Evening star., 1933-01-14
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY SARAH C.. BOFERM1N. =

In manner not too usual with sequels,
continues the originality and yigor of
The Good Earth" At the beginning
of Sons Wang Lung, the old Chinese
peasant. lover of the soil, who has
built up the family fortunes by his
hard work and thrift. dies and is buried
in grave dug in his original plot OF
land. His three sons, who before his
death have plotted over his fortune,
promptly sell most of the land for
which he has labored With love most
of his life. Wang the landlord and
Wang the merchant live with their
wives and children in the town
house with its many courts. acquired
by Wang Lung in his later days OF
prosperity. Wang the Tiger, the young
est, is a petty war lord and demands
that land enough be sold Immediately
to give him his share of the property
in silver, so that he may build up his
army and become one of the great war
lords Lotus, Wang Lungs first concu-
bine, now a fat old woman, lives with
her prosecuted attendant in her court
of the town house. Pear Blossom, the
young and gentle second concubine OF
Wang Lung takes the idiot daughter of
| Wang Lung and his first peasant wife
and goes to live in the little earthen house
in the fields where Wang Lung has
passed all his early life. There she is
later joined by the hunchbacked son
of Wang the landlord, for whom the
rest of the family can find no place
in their greedy lives This small group,
isolated from the activities of the popu-
louS family, forms one of the centerS
of interest of the story. When 'the
fool" finally dies, Pear Blossom goes
into a nunnely and the deformed youth
devotes himself to the service of tenn
pie The earthen house and the sad
old fields about it are left to await the
next phase of their existence.
Wang the Tiger is the most impor-
TAM figure of Sons and much of the
story concerns his conquests. He IS
considered by all who know him as
an unusually merciful man. one who
kills only when he is Justly angry.
Yet his murders seem rather frequent.
He does not spare the one woman whom
he ever loves, the woman he has coerced
into marrying him, after killing her
lover He is unressonab!y surprised, it
seems to us, when he discovers her
treachery to him. After his one ro-
nance he turns Sayagely and single
mindedly to warfare, determined to be-
come great war lord and to waste
no time on human relations. He con-
tinually demands more and more money
| from his brothers, who are afraid to
refuse him because they think they may
at any time need his protection for
their property from bandits and rival
war lords. He attacks and captures
towns, imposes as heavy taxes as he
thinks he can collect, intimidates local
civilian officials, and grows ever more
powerful. AS he contemplates his sue
cess, he is seized with desire for son,
to inherit all he has to give. SO he
marries two wives, one a learned woman,
who gives him a daughter, who later
becomes a modern woman" the other
a. coarse and ignorant country woman,
who gives him a son. This son becomes
the idol of Wang the Tigers ambition.
Wang early begins to train m as
future war lord and later sends him
| to military school, But the boy has
no taste for fighting and finds his great
est pleasure in watching the peasants
working in their rice fields or in roam
ing about the country and observing
birds. plants and crops. At the time
when Wang the Tiger expects his sons
retslrn from the military school, ready
to help him in his warfare, he learns
that the youth has joined the southern
revolutionary army. Worse humiliation
! is yet to follow for Wang the Tiger
when his son deserts the southern army
and tells his father that he will be
nothing but farmer. When the son
takes refuge in the old earthen house
in the original fields of his peasant
grandfather the cycle completes itself,
as the third generation returns to the
soil won by the first and given up by
the second. Heredity has asserted
itself.
Sons" contains many interesting pic
lures of customs and activities of pres
| ent-day China. There is the develop
ment Of the new" or independent
woman, who goes to foreign school on
the coast, insists on marrying a man of
her own choosing, refuses to serve her
motherin-law. and chatters glibly
about many things. The family life in
the house OF many courts is not an al
together peaceful affair; the wives and
concubines quarrel among themselves
and often the lord of the house finds
/ that the only wisdom is silence or alb
senting himself. The freauenting of
| tea houses mot such innocent places
as the name implies by the men ap-
pears to be usual. Bribery OF everyone
! concerned whenever anything is to be
accomplished, with the size of the bribe
/ determining the honor" of the recip-
lent, is represented as common. The
| 'Saving of face" that is. the necessity of
pretenSe and the use OF elaborate subter-
/ fuge whenever any one is obliged to yield
in an affair, Is amusingly illustrated.
! Perhaps such subterfuge is not altogether
unknown in Western countries Famine
and floods. the capture and recapture
3 NNF dNnt f9fp laA sfAf- ion .NT
taxes. the smuggling of arms, the sub
servience of civilian officials, are all
part of the picture.
y X x x
In the title poem of Edwin Arlington
Robinson's new collection of poems,
''Nicodemus," Caiaphas, the high priest,
and Nicodemus. who pleads with him
for the life of Jesus, are represented as
| friends. CaiaphaS appears as poll
! tician. who is not aVePse to favoring a
| friend. He suggests that Jesus does
not belong to Jerusalem and may
quietly make his escape. The ethical
import of the narrative suggests that of
Mr.. RobinSon'S narrative poem of a year
ago, Matthias at the Door" 1t is the
soul of Caiaphas which Nicodemus is
trying to save. Jesus will be fulfilling
! his mission by his martyrdom; only his
body will die. But the soul OF Gaia
phas is about to die.
X !:
Warwick Deepings latest hero,
/ Smith" is, like his others, just COM
mon man, who has perhaps a little
more courage and conscience than the
average man. Smith loves his work as
carpenter and is ambitious to rise,
even hopes sometime to be member OF
the firm of Samson and Hoad. For a
time his luck is good, then it changes
and nlisfortunes come rapidly. Through
! these misfortunes and the energy of
his wife. Sybil, in helping to meet them.
Smith comes to appreciate his wife and.
to value the simple joys of life. 1t will
| be seen that this is not a remarkable
book, but Mr.. Deepings novels are al
ways popular.
X i