The Good Earth.

BUCK, Pearl S.

Item Number: 2173

New York: John Day, 1931.

First edition of the author’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and masterpiece. First issue with “flees” for “fleas” on page 100, line 17, and with the top edges stained brown [later green]. Octavo, original brown cloth. In very good condition, small name on the front endpaper. Lacking the very rare dust jacket.

Though nearly eighty years have passed since this novel won the Pulitzer Prize, it has retained its popularity and become one of the great modern classics. "I can only write what I know, and I know nothing but China, having always lived there," wrote Pearl Buck. In The Good Earth she presents a graphic view of a China when the last emperor reigned and the vast political and social upheavals of the twentieth century were but distant rumblings for the ordinary people. This moving, classic story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife O-lan is must reading for those who want to fully appreciate the sweeping changes that have occurred in the lives of the Chinese people during this century.