"Tue. coo Eanru."=By Pearl S. Buck, Stsihuen & Coy Ltdy London, Women novelists seem to, be striking a very good natch in China just now. Following "Tobit Transplanted," by Stella. Benson, comes this) really. wonderful new" "work Pearl 'S, Buck. It isa novel which has succeeded in interpreting the atmosphere of China with Sdel ity working hand in hand with consummate craftsmanship. Yet the setting is almost immaterial 20; beautifully written and so universal in its appeal is Mrs. Buck's work. She has gone to the earth of China end there she has found human nature in its simple essence, kind, unwittingly cruel, stupid'—yet Fenetratingly perceptive, gross and yet imbued with the most fragrant tendernesses. The tale is of Wang the bucolic peasant, who proceeds from poverty through the Vicissitudes of the acquisition of wealth, and although" prosperity brings' in its train the inevitable departure from the simple, strait path of human conduct, he remains fat the end the true child of the earth from which he sprung and to which he clung so closely. Running through the story is the record of wifely devotion which he was able to command from the slave git] whom he bought from the hi house, The marriage was: one of chance, in accordance with the old feustom of China, but it was a good chance for Wang Lung who cognized the truth of her mistress's are [could afford to have beautiful wives, The old lady, no mean, student of affairs, describes her to the husband-
You sce she has the strong body' "did" the square checks of het Kind, "She wit'work well for you in the field and drawing water end-all O-tan failed to hold him true, Bub fchanee brought an evil ood on the Jand and it would not recede, Wang. Tung' found time hanging' on his hands and as the bond with O-lan had begun to sit lightly upon him he teeafled a casual visit which gave his. first glimpse of Lotus the cod afforded unwonted was to Lotus that "Ho looked at her as he had locke ed at the splctore, and he saw the figaro slender. as bamboo in its tight shore upper cout; he saw the. erika Biness. above the high collar ned ointed face set in its painted pret
swith white fur ww the. round eye, the: shape' of apricots, so that ow' at last he understood what the Storytellers meant when they sen of the Tenutles of old, "And wan not fud blood, but the painted picture of Lotus? sway was quickly established:
"And as these days went, past, to the mighty the gis! Lotus id what the "would with him, When "she Inuched atthe braid of, lis hats, ale fhopah part of every" day he "Now the men of the' hot have these monies tall Twithout. a word and' hed it cut ity Aithough® neither™ by nughter' nor fed anyone been able to yer Stade him to ie before The secret could not be hidden land it was @ Kinswoman who broke the brutal truth to the disconsolate "And it is not Yo be thought, poor fool, that one woman is enough for any man, and Hf that one lao weary hard-working, woman who has "work away her flesh working Zoi him, {pees than. enough for him." His fan uns elsewhere the more quiche lar aad pos, poor tanh Bare, ever Better than an ox. for hia laban fen At Zor a man's fan ile
And it is not Yor Sou to xepine wh hhe'bas money: and buys blnweld a other to bring ber to his house, for All'ihen are so. and so would my old Go-tething she, except the poor wretch has never hed enough sliver In his if0'to Teed himself even."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.