Customer Reviews

Pavilion of Women

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This is no easy novel to comprehend and will take many readings to fully grasp its messages. In my quest to understand asian cultures, this novel is unique in providing insights as to how the wealthy Chinese lived. Typically, respect for the ancients, elders, family and tradition are all borne out but Pearl's emphasis here is chiefly on the parent-child-grandchild-servant roles.
The reader could interpret the Pavilion of Women in three ways, individually or collectively. One could be the ancestoral women who preceeded MAdame Wu in this ancestoral home; the other could be Madame Wu, the daughters-in-law and the concubines; lastly, it could refer to the 20 orphan girls Madam WU decided to care for after being influenced by Brother ANdre.
MAdame WU has never loved her husband to whom she has devoted 40 years of life. She has vowed when she turns 40yo she will free her soul to search for its own happiness and meaning. However, embedded and steeped in old customs and beliefs, she advises her daughters-in-law how to live and treat their husbands ignoring the fact that living as she did, she was not happy nor free.
The household is realistic to the reader through series of events which could plausibly occur in any household. When all the sons, their wives, Mr. Wu's concubines are tossed into the mix, many real-life situations arise.
At 40 years of age she had thought her duty over and she coud be free. She also treated all men as body only but through Bros. ANdres, Fengmo (3rd son) shows her "that she had given birth to a man who was more than a male (p.169), Bros Andres lead MAdame Wu to see how instead of freeing her soul to do as it wishes (search the universe for answers in her library of books) she should "Instead of your own freedom, think how you can free others." (p.201). This opens the door of her mind into rethinking all her old thoughts so eventually she says; " I shall no longer live out of duty but out of love." (215) Her soul free of ancient traditions and thinking, is now free to explore, understand and extend itself to serve others out of love.
This is the power of this novel - love - in the setting of a wealthy landlady.

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.

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.

Madame Wu decides to purchase her own birthday present---a concubine for her husband.

It is China in the 1930's and though the practise of concubinage exists it is considered--to say the least--old fashioned. Madame Wu does not care. She is now forty years old and wishes to be free of pregnancies.

Her sons are scandalized. Has their father been guilty of infidelity? Madame Wu reprimands them for entertaining such a wicked thought.

Her best friend, Madame Kang , is also scandalized. Both are wealthy and both are good hearted, but there the similarity ends. Madame Kang is fat, earthy and simple. Madame Wu is ethereally beautifull, brilliant and wise. The essence of feminine grace incarnate---with a tragic flaw.

When Madame Kang says she could not bear the jelousy. Madame Wu finds this puzzling, as puzzling as her husband's hurtful unwillingness to go along with her plan. Hasn't she always chosen right?

Her entire life been devoted to the best interests of the family; from finding appropiate wives for her sons to coddling the whims of her husband; an overgrown, sweet tempered child who would be lost without her guidance.

This is the first clue. For all her sensuality and for all her sagacious insight into human nature Madame Wu has never truly loved anyone. Why should she? After all, passion is an extreme and all extremes upset harmony.

Harmony has enabled her to mother her family. But now that she's forty, is it really asking too much to have a helper ease her burdens? Which brings us to the second clue. Motherhood has consumed her, and she wishes for a little solace and freedom. But who will pay the price ?

Enter Father Andre, a towering hairy giant of a foreign barbarian, with a mind to match Madame Wu---and his own peculiar ideas about men, women--and freedom.
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The principal theme of Buck's novel is the elusive one of freedom, and how love can make freedom possible--even from beyond the grave. As Andre dies, his last words, whispered to Madame Wu as she begs for guidance, come from Jesus: "Feed My Lambs."

Andre is her soulmate, which she can finally acknowledge and love. And thus begins her final transformation, as she takes care of Andre's orphans and communes with him in spirit.

By the end of the story Madame Wu has no faith; no belief in God or gods. But she knows without doubt that, like Andre, her soul is inmortal. She has loved.

The plot is subtle and bold at the same time. Her style is economical and yet lush. Don't ask me how he manages it. Buck was a genius, or perhaps it is more accurate to say she was a magician. It's a mystery.

Whatever you do, do not make the ludicrous mistake of thinking that this classic is a 'Woman's Novel.' That's laughable. Anyone tells you otherwise probably thinks that 'Moby Dick' should be read by sailors only. Men as well as women can enjoy being spellbound by this masterpiece.

All you need, at the risk of sounding like a blues sax player, is soul.

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.

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.

"Pavilion of Women" was Pearl S. Buck's first novel about an upper-class Chinese family. It's the story of Madame Wu, beautiful and intelligent, who decides on her 40th birthday that her physical duty to her husband is over and, against his will, finds him a concubine. She is as deep as he is shallow, a good wife and mother, who prides herself on having raised four sons and married off the three oldest, but she doesn't realize she has never loved her husband, until she meets her real soulmate in the person of Brother Andre, a renegade Catholic priest whom she engages to teach her son foreign languages. Madame Wu also becomes Brother Andre's pupil and learns more from him than he ever set out to teach; what Brother Andre gives Madame Wu is the priceless gift of self-knowledge. Madame Wu has been the heart and soul of her large household, totally in control in her quiet way, but she realizes that running her large household is one thing; running her family's lives is something else again, and the best thing she can do for them is help them be who they were meant to be. In Madame Wu, Pearl Buck created a remarkable character who after 40 years finally learns what it is to love.

I have read just about all Pearl S. Buck has written and this book was my favorite if it is possible to pick one amoung this authors fabulous books.
This is a must read for any woman -it is fanatastic and a life changing read.
It will make you cry, smile and you will love it!

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.

The final sentence of the book, "she knew she was immortal", describes a women's journey from domination to submission. Madame Wu, a wealthy landowner's wife in pre-war China is in control of her family's destiny. She decides at the age of 40 to retire from being her husband's lover and instead 'buys' him a young concubine so she can spend the rest of her life seeking her own pursuits of the spirit. Instead she finds that all under her own 'control' is falling apart until she meet's her son's tutor, Brother Andre who begins to teach her about life and the immortal decisions she is making. At first she is skeptical but soon she begins to notice that his words and ideas breathe new life into what she begins to understand is her soul.

Instead of 'controlling' her family's happiness she begins to understand that happiness comes from setting the soul free so it can truly be itself. In doing that she understands her own immortality and achieves a peace she never thought attainable.

Pearl Buck weaves a story of a beautiful, dutiful woman who in the world's view has everything but learns to give it up so she may find the happiness that all souls seek, freedom to be who God intended.