The Good Earth
by Pearl S. Buck · first published 1931
67% recommend25% neutral8% critical
Why HN recommends it
An emotionally moving novel about a Chinese farming family and how their fortunes rise and fall. It portrays money, poverty, hunger, and the choices people make as wealth changes.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
This tells the poignant tale of a Chinese farmer and his family in old agrarian China. The humble Wang Lung glories in the soil he works, nurturing the land as it nurtures him and his family. Nearby, the nobles of the House of Hwang consider themselves above the land and its workers; but they will soon meet their own downfall. Hard times come upon Wang Lung and his family when flood and drought force them to seek work in the city. The working people riot, breaking into the homes of the rich and forcing them to flee. When Wang Lung shows mercy to one noble and is rewarded, he begins to rise
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…to outdo "What is Code" and so we'll be dealing with this kind of journalistic showmanship for the next few months. Edit: The article is very well written and truly touching. It feels like reading The Good Earth all over again. In another way, it reads like a story about American Settlers from the 1800s. It's sad to hear about people abiding solely through subsistence farming, but it's heartening to hear they're…
on “The village and the girl” ↗House of Morgan - biography of JO Morgan and kin Snowball - biography of Warren Buffet The Good Earth - novel about Chinese farmer Fortune’s Children - the rise and fall of the Vanderbilts
on “Ask HN: Book recommendations for understanding financial systems?” ↗You may have read "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck (if you havn't, I highly recommend it.) You might not have heard of some of her other novels. One such book, "Pavilion of Women", is almost life changing. It is subtle. It has an unmatched…
on “The Best Books I Read in 2013” ↗…Programs, by Abelson, Sussman Object Oriented Analysis and Design by Grady Booch Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler Thieves in the Night by Arthur Koestler All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. War and Peace by L.N.Tolstoy Chapaev and the void by Pelevin
on “Ask HN: What's one book that changed your life?” ↗1. The Millionaire Next Door - I read this as a kid and took away the importance of owning your own business and living below your means. 2. The Good Earth - Another book that I read as a kid that I think about often…specifically about the choices the family makes as their fortune rises and falls. 3. Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works…
on “Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?” ↗…sets to dispel the "follow your passion" movement. This book caused me to take the idea of "career capital" a lot more seriously, and to be more intentional about pursuing my career in general. • The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck This is an incredible story about money, poverty, hunger, farming, honor, etc. It has completely changed how I think about how money corrupts and the importance of returning to the land.
on “Ask HN: Which is the best course or book you have come across in 2022?” ↗Your comment reminded me of this book: The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, which I read many years ago, as a teenager or young adult. I was quite moved by it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_S._Buck https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Earth Excerpt:…
on “Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024” ↗The Good Earth, by Pearl Buck.
on “What Books Could Be Used to Rebuild Civilization?” ↗…sacrifice barbarous,[30] however, the exposure of newborns was widely practiced in ancient Greece, it was even advocated by Aristotle in the case of congenital deformity " In her Nobel winning novel, The Good Earth, Pearl Buck recounts how the family, during a famine, allows the daughter to starve to death, but then at the last moment the father changes his mind and gives her some food. The child grows up brain…
on “Spoiled Rotten (2012)” ↗…Without a Map_ (which will leave you with a much healthier view of the modern Middle East) and _Confederates in the Attic_ (a dress-rehearsal for the Age of Trump?). Pearl Buck, _Sons_. (Best to read _The Good Earth_ first, but you've probably already read it.) I doubt it's a very accurate depiction of China, and the characters' morality is hair-raising (while the narrator is so far off the deep end that he/she is…
on “Ask HN: What are the best books you've read that few others have?” ↗I was intrigued by the descriptions of Chinese rural poverty. Eating bark and clay during famine times, fertilizing the garden with night soil, eating meat once a year. When I read The Good Earth, I thought it was a picture of China painted for Westerners. Which perhaps the article is as well, but it's interesting that the pictures are so much the same.
on “How Yan Lianke Became China's Most Controversial Satirist” ↗Not just middlebrow, old middlebrow. The Good Earth? The Nine Taylors? This is every college educated boomer’s aspirational reading list, a mix of books they liked and books they’ll never read.
on “The Mensa Reading List for Grades 9-12” ↗…been there in exactly the same way as I have been to Yellowstone. I know I can't get on a plane to go back there, but if I open the book again I will be there again. Another favorite book of mine is The Good Earth. I have experienced Wang Lung's life in almost the exact same way as Picard experienced another man's life in The Inner Light. I read that book in a single uninterrupted sitting because the experience…
on “Aphantasia: 'My mind's eye is blind'” ↗