This is almost spiritual in it's beauty and simplicity.

First published by Pearl Buck in 1931, this later won the Pulitzer Prize and had a significant affect on Buck’s winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938.

The author displayed her genius ability to observe and relate the cultural and day-to-day lives of Chinese peasants at the turn of the century. This American Christian missionary told the story of a rural Chinese man and perceptively embraced vast cultural differences, while at the same time telling a story that is universal in its relevance.

A wonderful book, should be on a short list of books that should be read in a lifetime.

This is one hell of a classic. I kept thinking of The Grapes of Wrath during the first half of this read this and kept wondering at it. Poverty, want, great toil, and then even more want filled these pages. The Good Earth came out 8 years before Steinbeck's masterpiece and yet my biggest wonder is why the Good Earth isn't better known, more well known, than Steinbeck.

Is it because it happens to Chinese characters rather than Okies from Oklahoma?

Let's let that question pass on by for a moment because this book deserves to stand on its own worth. The Earth is indeed the source of all wealth... but definitely not all sorrow. Some, sure, but most of the sorrow in these pages are created by those who do not understand or work the land. This is an important point. As important as that in Candide, but more poignant, emotional, and effective in this novel.

High praise? I think so. And well deserved.

I will like classics of all types for many different reasons, but some are much more impactful to me than others.

This one has that punch. Glorious, wonderful, sad, and so cruel. Life, with tragedy and small bits of joy here and there... but what an epic! This ought to be on the required reading lists except for one small point... it should be enjoyed and cherished without coercion. :)

I noticed right away when I began the book that Pearl S. Buck's writing style was special. The language is simple and clear, but at the same time emotive. There isn't a wasted word. There is a quietness in the lines that fills you with emotion. You watch a traditional, hard-working family, one very much tied to the soil, struggling to make something of themselves. The historical details are diffuse; I would guess that the story is set in the first decades of the 1900s. The book was published in 1931 and the time period covered probably ends in the thirties, when the central character Wang Lung is in his 70s. The book is in fact the first of a trilogy. The author, Pearl S. Buck, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938.

So what is the story about? A young Chinese couple, Wang Lung and O-lan, begin with nothing. The marriage was arranged and they knew nothing of each other. This book follows their lives and their children. Grandchildren are born but their lives are for the next books of the trilogy. For me, the story reads as an allegorical tale about the ups and downs of life. It is about how we change as we pass from childhood to adulthood and finally old age. It is also about the value of land. It cannot be stolen, as gold or silver or gems can be stolen. It gives sustenance, and it gives pleasure. Working the land gives a purpose to life and immense satisfaction.

The traditions and customs of China are beautifully drawn - clothing and food, marriages and birth and death, yearly celebrations, sexual discrimination. Customs are drawn so you see how the Chinese people feel about their own traditions. How do they see concubines and foot-binding and beauty. And ugliness. Book learning and war and famine. The role and status of the elderly, the position of the eldest son, the daughters, the retarded. What was it like to grow up in China in the early 1900s as one of the multitude? And what is success? The reader recognizes that which is common to all people and that which is specific to life in China.

When I began listening I wasn't thrilled with the narration by George Guidall, but it grew on me. I ended up really liking it. The lines are read slowly and movingly. Nice long pauses. Time to ponder. Time to shed a tear before the story continues.

I came to care deeply for Wang Lung and O-lan, but not for any of the other characters. This is why I hesitate to continue with the trilogy. This was a good story, movingly told, by an author that has a unique way of saying things simply, quietly and powerfully. The story itself isn't exceptional, but how it is told is.

Pearl S. Buck – Prémio Nobel da Literatura, 1938
"por suas ricas e verdadeiras descrições épicas da vida dos camponeses na China e por seus trabalhos biográficos."


Pearl S. Buck nasceu em 1892, em Hillsboro, EUA, filha de dois missionários cristãos. Aos três meses viaja para a China, e por lá vive durante cerca de 40 anos. Pearl cresceu junto com os chineses, que lhe chamavam “foreign devil”.
Em 1931 publica A Boa Terra, uma parábola moral que se baseia no seu conhecimento da cultura chinesa. Em 1932 ganha o prémio Pulitzer, e em 1938 é laureada com o mais alto prémio, O Nobel da Literatura.
Pearl S. Buck dedicou a vida a causas humanitárias, defendeu a liberdade de expressão, e lutou em nome dos direitos das mulheres. Morreu em 1973.

O tema dominante neste romance é a força/fertilidade da Terra e o relacionamento do homem com a mesma. Wang Lung é um camponês, pobre, mas que tem uma relação íntima com a terra porque esta produz a sua colheita, fruto do seu trabalho. O contraste é dado pela casa Hwang que está em decadência porque nada produz. A riqueza é vista como destruidora de valores tradicionais. À medida que Wang vai enriquecendo a sua família torna-se mais decadente e semelhante à Casa Hwang.
A história de vida de Wang é um estudo sobre como os valores tradicionais se perdem sob a influência da riqueza.
Como pano de fundo temos, de forma bastante discreta, as convulsões sociais chinesas.
Pearl S. Buck também explora, com uma visão neutra, a opressão da mulher na cultura chinesa. O-lan é uma personagem memorável, ela representa a dignidade e coragem de uma esposa marginalizada.

A narrativa de Buck é poderosa. Mostra-nos a dor, o sofrimento, a ambição, a agonia, o orgulho e as outras emoções de Wang Lung e O-lan.

Um livro que foi uma agradável surpresa.

Wang Lung, could see the importance of land and how he could bring in good crops, he only achieved this dream after he married O-Lan a servant girl. As he acquired more and more land and money,
there was a breakdown in the family. His sons never shared their fathers love for the land....only wanted to sell after he died.
A cycle of life.

***Peter*** wrote such a 'beautiful' review!!!!!!!

I remember crying when I read this book. Its a book I could read again!

Hm??? And why??? am I not reading more of 'great books I 'missed'? Each time I do --I'm in 'aw' (almost shocked that its sooooooo good TODAY).

Its wonderful to see such a high rating review on an older book (which was just read by *Peter*).

I had that same experience with "East of Eden" and "Crossing to Safety" ---(both older books which felt 'timeless') ---both written sooooooooooooo beautiful!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for Peter's review!!!!!

I really, really wish I hadn't google-searched 'foot binding' after reading this book.

In the tradition of a beloved college professor, I give The Good Earth a subtitle which reveals more of the moral stuff which fills it. Ahem. :
The Good Earth: Mo' Money, Mo' Problems.

The Good Earth is packed with cautionary tales of wealth and idleness, tradition and progression, and lust. Wow, the character studies one could do in this book! Just things I noticed:

- The very thing Wang Lung detested, O-lan's unbound feet, actually helped him produce his wealth because she could help him with the land, and do all of the labor in the house. Women with bound feet could move very little because it was excruciating to walk.

- With wealth came idleness and a detachment from the land. The antagonists of the story in the end were Wang Lung's own rich, idle sons. There was very rarely ever 'peace' in Wang Lung's house from the time he became rich to the end of the book. And in the times of peace, we see that Wang Lung blatantly ignored the problems and troubles in his house. Ignorance is bliss when you live with the likes of Lotus. Can I get a holla-back? ;)

“Meat is meat.”

That’s what Olan says, in a scene I loved when Wang Lung takes a moral/prideful stance about where the meat came from and Olan stoops down to the ground where he’s thrown it, dusts it off, and feeds it to her starving children.

The spare, matter-of fact writing that makes the hard work of the beginning of the novel so enjoyable makes the middle section, when the character of Wang Lung develops into something vile, hard to take. I felt an overwhelming disgust for him, and wanted to stop reading.

But I kept on, and later went off on a tangent when a particular scene reminded me of Godfather III. It seemed Wang Lung was the Michael Corleone of early 1900’s China, that this book does for peasant farmers what The Godfather does for crime families—gives them a human face. Like Michael, at first you feel for Wang Lung. He’s determined and hard-working. But when he starts making some bad moves, takes up with another woman, treats his wife like a slave and his children like vehicles of getting what he wants, the charm is gone. He has some moments of realization, but not enough. “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”

Fortunately, I shook that off and finished the book. Although I didn’t always like it, I can’t deny meat is meat, and this is a meaty story—well put together, and in the end, strangely satisfying.

There is a gush of red, marvelous, and mysterious blood running through my veins. I am part Chinese. A race that has given me these small eyes and this yellowish complexion. A race that I have associated with frugality, hard work, mass production, internet restrictions, and Jackie Chan. China, I've only been there once as a tourist when I was a bit younger. And as much as I'd like to think that I am familiar with the Chinese culture, I have to admit that my knowledge about that is limited and my views about them a bit stereotypical. My Grandma, the real Chinese in the family, still brings Moon Cakes during the Chinese New Year and we do maintain fireworks when celebrating. We also drink herbal tea at home and have this uncanny favoritism for Chinese restaurants during family get-togethers. Aside from that, you could say that I'm really much more familiar with Filipino and Western cultures. So when I picked up this book, I didn't know what to expect. My only assurances were that it won the Pulitzer Prize and the author is a Nobel Prize winner. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck is a beautiful and sweeping story of farmer Wang Lu and his wife O-lan. The Land, the man, and their bond. This beautiful tale left me thirsty and craving for knowledge about this race that resides within me yet has not fully manifested itself. This may sound fancy but I have to say what I feel. This book made me fall in love with China, the Chinese culture, my Chinese roots.

“And roots, if they are to bear fruits, must be kept well in the soil of the land.”

The beauty of this sweeping tale can be understood by hearing its voice, its message. It whispers an earnest plea of the oldest kind, it whispers "Remember the land." The land which has provided for your father, your father's father, and countless generations before him. In this age of technology, internet, GMOs and fast foods, we forget the land. We ignore the Good Earth that has sustained the lives of everyone before us, and lives of this generation.

"If you sell the land it is the end.

And his two sons held him, one on either side, each holding his arm, and he held in his hand the warm loose earth. And they soothed him and they said over and over, the elder son and the second son,

Rest assured, our father, rest assured. The land is not to be sold.

But over the old man's head they looked at each other and smiled."

This book, written in the year 1931, exposes a problem that has continually been growing worse as each generation progresses. Each son telling his father "the land will not be sold" but inwardly smiling at this statement he knows to be untrue. Each son, each daughter, each generation, saying we will save this good earth. But for every tree he plants, he cuts down two more. For every bottle she recycles, she throws out two more. For every plot turned into a garden, there are two plots turned into garbage dumps. Each man, woman, son, daughter thinking about their self, their success apart from the land. They forget that their success lies with the land. They forget the Earth that has been good to them.

“Wang Lung sat smoking, thinking of the silver as it had lain upon the table. It had come out of the earth, this silver, out of the earth that he ploughed and turned and spent himself upon. He took his life from the earth; drop by drop by his sweat he wrung food from it and from the food, silver."

This book touches a lot of other social issues like Feminism, Slavery, Concubinage, Civil Wars, etc. I will not discuss much of these issues and will only say in passing that a different culture enabled them to see nothing wrong with things we in modern times would consider abhorrent and terrifying. Things like selling daughters, feet-binding, polygamy aren't limited to China as these practices can also be found in other Asian countries. But I marvel at how Mrs. Buck was able to make it feel natural despite all these cultural differences. She effected a normalcy on these weird practices that I didn't once think that I was unfamiliar with them. This speaks of her grace and her skill as a writer. She writes with a natural grace and an earnest plea. I am engrossed by her writing, her message, her book.

The Good Earth is a timeless, moving story that depicts the sweeping changes that have occurred not only in the lives of the Chinese people during the last century, but also of everyone who has walked a part of this good earth. She traces the whole cycle of life: its terrors, its passions, its ambitions, its rewards. Her beloved and brilliant novel is a universal tale of the destiny of mankind.

"Out of the Land we came and into it we must go."

At one level this book contains the story of a hard working farmer (i.e. peasant) in old agrarian China who together with his wife survives famines and floods and manages to raise a family, expand his land holdings, and in the end become a rich man. Many of the hardships faced by the characters in this story are caused by widespread poverty and flukes of nature. But some hardships are the result of traditional social customs which western readers will find cringeworthy—oppression of women, foot-binding, infanticide, selling of daughters as slaves, concubinage, opium use, civil unrest, and armed conflict including lawless bandits.

At another level the story coveys the significance of land as a source of wealth, and how wealth inevitably leads to corruption of morals and facilitates access to sensual pleasures and symbols of social status. The ultimate downfall of family status and wealth is foreshadowed early in the book by the demise of another wealthy family and the fact that near the end of the book our newly wealthy farmer moves into to former living quarters of that once rich family. Then this farmer's family begins to develop the same habits and internal conflicts that brought down the previous rich family.

This book is first of a trilogy that includes Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935). The chronology of this story is not explicitly stated in this book. It seems to fit into an era of 1890s to 1930s.


The following short review is from the PageADay Book Lover's Calendar for January 30, 2018:

Set in China in the 1920s during the reign of the last emperor, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from Nobel Laureate Pearl S. Buck is the story of Wang Lung, a farmer and peasant who marries one of the slaves of a wealthy house. O-Lan is the ideal wife for Wang—she works hard, and she bears his children. But when Wang begins to accumulate wealth, he is corrupted by prosperity, and he eventually makes a choice that will break O-Lan’s heart. This intricately woven rags-to-riches tale is a modern classic.
n  THE GOOD EARTH, nby Pearl S. Buck (193I; Washington Square, 2004)

The following are some quotations from the book.

Early in the book Wang Lung and his wife work together for long hours:

They worked on, moving together—together—producing the fruit of this earth.

The following quote is an explanation of Wang Lung's friend Ching as to why he participated with a group trying to rob his house. Ironically, Wang Lung himself participates in thievery from a rich man's house at a later time in the story.

Hunger makes thief of any man.

This following excerpt is from a heart breaking scene in the book. Wang Lung asks his wife to give him the pearls she's wearing so he can give them to his new concubine.

Then slowly she thrust her wet wrinkled hand into her bosom and she drew forth the small package and she gave it to him and watched him as he unwrapped it; and the pearls lay in his hand and they caught softly and fully the light of the sun, and he laughed. But O-lan returned to the beating of his clothes and when tears dropped slowly and heavily from her eyes she did not put up her hand to wipe them away; only she beat the more steadily with her wooden stick upon the clothes spread over the stone.

The following is from the end of the book when Wang Lung exclaims how important it is that the land never be sold. The reader knows that the sons will sell the land as soon as he dies.

Out of the land we came and into it we must go—and if you will hold your land you can live—no one can rob you of land. . . . If you sell the land, it is the end.

2 1/2

I bounced between 2 and 3 stars, finally deciding to just meet it half-way.

As I said in the comments of one of my statuses, I found parts of the book interesting, but I didn't really enjoy it, per se. It wasn't as boring as I thought it might be, and that was good, but I also had a hard time connecting with the characters, especially because Wang Lung isn't particularly likable half the time, even if what he does is realistic and understandable from a 'human nature' perspective.

I did feel for the characters sometimes, though, especially O-lan, and I wonder if I would've liked it more if it was from more than just Wang Lung's perspective.

I also wasn't entirely sure what the story is aiming for. Is it meant to be a snapshot of a particular time and place, or is it meant to be a more universal story? It felt more universal, to me, but I also didn't feel like I really learned anything about human nature that I didn't already know - though I can imagine it would be more enlightening to someone a bit younger and less cynical.

As a snapshot of pre-Revolution China I'm not sure what I think of it. While there were some parts which seemed very specific to the culture and time period, it also seemed more like a fable - i.e. the aforementioned universality - and I think I was hoping for something more culturally specific.

Anyway - as I said before, while I find the portrayal of Wang Lung to be believable, althought not always very likable. Even with that, I found myself being generally sympathetic to him and, especially, to his family. But there are certain things that happen which make me lose a lot of this sympathy, and I had a hard time caring after that point, though there were still some moments of poignancy.

At the end of the day I guess I should say it's not a bad book, but I guess it partially depends on what you read for. Perhaps, once upon a time, when I actively studied philosophy and psychology, I would've enjoyed it for being an interesting and accurate glimpse into some of the highs and lows of human nature - which, as I said, it is.

But this book is a downer, and I don't read to be depressed by the faults of human nature - faults I'm already all too aquainted with from the day-to-day reckonings of life. And yet that's what the book left me with - a vague sort of depression and malaise. Yay?

این کتاب خیلی به دلم نشست. داستان ساده بدون اضافه گویی بدون کلمات قلمبه سلمبه بدون قضاوت بدون شعارزدگی و در عین حال به بهترین شکل ممکن حس و حال و فضای چین در اوایل قرن بیستم و التهابات اون دوره و سنت‌ها و رنج های مردم رو می‌رسونه و داستان یک خانواده روستایی و تلاش هاشون رو بیان می‌کنه.
باوجود اینکه نویسنده از یه خانواده مسیحی و مبلغ میاد اما هیچ کجای داستان حس نمی‌کنیم که داره تبلیغ دینی مسیحیت رو می‌کنه، از استعاره های دینی استفاده میکنه یا براساس چارچوب های دین مسیحیت، شخصیت ها رو قضاوت میکنه. نویسنده صرفاً یه روایه و روایت این داستان رو به بهترین شکل انجام میده.
داستان فراز و فرود زیاد و صحنه های دراماتیک نداره اما سرعتش اصلا کند نیست و خسته کننده نمیشه. ترجمه کتاب هم خیلی خوب بود.