming-of-age story about love, identity, and the tragedy and beauty found at the intersection of two disparate cultures. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.
Download or read book The Three Daughters of Madame Liang written by Pearl Sydenstricker Buck and published by Richmond Hill, Ont. : Simon & Schuster of Canada. This book was released on 1969 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novel of China. After her husband takes a concubine, Madame Liang sets out on her own, starting an upscale restaurant and sending her daughters to America to be educated. At the restaurant, the leaders of the People's Republic wine and dine and Madame Liang must keep a low profile for her daughters' sake. Soon her two eldest daughters are called back to serve the People's Republic. Her oldest daughter, Grace, now a doctor, finds meaning through her work. Things are not as easy for her daughter Mercy, a musician who is not in demand in the People's Republic, nor for her new husband who she has brought back to China with her. Watching her two daughters grow apart and knowing that her youngest daughter will never return, Madame Liang must also face the challenges of The Cultural Revolution, and how to keep herself and the restaurant, alive.
Download or read book Peony in Love written by Lisa See and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-05-04 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peony has neither seen nor spoken to any man other than her father, a wealthy Chinese nobleman. Nor has she ever ventured outside the cloistered women's quarters of the family villa. As her sixteenth birthday approaches she finds herself betrothed to a man she does not know, but Peony has dreams of her own. Her father engages a theatrical troupe to perform scenes from The Peony Pavilion, a Chinese epic opera, in their garden amidst the scent of ginger, green tea and jasmine. 'Unmarried girls should not be seen in public,' says Peony's mother, but her father allows the women to watch from behind a screen. Here, Peony catches sight of an elegant, handsome man and is immediately bewitched. So begins her unforgettable journey of love, desire, sorrow and redemption.
Download or read book The Pavilion in the Clouds written by Alexander McCall Smith and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This is one of the most enjoyable of his many enjoyable novels” –The Scotsman It is 1938 and the final days of the British Empire. In a bungalow high up in the green hills above the plains of Ceylon, under a vast blue sky, live the Ferguson family: Bella, a precocious eight-year-old; her father, Henry, owner of a tea plantation; and her mother, Virginia, a woman out of step in her community. The story centers around their home, affectionately called “The Pavilion in the Clouds,” set in the idyllic grounds carved out of the wilderness. But all is not as serene as it seems. Bella is suspicious of the intentions of her governess, Miss White. Her suspicion ignites her mother’s imagination, causing an unfortunate series of eventsthat reverberate throughout the years.
Download or read book Shanghai Girls and Dreams of Joy Two Bestselling Novels written by Lisa See and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-08-26 with total page 945 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across two critically acclaimed linked novels, now together in this eBook bundle, Lisa See unfolds a captivating saga of the bonds between women—mothers and daughters, sisters and friends—while illuminating the events of China’s tumultuous history. SHANGHAI GIRLS “As in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love, [See] has . . . created ordinary women who, through willfulness and resiliency, accomplish extraordinary things.”—Miami Herald In 1937 Shanghai—the Paris of Asia—twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are beautiful, modern, and carefree . . . until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth. To repay his debts, he must sell the girls as wives to suitors from Los Angeles. As Pearl and May set out from the Chinese countryside to the shores of America, they face impossible choices and confront a life-changing secret, but through it all the two sisters hold fast to who they are—Shanghai girls. DREAMS OF JOY “Astonishing . . . a story with characters who enter a reader’s life, take up residence, and illuminate the myriad decisions and stories that make up human history.”—Los Angeles Times Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, Pearl’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy, runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father—an artist with whom both May and Pearl were once in love. Dazzled by him, and blinded by idealism, Joy throws herself into the New Society of Red China, heedless of the dangers in the Communist regime. Terrified for Joy’s safety, Pearl returns to Shanghai, determined to save her daughter. Yet even as Joy’s and Pearl’s journeys converge, one of the most tragic episodes in China’s history threatens their very lives. Praise for Lisa See “Explores the bonds of sisterhood while powerfully evoking the often nightmarish American immigrant experience.”—USA Today, on Shanghai Girls “As compulsively readable as it is an enlightening journey.”—The Denver Post, on Shanghai Girls “See is a gifted historical novelist. . . . The real love story, the one that’s artfully shown, is between mother and daughter, and aunt and daughter.”—San Francisco Chronicle, on Dreams of Joy “See’s research feels impeccable, and she has created an authentic, visually arresting world.”—The Washington Post, on Dreams of Joy
Download or read book Pearl S Buck s Chinese Women Characters written by Xiongya Gao and published by Susquehanna University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a result, the reader will find that Buck's female characters, with their different degrees of individuality and typicality, form a realistic picture of Chinese women."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book This Proud Heart written by Pearl S. Buck and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1930s, as her second marriage approaches, a brilliant and independent sculptor faces tensions between her art and everyday life in this novel by the author of The Good Earth. This Proud Heart narrates the experience of a gifted sculptor and her struggle to reconcile her absorbing career with society’s domestic expectations. Susan Gaylord is talented, loving, equipped with a strong moral sense, and adept at anything she puts her hand to, from housework to playing the piano to working with marble and clay. But the intensity of her artistic calling comes at a price, isolating her from other people—at times, even from her own family. When her husband dies and she remarries, she finds herself once again comparing the sacrifice of solitude to that of commitment. With a heroine who is naturalistic yet compellingly larger than life, This Proud Heart is incomparable in its sympathetic study of character. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.
Download or read book Dragon Seed written by Pearl S. Buck and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2012-08-21 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times–bestselling historical novel about the Japanese invasion of Nanking from the author of The Good Earth. Farmer Liang Tan knows only a quiet, traditional life in his remote Chinese farming community. When news filters in that Japanese forces are invading the country, he and his fellow villagers believe that if they behave decently to the Japanese soldiers, the civilians might remain undisturbed. They’re in for a shock, as the attackers lay waste to the country and install a puppet government designed to systematically carry out Japanese interests. In response, the Chinese farmers and their families form a resistance—which not only carries grave risk, but also breaks their vow of nonviolence, leading them to wonder if they’re any different than their enemy. Later adapted into a film featuring Katharine Hepburn, Dragon Seed is a brilliant and unflinching look at the horrors of war. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.
Download or read book My Several Worlds written by Pearl S. Buck and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 619 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A memoir from the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. “Not only [Buck’s] most important book, but—on many counts—her best book” (Kirkus Reviews). Often regarded as one of Pearl S. Buck’s most significant works, My Several Worlds is the memoir of a major novelist and one of the key American chroniclers of China. Buck, who was born to missionary parents in 1892, spent much of the first portion of her life in China, experiencing the Boxer Rebellion first hand and becoming involved with the society with an intimacy available to few outside observers. The book is not only an important reflection on that nation’s modern history, but also an account of her re-engagement with America and the intense activity that characterized her life there, from her prolific novel-writing to her loves and friendships to her work for abandoned children and other humanitarian causes. As alive with incident as it is illuminating in its philosophy, My Several Worlds is essential reading for travelers and readers alike. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.
Download or read book Come My Beloved written by Pearl S. Buck and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times–bestselling, multigenerational family saga that reaches from America to India by the Nobel Prize–winning author of The Good Earth. Beginning in the 1890s, Come, My Beloved describes an American family’s involvement with India over four generations. Touched by the poverty he encounters in Bombay, self-made millionaire David MacArd establishes a seminary for Christian missionary workers, and in so doing shapes the fates of his son and grandson. The choices made by each generation parallel one another, distinctly marked by the passage of time—though the patriarch remains in New York, the second David becomes a missionary in India himself, while his own son, Ted, goes even further, opting to live in a remote village—and these choices come with unforeseen sacrifices. Nor does their religious journey necessarily mean any growing harmony with their surroundings—something that is powerfully brought home when Ted refuses to let his daughter marry across racial lines. Featuring an unforgettable rendering of India during Gandhi’s rise to power, Come, My Beloved is a family saga of rare power and sensitivity. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.
Download or read book Peach Blossom Pavilion written by Mingmei Yip and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2014-02-27 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Torn from her family. Destined to become the most desired courtesan in China. A seductive and evocative debut that opens the doors on life as a Chinese courtesan in the Peach Blossom Pavilion...
Download or read book Good Earth written by Pearl S. Buck and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of a Chinese peasant and his passionate, dogged accumulation of land during famine, drought, and revolution.
Download or read book East Wind West Wind written by Pearl Sydenstricker Buck and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pearl Buck tells the heart-seaching and tender story of a young Chinese girl's troubled acceptance of an alien way of life, with all its sorrows and rewards.
Download or read book The Temple of the Golden Pavilion written by Yukio Mishima and published by Random House. This book was released on 2001 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together Mishima's preoccupations with violence, desire, religious life and the history of Japan, this novel is based on an actual incident, the burning of a celebrated temple. The novel is a meditation on the state of Japan in the post-war period.
Download or read book The House of Exile written by Nora Waln and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1920, Nora Waln arrived in China and was welcomed into the innermost daily life of the Lin family as a daughter in affection. It had been her dream to see China, but to be accepted into this family so intimately was amazing to Nora. This evocative, brilliant memoir, published 13 years after her return to the West, became a bestseller alongside those of Pearl Buck, Alice Tisdale Hobart, and Grace Seton Thompson.
