Pavilion of Women: [A Novel of Life in the Women's Quarters]

The Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck is a true gem of literature. It follows the story of Madame Wu, a respectable and beautiful Chinese noble, who, on her fortieth birthday, decides that she has fufilled her physical needs to her husband. Her decision causes an uproar in the household, making everyone, including herself, restless. When she hires a foreign priest, Brother Andre, to come teach her son, he introduces a new world to her through his thought-provoking preaching and words of wisdom. Through him, Madame Wu learns to make peace with herself by helping others. This book really made me think about my morals and outlook on life. That is very rare in a book. It is simply wonderful.

Pearl S. Buck's novel tells the story of the Wu family in pre-communist China. Nobel and respected, they have lived for generations in the same tradition. Madame Wu is the mistress of this household, her whole life spent fulfilling the duties of her sex - ministering to her husband, bearing sons, dealing with servants, maintaining a smooth order in the house. But she is intelligent and deeply emotional, and has felt caged by an existence where everyone else come first. So on her fortieth birthday, Madame Wu decides to "retire" from her duties, to find time for herself. She arranges matters in the house like pieces on a chess board - procuring a concubine for her husband, and marrying off her children, hoping they will no longer demand her attention. But her retreat brings only emptiness, until a foreign priest enters the house to tutor her son.What follows is not a typical "forbidden love" story. Instead, "Pavillion of Women" uses the plot to explore themes of identity, self-love and what our connections with other people really mean. Madame Wu finds that freedom doesn't mean running away from duty. It involves learning to love herself first, setting her spirit free. It is then that she is able to return to her duties with a new sense of content. The conflict between responsibility to the group and personal freedom is played out in the family, as a microcosm of China as a whole at the time. But the issues here transcend time and culture - most of us will be able to relate to them. The book is beautifully written, and I recommend it if you want a story that makes you think.

I love and treasure this book immeasurably. Every time I find a copy at a used book sale, I buy it and send it to my one of my women friends. Women everywhere should read this spectacular, beautifully written story of the independent, sassy Madame Wu. I thought Ms. Buck could never top "The Good Earth" but this one did it for me. I won't give a book report, just my humble opinion that this book should be on the reading list of every woman on earth....even my 20-something daughters loved the story.

This is my 2nd favourite Pearl Buck novel-the first being "The Good Earth".It describes in detail the everyday lives of the women of a wealthy household in the 1930's,before and during WW2 and before the rise of communism.They are pampered,waited upon and their only real duties are to satisfy the needs of their husbands and to produce sons.Despite their lives of ease, they are totally cloistered women who rarely leave the confines of the huge,multi-generational home and are ,for the most part,uneducated and completely ignorant od anything except events which happen to their immediate families. The true head of this family is a rare person of this class-an educated woman who hires a Christian priest to tutor her sons and who begins to absorb his teachings herself.I loved the rich details of their lives-the food,clothing,furnishings and all the things which made up their world. It was a wonderful read.

This is a strange love story. The setting is the time of Chinese nationalization, just before the Communist revolution. The main character is Madame Wu, an accomplished lady and wife of a wealthy landower. She is agelessly beautiful, she rules her household with its extended family of sons, wives and grandchildren with the cool control and wisdom learned from Chinese Tao. Her intelligence soars above everyone elses. She has has a dear friend Madam Wang, but no peer or equal. That is, until she meets Brother Andre, who seems to be a Christian monk, but is something else entirely. Madam Wu hires the unusual Brother Andre to teach English to her son, but ends up being Andre's best student. What Andre teaches Madam Wu turns out to change her life forever.This is a touching novel and the love story that unfolds is unusual and unforgettable. A very enjoyable, emotional book.