The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
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The Good Earth
Classic Collection

Author: Pearl S. Buck

Narrator: Anthony Heald

Unabridged: 10 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/01/2006

Categories: Fiction, Classic


Synopsis

The story begins on the wedding day of farmer Wang Lung and follows his simple, often onesided view of the Chinese culture, times, and his connection with the land. The land is a recurring theme throughout the novel, seemingly nurtured by the apparent protagonists, rejected and ruined by the antagonists. The author uses the House of Hwang, a nearby house of nobles, to contrast and predict their rise and fall. As the House of Hwang meets its slow and desperate end, Wang Lung rises. However, as the weather turns disastrous for farming, Wang Lungs family has to flee to the city to scrape out a meager living. Upon returning home, the family fares better. Wang Lung eventually becomes a prosperous man, his rise contrasting with the downfall of the Hwang family, who lose their connection to the land. At the end of the novel, when Wang Lung is an old man, he overhears his sons plotting to sell some of the land, thus showing the end of the cycle of wealth and downfall.

About Pearl S. Buck

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973), the daughter of missionaries, was born in West Virginia but spent most of her time until 1934 in China. She began writing while in China and published her first novel shortly after returning to the United States. Her novel The Good Earth was the bestselling fiction book in the United States in 1931 and 1932, and it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938 she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces.”


Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Talmidah on 2009-09-21 18:17:22

There is little wonder why this book has become a classic. All of the personal attributes and qualities and some of the temptations to avoid come to life in this story. The humility of the first wife is truely and example to women everywhere. Her steadfastness even through her personal hurt in life is truely beautiful. Pearl has woven life and its struggles into a story that does nothing but touch the listener's heart.

Goodreads review by Jr on September 25, 2015

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......more

Goodreads review by Mario the lone bookwolf on November 05, 2022

The livelong interest in Asian culture manifests on each page of this unique novel. Living what one writes Some authors have the ability to absorb the mentality of cultures they live in and are fascinated by to create works that are simply impossible to copy because they stand unique in their style, l......more

Goodreads review by Henry on October 01, 2024

Wang Lung on his wedding day gets up at dawn as usual, a poor Chinese farmer's son, who lives with his widowed old father, but is a very hardworking, strong, and ambitious young man, they occupy, a three room house made of dirt bricks, with a straw thatched roof. After getting his ill father hot wat......more