Strange Stories from the Lodge of Leisures

"Strange Stories from the Lodge of Leisures" by Songling Pu is a treasury of fantastical short stories set in China in the late 1700s. Through a vibrant cast of scholars, magicians, ghosts, and gods, the collection dives into love, the supernatural, and the great beyond. The opening story, "The Ghost in Love," tells of Li The-peaceful, a young scholar, and Double-peony, a woman he meets at a lantern festival. This relationship takes on a supernatural twist when secrets reveal her connection to spirits and mortality. This tale is an opener for the collection of stories that merge together love, the supernatural highlighting attitudes towards life and death.