The Good Earth

“It is the end of a family—when they begin to sell the land. 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.”
Rural life in early twentieth-century China: Land represents survival, wealth, status, and spiritual connection for Wang Lung. More than a story of rising fortune, this 1932 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel is a meditation on what we lose when we abandon our roots. Follow Wang Lung’s extraordinary journey from humble farmer to wealthy landlord. Experience how one man’s relationship to the land becomes the foundation of survival, prosperity, and family legacy—and witness the profound cost when that sacred bond begins to fade.
Pearl S. Buck was an acclaimed American author and humanitarian, born in 1892 in Hillsboro, West Virginia. She spent much of her early life in China, a setting that profoundly influenced her writing. Her literary achievements and advocacy for human rights earned her the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938, making her the first American woman to receive the honor.