Summary | Author | Reviews | Discussion Questions


The Good Earth
Pearl S. Buck, 1931
368 pp.

In Brief

Pulitzer Prize, 1932

Wang Lung, rising from humble Chinese farmer to wealthy landowner, gloried in the soil he worked. He held it above his family, even above his gods. But soon, between Wang Lung and the kindly soil that sustained him, came flood and drought, pestilence and revolution.

This great modern classic depicts life in China at a time before the vast political and social upheavals transformed an essentially agrarian country into a world power. Through this one Chinese peasant and his children, Nobel Prize-winner Pearl S. Buck traces the whole cycle of life, its terrors, its passion, its persistent ambitions and its rewards. Her brilliant novel—beloved by millions of readers throughout the world—is a universal tale of the destiny of men. (From the publisher.)


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About the Author

• Birth—June 26, 1892
• Where—Hillsboro, West Virginia, USA
• Death—March 6, 1973
• Where—Danby, Vermont
• Education—schooled in China; B.A., Randolph-Macon
   Woman's College (Virginia); M.A. Cornell University
• Awards—Nobel Prize; Pulitzer Prize


When Pearl Buck was three months old, her parents were sent to Zhenjiang, China, as Presbyterian missionaries. She lived there till 1910, when she left to attend Randolph-Macon Woman's College. After attaining her degree in 1914 (Phi Beta Kappa), she returned to China and married John Lossing Buck, an agricultural economist. The couple made their home in China, where Pearl taught at the University of Nanking. Eventually, in 1933 (or 1934), during the years of political turbulence, the Bucks left China permanently for the US.

Pearl S. Buck wrote about her experiences in China from her home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. In 1935, she bought a sixty-acre homestead she called Green Hills Farm and moved into the one hundred year-old farmhouse on the property with her second husband and their family of six children. There Buck spent thirty-eight years of her life, raising her family of six children, writing, pursuing humanitarian interests, and gardening. She completed many works while living in Pennsylvania, such as This Proud Heart (1938), The Patriot (1939), Today and Forever (1941), and The Child Who Never Grew (1950). (Adapted from Wikipedia.)

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Critics Say. . .
The Good Earth has fulfilled [the promise of Pearl S. Buck's first book] with a brilliance which passes one's most optimistic expectations.... It is an excellent novel [with] style, power, coherence and a pervasive sense of dramatic reality. In its deeper implications it is less a comment upon life in China than upon the meaning and tragedy of live as it is lived in any age in any quarter of the globe.
New York Times, 3/15/1931



To read this story of Wang Lung is to be slowly and deeply purified; and when the last page is finished it is as if some significant part of one's own days were over.
Bookman


Readers Say...
(Occasionally, when few critical reviews are available, we include helpful reviews by Barnes & Noble customers.)

A Book for the Ages: I received this book from my Mother when I was 12 years old. She gave no explanation as to why she bought it for me, but now that she is gone from this earth, I wish we could have discussed it. I was moved by this book as with no other and it affected how I viewed life, relationships - familial and marital. Being 12, of course I had no understanding of the inner workings of a marriage, especially one of another time and culture but I quickly learned that it was nothing like the marriage between most people of today in our culture. I was happy for Wang Lung because he finally caught a break after so much hardship and then I was outraged with him because of the way he treated Olan, especially after she stood by him and helped him prosper, he treated her (I would say like dirt, but he cherished the dirt because it was his bread & butter)very badly. I know now that it was and still is a custom in Asia to have a mistress outside of marriage, but again, being 12, I was appalled. Even today, I find the idea distasteful. That aside, the story was wonder-fully written, and dispite the fact that I have read hundreds of books since then (I am 45) The Good Earth still remains my favorite. It imparts many valuable lessons and evokes very strong emotions. I wish every woman could read it.
A Reviewer - 12/21/07



A Book for the Born Reader: The Good Earth was one of the best books I've ever read! I had no interest whatsoever in China's history, but this book swallows you whole. Once you start this book you would have to be crazy to stop. Wang Lung's story is one of hardship and severe sadness. Be prepared to cry. The only aspect of this book that bothers me is the ending...it'll bother you too.
A Reviewer - Chels, one heck of a book worm, 7/30/06



Spare yourself: This is honestly the worst book I have ever had the displeasure to read. The characters are beyond dull, the writing is horrible, and the story, while it could have had some potential in a true novelist's hands, was just plain boring. Save your time and money.
Reviewer - an English honors student, 6/14/06



Finding the Truth: Although this book was extremely long and took me forever to read, it was full of beautiful imagery, and evident truths about life in China years ago, and even still today. It deals alot with culture, tradition, and life in general, and is great for those interested in learning about other's lives. It is a book of grace, life lessons, tears, and smiles. A beautiful piece of work by Buck.
Reviewer - Taylor, 5/20/06

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Book Club Discussion Questions

1. The novel begins with Wang Lung's expectation of rain, the daily boiling of water for his father, and his bathing for his wedding. What might this water imagery foreshadow?

2. Why does Wang Lung feel compelled to purchase the rice field from the House of Hwang? Why does he at first regret it?

3. "And so this parcel of land became to Wang Lung a sign and a symbol." What does the author mean by this?

4. Wang Lung considers the birth of his daughter to be a bad omen. How does he come to regard this girl, who grows up to become a fool?

5. As the family works and begs in the city, what do they think of the foreigners they encounter? What purpose does the author serve in including these descriptions?

6. The abundance of food in the city contrasts with the characters impoverished lives. Discuss the emotionally complex relationship Wang Lung develops with the city.

7. The poor laborers in the city lack knowledge even of what they look like, a fact illustrated by the man who mocks himself in a mirror. How does a new self-awareness come to manifest itself?

8. When Wang Lung becomes swept up with the mob and enters the rich man's house, is the gold he receives there a curse or a blessing? Do you feel any pity for the rich man? What do you think the author intended you to feel?

9. After O-lan steals the jewels, do they function as a bad omen or good luck? Why does O-lan want to keep the two pearls? Why is Wang Lung so astonished by this? What do the pearls signify?

10. As O-lan dies, she bemoans her lack of beauty and says she is too ugly to be loved. Wang Lung feels guilty, but still cannot love her as he did Lotus. Neither woman can control destiny. Lotus was anorphan who had been sold into prostitution because she was beautiful, and O-lan had been sold as a kitchen slave because she was plain. For whom do you feel sympathy? Why?

11. Toward the end of the novel we encounter the belief that things will change "when the poor become too poor and the rich are too rich." Discuss the ambivalence of this statement -- a mixture of both hope and despair -- and how it reflects upon the whole of The Good Earth.