Novel
Three Generations
삼대
Yom Sang-seop · 1931
Synopsis
Seoul, in the late twenties. Old Jo, head of a well-off family, seeks to buy his line a rank of nobility, sees to the ancestor rites and keeps the strongbox. His son Sang-hun, a convert to Christianity, drinks in secret and has abandoned Gyeong-ae, a former pupil, who has had a daughter by him. The grandson Deok-gi, a student in Japan, kept in Seoul by the household's affairs, is the heir the old man prefers; his friend Byeong-hwa, penniless, frequents radical circles. When the grandfather's health declines, the young concubine and the others fight over the inheritance.
Context
The novel appeared as a serial in the Chosun Ilbo from 1 January to 17 September 1931, according to the Korean entry of the Literature Translation Institute, and was published in book form, revised, only in 1948. It follows the decline of a middle-class Seoul household under colonisation, through three ages: the conservatism of the end of the Joseon dynasty, the moral collapse of the Enlightenment generation, a more progressive youth. It was not at first held to be important; it is now ranked among the great realist novels of the country.
Who it is for
A long novel with many characters, about five hundred and fifty pages in French, which Korean schoolchildren still read.
Prizes and reception
Translated into English in 2005 and into French in 2017; a first English version had appeared in Seoul in 1978.
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