Pavilion of Women - Softcover

Buck, Pearl S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 155921287X ISBN 13: 9781559212878

Publisher: Moyer Bell and its subsidiaries, 1995

Synopsis

On her fortieth birthday, Madame Wu carries out a decision she has been planning for a long time: she tells her husband that after twenty-four years their physical life together is now over and she wishes him to take a second wife. The House of Wu, one of the oldest and most revered in China, is thrown into an uproar by her decision, but Madame Wu will not be dissuaded and arranges for a young country girl to come take her place in bed. Elegant and detached, Madame Wu orchestrates this change as she manages everything in the extended household of more than sixty relatives and servants. Alone in her own quarters, she relishes her freedom and reads books she has never been allowed to touch. When her son begins English lessons, she listens, and is soon learning from the foreigner, a free-thinking priest named Brother Andre, who will change her life. Few books raise so many questions about the nature and roles of men and women, about self-discipline and happiness.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Madame Wu was to retire from married life and had planned to select a concubine for her husband. When the revered House of Wu is upturned by her decision, Madame Wu elegantly manages the situation and is granted private time she never had before. Yet, with all this new freedom, and the arrival of her son's English teacher, how will Madame Wu change?

"Pavilion of Women is Miss Buck at her best, the dedicated storyteller. Beneath the deceptive simplicity of the narrative flows the clear, swift tide of human life--the small commonplaces of daily living, the clashes of personality, the episodes mean and magnificent."

--Saturday Review of Literature

About the Author:

Pearl S. Buck was born in West Virginia and taken to China as an infant before the turn of the century. Buck grew up speaking Chinese as well as English. She is the most widely translated American author to this day. She has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. She died in 1973.

About this edition

• Publisher: Moyer Bell and its subsidiaries
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 155921287X
• ISBN 13: 9781559212878
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 316