Pearl S. Buck’s timeless masterpiece, the Pulitzer Prize–winning story of a farmer’s journey through China in the 1920s
The Good Earth is Buck’s classic story of Wang Lung, a Chinese peasant farmer, and his wife, O-lan, a former slave. With luck and hard work, the couple’s fortunes improve over the years: They are blessed with sons, and save steadily until one day they can afford to buy property … they can afford to buy property in the House of Wang—the very house in which O-lan used to work. But success brings with it a new set of problems. Wang soon finds himself the target of jealousy, and as good harvests come and go, so does the social order. Will Wang’s family cherish the estate after he’s gone? And can his material success, the bedrock of his life, guarantee anything about his soul?
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the William Dean Howells Award, The Good Earth was an Oprah’s Book Club choice in 2004. A readers’ favorite for generations, this powerful and beautifully written fable resonates with universal themes of hope and family unity.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.
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Pearl S. Buck helps us see a glimpse into the thinking and culture of a era that was pivotal in China’s history. She shows the attitudes and cultural mores that dictated life in those times and influences the culture today. Although it is not a happily ever after sort of book, it is such a unique opportunity to grow in cultural and historical …
One of her best works.
Buck is a masterful story teller, opening doors to the world.
One of my all time favorites! Educational and informative as well as a good historical story!
The author of this book won a Nobel Prize for her extensive output, of which this is probably the most widely known. It follows a family of Chinese peasant farmers from marriage through the birth of three sons and their struggle to add land to their holdings and increase their wealth. The work of the mother is incredible, and the father spends …
Have loved this book since high school.
Buck brings us into early 20th Century China, to an unknown world of political intrigue, love and tenderness. No secret why this won the Nobel prize for Literature!
Uplifting. “From dust to dust” we are all alike. A must read.
A classic that should be read yearly.
Worth reading again and again.
THIS BOOK IS A “CLASSIC” AND SHOULD BE ON EVERYONE’S READING LIST.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
NOMY MARGALIT
Read it high school and loved it. It’s a classic in the real sense of the word
I read this years ago in high school and really enjoyed it.
Such an amazing story of a tragic life, turned charmed, turned cursed but in a time and place far from where we are now.
Despite having grown up a mile and a half from Pearl S. Buck’s home in Bucks County, PA, I’d never read one of her novels until now. I will certainly read more. Using very simple language, Buck evokes the experience of one poor farmer’s rise from the day he buys a wife from the rich house in the nearby town through to his old age as a revered …
It is a dry tale of a the rise and fall of a chinese family, covering fairly horrible suffering, evil choices, and exploitation of some family members to achieve wealth and influence… and then lose it. It has no value weight on any of the events, and leaves that up to the reader.
This is my second read of the Good Earth – I read it in high school and then thought it quite interesting to learn about Asian culture, though I had difficulty relating to the characters. Being a champion for women’s rights, I was horrified at the way women and children were treated – like chattel. Forty -three years later, after being married to …
a classic book. I have read it three times over the years…
Excellent book with real characters in challenging situations.
One of the best stories ever written. You will be fully immersed in the lives of the characters and care deeply about what happens to them. DO NOT MISS IT!