The Good Earth (House of Earth #1), Pearl S. Buck

The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932.

The best-selling novel in the United States in both 1931 and 1932 was an influential factor in Buck's winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938.

It is the first book in a trilogy that includes Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935). The story begins on Wang Lung's wedding day and follows the rise and fall of his fortunes.

The House of Hwang, a family of wealthy landowners, lives in the nearby town, where Wang Lung's future wife, O-Lan, lives as a slave. However, the House of Hwang slowly declines due to opium use, frequent spending, and uncontrolled borrowing.

Meanwhile, Wang Lung, through his own hard work and the skill of his wife, O-Lan, slowly earns enough money to buy land from the Hwang family, piece by piece. O-Lan delivers three sons and three daughters; the first daughter becomes mentally handicapped as a result of severe malnutrition brought on by famine.

Her father greatly pities her and calls her "Poor Fool," a name by which she is addressed throughout her life. O-Lan kills her second daughter at birth to spare her the misery of growing up in such hard times, and to give the remaining family a better chance to survive.

During the devastating famine and drought, the family must flee to a large city in the south to find work. Wang Lung's malevolent uncle offers to buy his possessions and land, but for significantly less than their value. The family sells everything except the land and the house.

Wang Lung then faces the long journey south, contemplating how the family will survive walking, when he discovers that the "firewagon" (the Chinese word for the newly built train) takes people south for a fee. In the city, O-Lan and the children beg while Wang Lung pulls a rickshaw.

Wang Lung's father begs but does not earn any money, and sits looking at the city instead. They find themselves aliens among their more metropolitan countrymen who look different and speak in a fast accent. They no longer starve, due to the one-cent charitable meals of congee, but still live in abject poverty.

Wang Lung longs to return to his land. When armies approach the city he can only work at night hauling merchandise out of fear of being conscripted. One time, his son brings home stolen meat. Furious, Wang Lung throws the meat on the ground, not wanting his sons to grow up as thieves. O-Lan, however, calmly picks up the meat and cooks it. When a food riot erupts, Wang Lung is swept up in a mob that is looting a rich man's house and corners the man himself, who fears for his life and gives Wang Lung all his money in order to buy his safety.

Meanwhile, his wife finds jewels in a hiding place in another house, hiding them between her breasts. Wang Lung uses this money to bring the family home, buy a new ox and farm tools, and hire servants to work the land for him.

In time, the youngest children are born, a twin son and daughter. When he discovers the jewels O-Lan looted from the house in the southern city, Wang Lung buys the House of Hwang's remaining land. He is eventually able to send his first two sons to school (also apprenticing the second one as a merchant) and retains the third one on the land.

As Wang Lung becomes more prosperous, he buys a concubine named Lotus. O-Lan endures the betrayal of her husband when he takes the only jewels she had asked to keep for herself, the two pearls, so that he can make them into earrings to present to Lotus. O-Lan's morale suffers and she eventually dies, but not before witnessing her first son's wedding.

Wang Lung finally appreciates her place in his life, as he mourns her passing. Lung and his family move into town and rent the old House of Hwang.

Wang Lung, now an old man, wants peace, but there are always disputes, especially between his first and second sons, and particularly their wives.

Wang Lung's third son runs away to become a soldier. At the end of the novel, Wang Lung overhears his sons planning to sell the land and tries to dissuade them. They say that they will do as he wishes, but smile knowingly at each other.

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «خاک خوب»؛ «زمین خوب»؛ نویسنده: پرل س. باک؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز دوم ماه ژوئن سال 1976میلادی

عنوان: زمین خوب؛ نویسنده: پرل باک؛ مترجم: فریدون بدره ای لرستانی؛ تهران، مرجان، 1336، در 364ص؛ چاپ دیگر 1368؛ در 413ص؛ شابک 9649049339؛ چاپ دیگر 1380؛ موضوع داستانهای چینی از نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م

عنوان: خاک خوب؛ نویسنده: پرل باک؛ مترجم: غفور آلبا؛ پاپ اول 1340؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، امیرکبیر، 1347، در 343ص؛ چاپ دوم 1347؛ سوم 1350؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، ناهید، 1371؛ در 343ص؛

عنوان: خاک خوب؛ نویسنده: پرل باک؛ مترجم: داریوش شاهین؛ تهران، جاویدان، 1362، در 533ص؛ چاپ ششم 1379؛ هفتم و هشتم 1390؛ چاپ یازدهم 1385؛

خاک خوب (زمین خوب)، کتاب نخست، از رمانی سه گانه «خانه ی زمین» است، که برای نخستین بار در سال 1930میلادی انتشار یافت، و به دنبال آن، کتابهای «پسران» در سال (1932میلادی) و «خانواده پراکنده» در سال (1935میلادی) منتشر شدند؛ در «خاک خوب (زمین خوب)»، زندگی «وانگ لونگ»، دهقان فقیر شهرستان «آن هوئی» بازگو می‌شود؛ نویسنده باورهای دهقانان میانه حال «چینی» را، که با فقر و گرسنگی و جنگهای داخلی پیش از انقلاب، درگیر بودند، با دقتی باورمندانه مینمایانند؛ اما، از ورای شخصیت «وانگ لونگ» است، که روحیه ی «چینی» سر برمی‌دارد؛

هشدار: اگر این مجموعه را نخوانده اید و میخواهید خود بخوانید، از خوانش ادامه ریویو خودداری کنید

در داستان؛ «وانگ لونگ» به زمین پای‌بند است، زیرا زمین «خون و گوشت هر کس» است؛ «وانگ لونگ» نیز، با استفاده از آشفتگی آنروزها، خود، مالکی بزرگ می‌شود؛ با اینحال، «خاک خوب (زمین خوب)»، تنها رشد و بالندگی یک دهقان نیست، که در ایام کهولت، به «گل گلابی» دلفریب، دل می‌بازد، و موجب ناخشنودی پسرانش می‌گردد؛ بلکه این اثر، با اینکه یک رمان است، نوشته ای مستند و ارزشمند نیز هست، درباره ی دورانیکه، «وانگ لونگ» هنوز فقیر بود؛ دورانیکه خود او فریاد برداشته بود: «دیگر چه! پس این وضع هرگز عوض نخواهد شد؟»، و به او پاسخ داده بودند: «چرا، رفیق، روزی عوض خواهد شد؛ وقتی که ثروتمندها زیادی ثروتمندند، امکاناتی وجود دارد؛ و وقتی که فقیرها زیادی فقیرند، امکاناتی وجود دارد.»؛

پسرانش: «وانگ» ارشد، «وانگ» دوم، و «وانگ» سوم، که پرتوان و نامدار به «ببر» است، و او یکی از آخرین سرلشکران ماجراجوی رژیم کهنسال، خواهد شد؛ پس از مرگ پدر، آنها زمینها را تقسیم میکنند؛ اما «ببر»، برادرانش را از سر باز میکند؛ زمین برای او، اهمیتی ندارد؛ او چیزی جز پول نمی‌خواهد، تا ارتشی در اندازه ی جاه طلبیهای خویش ایجاد کند؛ او که «سالار جنگ» شده، پیروزیهای خویش را پشت سر می‌گذارد؛ اگر پسرش «یوآن» به دنیا بیاید، خوشبختی او کامل خواهد شد؛ آرزو دارد، از پسرش یک «سرلشکر کوچک» بسازد؛ اما پسر جوان، که بسیار هوشمند و متنفر از کشتار است، خود را به دست اندیشه‌ های نو می‌سپارد؛ تضاد شدید، میان کهنه پرستی «ببر»، و تحول‌ طلبی پسر بسیار محبوبش، قدرتی دراماتیک به کتاب دوم می‌بخشد

یوآن؛ سنتهای خانوادگی را می‌گسلد، و از نفوذ «وانگ» سوم می‌گریزد؛ با اینحال، چون مبارزی سمج نیست، عضویت خود، در «انجمن مخفی» را، مدتها به تعویق می‌اندازد؛ سرانجام، به اصرار یکی از پسرعموهایش، تصمیم خود را عملی می‌کند، به امید آنکه «رنجهای ملت فقیر»، که او شاهد طغیان آن بوده، پایان گیرد؛ «یوآن»، کمی پس از آنکه جانب انقلاب را می‌گیرد، دستگیر می‌شود، و تنها در برابر باجی کلان، که بستگانش می‌پردازند، از مرگ نجات می‌یابد؛ همین که آزاد می‌شود، به خارج از کشور می‌رود، تا آموزش خود را کامل کند، و با تمدن غرب آشنا گردد؛ کتاب با تولد عشقی ساده، میان «یوآن» و «می‌لینگ»، یک دانشجوی «چینی»، پایان می‌گیرد؛ و نهایتاً سالار پیر جنگ به دست دهقانان شورشی کشته می‌شود

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 27/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 05/07/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

No reflexion on my high school English teacher, but I have to say that after reading The Good Earth now, 45+ years later as a (very) mature adult, I am so much more appreciative of the book than I was as a teenager. As I remembered it back then, the story was all about poor, heroic, homely O-Lan and mean, selfish Wang Lung, her husband. I remembered O-Lan working in the fields with her husband, and then giving birth to her children, alone in her room. Not much more than that. But now, thanks to a very different point of reference ("real life"), I found that it's actually a rich and touching tale of family, devotion, betrayal, extreme poverty, greed, sacrifice, resilience, and how financial success can change everything, and not always in a good way. The overriding love of Wang Lung's life was always the land, not O-Lan, not Lotus, not his family. He was a good, hard-working man, although flawed like everyone else. There were heroes, villains, victims, and ungrateful children. And although the book's setting was Pre-Revolution China, it's a universal tale that can be reworked for anyplace in the world, and probably already has been. Ms. Buck's writing was a bit formal and stilted at times by today's standards and for my taste, but it's obvious to me why this novel has stood the test of time and is so admired. I'm very glad to have revisited this book again after all these years. 4 1/2 stars.

شخص بلا أرض، شخص بلا جذور
من الروايات التى شعرت بكم هائل من المشاعر و انا أقرأها، بداية من التعاطف مع ذلك الفلاح البائس في صراعه مع حياة قاسية ،صراع مرير يبدو بلا نهاية مع ظروف أقوى من قدرته البسيطة على مقاومتها، مروراً برحلته الشاقة للحفاظ على أرضه بعد أن أبتسم له القدر أخيراً لينتقل من الفاقة إلى عالم الثراء دون أن يفقد جذوره كفلاح يعرف قيمة الأرض و يقدسها
وصف الكاتبة كان أكثر من رائع و بخاصة في الفصول الأولى من الكتاب و الذى ذكرني برائعة عبدالرحمن الشرقاوي"الأرض" و يبدو أن معاناة البشر مع الارض واحدة مهما أختلف المكان، النهاية أيضاً رغم قسوتها كانت مميزة و معبرة، البطل"وانغ" يتخلى عن زوجته"اولان" بعد أن طرق الثراء بابه متناسياً رحلتها الشاقة معه، ليتخلى أولاده عن الأرض التى طالما أفني حياته في خدمتها، ليطغى بريق المال على أى أنتماء للأرض في نهاية حزينة للعمل لكنها واقعية و مميزة
كتاب رائع و أستحقت عنه الكاتبة الفوز بجائزة نوبل عن جدارة

پرل باک، نویسنده‌ی امریکایی این کتاب نیمی از زندگی‌اش را در چین گذرانده، در کودکی همراه پدرش برای زندگی به چین رفته و همین باعث شده با خرافات، آداب و رسوم و راه و رسم زندگی آن‌ها بیشتر آشنا بشه و ظاهرا آثار زیادی در باب فرهنگ چین نوشته و داستان‌هایی در مورد این کشور داره. این کتاب هم برنده‌ی جایزه نوبل شده. داستان کتاب از آن‌جایی شروع می‌شود که ونگ لانگ جوانی است که جای خالی مادرش را در زندگی بسیار حس میکند و همراه پدر پیرش در روستایی زندگی می‌کند. زندگی آن‌ها با فقر و مشقت همراه هست ولی آن‌ها به یک چیز امید دارند و آن‌ هم زمینشان است. ونگ لانگ ازدواج می‌کند و طی سالیان ثروتمند می‌شود؛ البته با سخت‌کوشی و انرژی و وقتی که برای کار کردن و فرزندانش میگذاره و همینطور گذراندن روزهای سخت‌تری که همون روزها باعث رسیدن به این ثروت شده... ولی در وجود هر آدمی سایه‌های تاریکی وجود داره که وقتی بیدار میشن، خودشم از درک آن‌ها عاجزه... کتاب خوب و روانی بود.

A classic "must read" story of passion, romance, love triangles, and the desire for improving one's life is set in rural China during the early 1900's. Pearl Buck captures the readers interest immediately and holds it throughout the story providing insight into the universality of human desires, passions and dreams. This is one of my favorite books and recommend it to everyone for the insight into China and insight into everyone's own life choices and temptations.
--Cheryl

کلا ادبیات آسیای شرق چون از نظر فرهنگ به ما نزدیکن کاملا گویا و دلنشین هست
البته این کتاب نوشته یه خانم امریکایی اما بزرگ شده چینه / به هرحال خیلی خوب تونسته خواننده رو با زندگی ونگ لانگ آشنا کنه
ونگ لانگ یه پسر فقیر دهاتی چینی که با پدرش زندگی می کنه و با کنیز یه خانواده ثروتمند ازدواج می کنه
رفته رفته با کمک همسرش می تونه به پول برسه و زمین بخره از بخت بدش به خشکسالی می خوره و جنگ و نمی تونه از ثروت اندوخته خودش لذت ببره باز هم سختی های فراوون می کشه
تا اینکه مشکلات تموم می شه و دوباره به مال و منال می رسه

پ.ن :
من چون اغلب تو مسیرم بیشتر کتاب صوتی گوش میدم اما متاسفانه خیلی بخش های کتاب و سانسور می کنن و این اصلا خوشایند نیست
98/01/31

I have to start by saying that I'm glad that I didn't know anything about this book or read any of the reviews first. It's nice not to be influenced sometimes, especially as some of what I see as worthwhile qualities other people don't. For instance, I appreciated the pace of the book. I wouldn't have said that it was "too long and wordy" as I've read in other reviews, but then I know that literary styles and tastes change and this book was written nearly 100 years ago.

I also had no problem with the main character, Wang Lung, who had flaws but who seemed to be decent and good-hearted even though not particularly self aware or curious. While he didn't recognize his feelings for his wife, O-lan, as love, that made sense given who he was and what culture he lived within.

I loved the irony of the arc of the main character's life: from poor farmer who feels so small and unworthy to wealthy landowner who gained his land through jewels stolen from another wealthy family and finally, to a legacy of loss when his own sons forget their roots (as farmers).

I also feel compelled to comment on the "controversial" fact that a Western woman wrote the story of a Chinese farmer (not in first-person as the study guide for this edition claims, but in limited third-person). In this case, this fact isn't as negative as some people make it. Pearl Buck grew up in China and spoke Chinese. Perhaps she never lost her outsider status, but I'd bet that as an astute observer of the people around her she got a lot right in her story. If Farmer Wang is at all representative of the Chinese of his generation, then it makes sense that an outsider saw his situation clearly. Certainly, it was the ideas of an outsider (Karl Marx) that finally transformed the many wars and revolutions between the poor and wealthy in China into a permanent change.

The first time I read this book I was thirteen years old. All I remembered about it was that it was about a Chinese farmer and I liked it. This second time through I could see how so much went past me when I read it as a youth with no life experience. Now, as a grown-up, I was able to appreciate the depth of the characters' feelings and the storytelling gifts of Pearl Buck. The book was first published in 1931, but it's written in what could almost be termed a classical style. The great beauty of the tale as a whole is in Wang Lung's unwavering connection with his land---the "good earth." I love the meaning of the name Lung, which signifies "one whose wealth is from the earth." It's so much more lyrical and representative than "farmer."

While I did find this an interesting account of peasant life in China, I failed to understand the overall point of the story. Pearl S. Buck's parents were missionaries in China, and Pearl herself spent a good portion of her life there. I am certain that this first hand experience gave her an extraordinarily true glimpse of the every day life of these people which afforded her the opportunity of writing this book.

I would most likely have rated this book higher if I had liked the characters. O-lan, the first daughter (a.k.a. the fool - Did the book ever mention her name?), and Pear Blossom were the only characters I really liked. I also enjoyed the third son and would liked to have learned more about what happened to him after he left his father's house. Since the second book is titled Sons, I am hoping that it talks more about him and have added it to my want to read shelf.

My heart really ached for O-lan in this book. Although I know that geishas were, and may still be, a normal part of Chinese culture, I couldn't understand how Wang Lung could love O-lan so little. Everything he had was because of her and the help she gave him. I was cooking dinner when I was listening about Wang Lung making O-lan prepare the house for the arrival of Lotus. I'm not so sure that it was a good thing that I was holding a knife at that moment. I was so furious! Those potatoes really got chopped that night. Lol! Even on her death bed Wang Lung couldn't love O-lan because she wasn't pretty. Is that really all that was important to him? O-lan worked in the fields for you immediately after giving birth! She gave you children, raised them, and provided for you when you were on the verge of starving to death. And all you can think of is how small Lotus's feet are and how badly you want to sleep with her? Wang Lung sickened me. He deserved so much worse than he got in the end.

Pearl S Buck lived in China on several occasions and thus her story of Wang Lung feels real. The book is a sort of bildungsroman in which we see the life of Wang Lung from his mariage to the young slave O-Lan to his success and passing on of his legacy to his snickering sons. There is plenty of drama here and there are times that you want to slap Wang Lung for being an ass, but the story is very entertaining and one can easily see the talent of Buck in her writing. I wonder if the other two books in The Good Earth Trilogy following this one are as poignant (and occasionally frustrating). The one thing is that there is no real spiritual development of the characters - they remain pretty much the same and making the same errors time and time again. Perhaps that is what makes them so human. Nevertheless, I would have liked to see at least a smidgeon of growth or learning from them. The language used does have a sort of biblical lyricism and, again, I don't know if this is typical of all of Buck's work or just this novel.

‘The Good Earth’ was published in 1931 and it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. The book was a bestseller as well, and its success led Pearl S. Buck, the author, to write two more books about the Chinese family she introduced in 'The Good Earth' creating a series now called The House of Earth Trilogy.

Frankly, I think Pearl Buck is actually more interesting than her famous book, deserving as it may be of the prize with which it was awarded. Buck had a complicated life, having been married twice, earning a Master's degree at Cornell in 1924 when women were barely allowed to set foot in any American college, moving between China and America until China exiled her after the Communist Revolution. Buck grew up in China from when she was a baby (born in Hillsboro, West Virginia in 1892), leaving China for the first time in 1914 to attend college as an undergraduate. Her parents, Presbyterian missionaries, served for decades living amongst the Chinese and had raised Pearl to be bilingual, so when China forbid her return in 1949, she was deeply grieved. She eventually waded into Presbyterian church politics in America over evolution, mixed-race children, and original-sin doctrinal fights, which got her booted as a missionary in 1933. Most of her life afterwards was in charity and foundation work. She was a HUGE supporter of women's rights.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funda...


Anyway. The book I am supposed to be reviewing, 'The Good Earth' is amazing. It is a basically a fictional biography of an illiterate Chinese peasant, Wang Lung. He never learns to read, as obviously you have, gentle reader, but the traditions and life of a Chinese farmer far from any city or school or technology or anything modern of any kind at the beginning of the 20th century did not require any knowledge of books or the world. All a man needed before World War I in China was his own land to farm, usually inherited, and people to help him farm, usually a slave or two, preferably a strong peasant woman to eventually give him boys and maybe a dependable neighbor who would work for food. It greatly helped to have no vices, only goals, as it does everywhere in the world, even now.

Life was incredibly primitive and hard in the early 20th century of China, but it was all people knew. Rural people underwent famines in the years of drought, and cannibalism was not unheard of in China when the crops failed.

The main character Wang Lung has a small farm in Anhwei, and with his aged father occasionally helping a little, he grows rice, corn and wheat. When he finally has a few coins of silver, he buys a slave from the one rich family in the area, the Hwangs who live in a nearby town. Wang makes the slave O-Lan his wife, and the two of them farm. When O-Lan gives birth, she leaves the fields only for a few hours, returning to help Wang in the fields as soon as she can. The years pass, interrupted by famines and births of children, but generally Wang prospers.

Wang is no saint, but he is not a monster either. Wang believes in the gods and in the moral values of his society. Within the cultural context and hardships of his community, he raises and supports a family, he tries to instill the values of hard work in his male children, and he has many hopes and dreams for the future. But it is clear to readers his ignorance of anything beyond a few miles of his home is profound. There is a mention of a new thing to him and his community - a railroad, which historically places the time of the story to be around 1900, as does the famine which almost destroys the Wang family.

It is never clear if O-Lan means any more to him than a valued servant, but she certainly helps him more than he ever acknowledges. As success makes Wang's life easier, especially the hard work of O-Lan in the fields and in the house, and especially as scrupulous as O-Lan is in saving money and in taking care of the needs of Wang's father and the children, he buys more land and hires neighbors to help him plant and harvest the crops on his expanding land holdings.

Eventually his eye falls on a beautiful prostitute he feels he must have as a second wife or concubine. What makes Lotus Flower even more enticing to him beyond the powerful lust and love she arouses in him, is the fact her purchase signals to the community he has arrived as a Big Man of wealth and power. Still, while he totally ignores his family's feelings - indeed, it never enters his mind to think about their lives except as ornaments and tools to be bent to his purpose - he tries to accommodate everyone with a room, food and work appropriate to their abilities. He is not unduly cruel, but he does satisfy his whims and desires at the expense of his family and servants under his roof. After all, it is his Gods-given right.

The story in this novel is from the viewpoint of Wang, but the reactions of the women, while opaque to Wang since he never bothers questioning about their internal life (indeed, he doesn't really know how to ask himself questions very much), are revealed by the stances and actions of their bodies, or by vocal expressions Wang does notice. His adult male children, educated, more worldly (but not much more) speak their minds, but it is obvious they mystify Wang. However, readers can see they do not respect the old peasant morals of their father, and they are often patronizing Wang to get more money from him beyond the generous allowances he gives them. But it is obvious he is less and less involved with the details of what is going on around him.

Wang knew how to farm, and he worked hard. While his hard work and luck gains him the wealth and educated male children he had hoped for, he lives inside a smaller and smaller bubble of understanding and knowing the people of his life, not that he knows or cares to learn more about this, although he occasionally is disturbed by the signs of them changing around him. As he ages, the things which concern him most are the comforts of eating, sleeping, making sure his children are all married off, and occasionally walking about his land. The adult sons think the farm would better serve the family if it was sold, although they keep this opinion between themselves. However, they know he has made plans for his funeral when he dies, and they see he is getting old, so they are making plans, too. The women as well as the men are more and more fractious and disputatious, but as the patriarch who controls the purse, he can choose to send them away or punish them, and he does. Wang does not hesitate to punish those who disturb his peace of mind or mess up his plans. Having known extreme starvation and poverty, Wang believes only the owning of his farm and holding to the traditional ways gave him success and respect, and ultimately has made him safe. His adult children, though, are squabbling with each other and him, so he begins more and more to settle problems in a manner to stop their nagging rather than in the most efficient way. Money is no longer an obstacle to any solution, and he cares less and less about wasting it. His children have either never known poverty or do not remember it. They have no emotional connection to the farm whatsoever.

As girls were considered useless except for birthing boys in ancient China, even in the face of the obvious evidence women contributed much economically, clearly cultural mores are a powerful force in blinding or shaping the paradigm in which people see their lives and their family members. Buck shows this blindness pervading ancient Chinese cultural life. Even the slaves and women see themselves as unworthy to be anything but slaves during the times in history when very little was known about other cultures or even anything about the home country a peasant lived in beyond where people were born. Demonstrating how difficult it is to accept how awful and horribly wrong the more insane aspects of one's personal culture regarding women is we only have to look at today's theocracies which are connected, however imperfectly, to satellite television and radio shows, and travel to other countries, which allow other more open countries and their customs to be known. Many patriarchal cultures actually decide to attach deeper and harder into the mores and customs of their patriarchal culture, no matter how painful or psychotic towards women, despite the logic and evidence of the benefits of allowing women an education and any recognition of their contributions to economic prosperity.

Having been raised by parents with almost no education myself, and having had a patriarchal father with a traditional set of mores, I can vouch for the accuracy of the mindset of Buck's characters. Such people do not know what others know about other cultures or ideas, much less that there might exist other cultures, or what people learn from reading and books. They often do not understand how to compose a story or what the details shown of a character might imply. Not being able to write, they find it difficult to formulate ideas and questions. As they age, they either resist or fear change, or cannot understand the new cultural paradigms. So, I was impressed by what seemed to me to be Pearl Buck's accurate portrayal of illiterate minds.

Buck makes it crystal clear in 'The Good Earth' how Chinese peasants thought and lived before the Communist Revolution. Her writing has a slight intonation and cadence of the King James version of the Bible to it, but it is literary quality. I have read the commentary from professional critics about her representations of life in rural China, and the vast majority agree her books are authentic and true to life.

Btw, when I read this in high school almost fifty years ago, I did not understand it beyond the surface plot, and it bored me. Education and experience have changed every perception I had had about this novel. Wow.

Aunque me ha gustado mucho 'La buena tierra', he sufrido más que disfrutado con su lectura. Los personajes que aparecen en este libro son (practicamente todos) odiosos, mezquinos, crueles y egoístas, por lo que pasé casi toda la lectura enfadada.
A pesar de todo, es un libro que se ha quedado conmigo, esta autora tiene una manera muy sencilla de narrar pero que consigue que te lleguen sus palabras... Será difícil olvidar esa descripción de la pobreza más extrema, de la ingnoracia, la situación de la mujer como esclavas y la penosa vida de los campesinos...