House of Earth: The Good Earth; Sons; A House DividedA portrayal of China in the midst of revolution. This trilogy starts with The Good Earth, a story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife O-lan and their struggles to survive the harsh realities of life in China during the reign of the last emperor. The vast political and social upheavals of the twentieth century were but distant rumblings for the ordinary people. Sons, the second in the trilogy, is a starkly real tale of sons rising against their honored fathers and tells of the bitter struggle to the death between the old and the new in China. Revolutions sweep the nation, leaving destruction and death in their wake, yet also promising emancipation to China's oppressed millions who are groping for a way to survive in a modern age. A House Divided, the third volume of the trilogy, sees Wang Yuan caught between the opposing ideas of different generations. After six years abroad, Yuan returns to China in the middle of a peasant uprising. His cousin is a captain in the revolutionary army, his sister has scandalized the family by her premarital pregnancy, and his warlord father continues to cling to his traditional ideals. It is through Yuan's efforts that a kind of peace is restored to the family. |
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Common terms and phrases
Ai-lan anger angry answered asked bought brother called child clothes country wife court cried Cuckoo daughter dead door earthen house elder eyes face farmer father fear feast felt gate girl gone grew guns hand harelipped hated head heard heart kill knew lady land laughed lips lived looked lord lord of war Lotus Lung's maid Meng mother never night O-lan old magistrate once passed Pear Blossom poor rich robbers robe rose seemed Sheng shouted silent silver slave smiled soldiers sons spoke stared stood strange street suddenly talk tea house tell thing thought Tiger saw told took town trusty turned uncle voice waited Wang Lung Wang the Eldest Wang the Landlord Wang the Merchant Wang the Second Wang the Tiger wife wine woman women words young Yuan