Novel
The Good Earth
Pearl Buck · 1931
Synopsis
Wang Lung, a peasant from Anhui, goes on the morning of his wedding to fetch O-Lan, a slave of the great Hwang house, in the town, because a poor man can only aspire to a slave. She works in the fields beside him and gives birth alone; with the money from a good harvest, they buy a first plot from the Hwang house. Then comes drought: Wang Lung refuses to sell his land, then the family leaves by train for a city in the south, where his people beg while he pulls a rickshaw and hears talk of revolution.
Context
The book was written in Nanjing and published by John Day in March 1931; its author, who had studied in the United States, had published only one novel before. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932, was staged on Broadway the same year, then adapted by MGM in 1937. It opens a trilogy devoted to a single family. Some Chinese readers of the thirties reproached it for its unvarnished portrayal of village life; it has also been credited with having prepared Americans to see the Chinese as allies.
Who it is for
A novel with a simple sentence and a slow rhythm, which is compared to the Bible and to Chinese storytellers. Translated into French by Théo Varlet as early as 1932.
Prizes and reception
Pulitzer Prize 1932 and the best-selling American book in both 1931 and 1932; it is still widely read in secondary school.
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