first10pages

BORSTAL BOY / Brendan Behan. 1958 (362 pgs)

First Sentence:  “Friday, in the evening, the landlady shouted up the stairs: “Oh God, oh Jesus, oh Sacred Heart, Boy, there’s two gentlemen to see you”.”

Prevailing Narrative Voice: First-person narrator in an immediate past tense. As the narrator is the main character narrating his own story, and as dialogue frequently forwards the action, the narrative feels as if it is occurring in present tense even thought the verbs are in the past.

What the reader learns in the first paragraphs: The reader immediately learns that two “gentlemen” are cops and that the “Boy” they’re after is the main character, an Irish Sinn Fein terrorist. The narrator, Brendan Behan, and the cops exchange various levels of insult, but there seems to be an odd kind of respect between the arresting English Sergeant and the boy. The action is quick and dialogue between them, short. We also learn that he is sixteen years old.

What the reader learns in the first ten pages:  The reader may not get a clear picture of the house they are in even though the narrator refers to places in the room: window, door, fireplace, chair, etc. Every item seems to be generic and seemingly undecorated. The curtains are just curtains; no color, texture or pattern. As it turns out they are in a boarding house and Brendan feels like an outsider, hence the generic feeling. The next setting (and one that he will probably be in for a while) is prison with all of the generic imagery of his cell, the washroom and the prison personnel. Regardless of location, the narrator seems an ebullient youth and well versed in the Irish / English conflict, mostly from personal experience. There is a brief scene during the arrest in which the sergeant tells Behan “what a silly lot of chaps” these Irish boys are and how they “don’t even know why (they’re) bloody well doing it”. The sergeant dares him to name the Six Counties. The narrator pretends not to know them all, yet underneath his glib exterior he is passionate and committed to his work. In a brief scene in the washroom he strikes up a relationship with another prisoner who offers him cigarettes and a newspaper. Later, the narrator hears him singing an Irish song from a far off cell.

Character: As this seems to be a self narrated biography the reader receives a great deal of information from the narrator’s perspective, particularly his thoughts. The reader learns what the narrator looks like based on comparisons he makes to other characters. The reader sees other characters, most of who are prison guards and police officers who dislike him intensely, from the narrator’s biased point of view.

Setting: As mentioned above, the narrator is in prison for much of the first ten pages, and it looks like he is going to stay there for a while. The larger setting is the Irish / English conflict that has been in progress for decades. Through the narrator’s brief musings on his being incarcerated the reader understands why he feels there is no shame in being so.

Plot & Expectations beyond the tenth page: The narrative flow of the first ten pages is very smooth. Behan’s narrator is an amiable storyteller. It is difficult to guess where the story is going since prison seems like a dead end option. I expect the book to offer insight, perhaps balanced, perhaps not, into the narrator’s participation in Sinn Fein and how it affected the rest of his life. I suspect that the reader will learn a bit about the Ancient conflict between the green and the orange.

Random Comments: Brendan Behan was a poet and a playwright whose material came mostly from the incarcerated periods of his life as well as his connection to the Irish Republican Army.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY / Oscar Wilde. 1891 (244 pgs)

First Sentence:  “The artist is the creator of beautiful things.” (Preface)

“The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.” (Chapter One)

Prevailing Narrative Voice:  Distant third party (not even person) narrator who only has observational power. The narrator is a traffic director (stage manager might be closer to the point) who makes occasional descriptive observations about scenery, costume, facial expression and movements within the room, but has no relationship to any of the interacting characters. The characters within the story speak the narrative to each other, as it is told entirely in dialogue, eg: “You don’t understand me, Harry,” answered the artist, “of course I am not like him.” It is so much like a play that it is difficult not to imagine a boxed drawing room set on a proscenium stage.

What the reader learns in the first paragraphs:  As at the beginning of a stage play, the first few paragraphs describe the artist’s studio and the two men who are in it. We are in London with the sounds of birds mixing with distant traffic sounds. And there is an artist’s easel in the center of the room with a picture of a captivatingly handsome young man. What the reader learns in the first ten pages:  The painter, Basil Hallward, is in the midst of an existential crisis over the discovery of his muse, a young man named Dorian Gray. Basil’s close friend questions him about the young man, the portrait, his mood and simultaneously the reader is given a great deal of background information. On the surface, Lord Henry is trying to understand the reasoning that Basil won’t display his most recent paintings to society. Basil responds that it would violate the delicate relationship between artist and muse, and more to the point, he is afraid that if he displays his paintings the socialites might see something in his work that he has not been able to articulate to Dorian Gray. It is a bit melodramatic and very “the love that dare not speak its name”.

The preface is unusual in that it is series of paired statements, the first states a position, the second modifies or promotes the first: for example: “Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. / Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.”

Character:  Lord Henry Wotton…Basil Hallward…the butler’s name is Parker. The names sound like the character list off an English Drawing Room Drama program. What is awkward to a contemporary reader is how absolutely fey the men sound. If Basil didn’t mention to Lord Henry what a good and devoted husband and father he was I would have thought that Lord Henry was making some serious moves on Basil. Basil continually waxes over Dorian’s characteristics, which are all couched in the metaphor of the artist’s relationship to his muse.

Setting: It seems very important to the author that the reader is oriented in place through out the character’s speeches. The narrator does not spend any time in the thoughts of the various characters; instead the author uses the narrator and the characters to paint a picture of their locations through brief narration and dialogue, relying on certain stereotypes of what a “drawing room” or “a park” would look like to a Victorian reader. It is interesting that with the first two words, Wilde points out the place where the title object has been created: “The studio…”. It is also interesting that the room is “filled with the rich odour of roses” as the rose was the sacred flower of Aphrodite the great Olympian goddess of pleasure, joy, beauty, love and procreation. It is also emblematic that the secondary fragrance is the delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.” Even with knowing the briefest outline of what happens to Dorian Gray, the fact that the narrator is calling our attention back to the rose bush’s floral and thorny combination has particular meaning when one thinks about the fair young man who stays lovely as a flower, while his picture more closely resembles the rose’s stem.

Plot & Expectations beyond the tenth page:  Duh. An aging portrait in the attic. Aside from the little I know about THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, the first ten pages have prepared me for how dialogue heavy this story is going to be. Dialogue gives a feeling of slowness, for one can only forward the plot as fast as one can speak. With narrative, an author can skip over the mundane bits and streamline a scene of two men talking in real time. On the other hand it heightens the suspense for the reader to glean the general direction of their discourse as it’s revealed. I suspect that if Dorian Gray is going to stay young while his portrait ages, the action of the story will be somewhat episodic so that we can cover many decades.

Random Comments:  The Picture of Dorian Gray first appeared in 1890 in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine and is often mistakenly referred to as The Portrait of Dorian Gray.

BREATHING LESSONS / Anne Tyler. 1988 (388 pgs)

First Sentence:  “Maggie and Ira Moran had to go to a funeral in Deer Lick, Pennsylvania. Maggie’s girlhood friend had lost her husband.”

Prevailing Narrative Voice:  Third person narrative. Very close on both Maggie and Ira, but the narrator is closer on Maggie and knows her thoughts. The narrator closely observes Ira as if it is Maggie doing the observing. They’ve been married for 30+ years, if that explains anything. The narrative is told in the immediate past tense and the author frequently uses dialogue between Maggie and Ira, which is predominantly in the present tense. This makes the narrative seem particularly immediate.

What the reader learns in the first paragraphs:  Maggie set the alarm clock wrong. They got a late start. She is dressed up, but her panty hose are droopy. She wants to go to the funeral, Ira does not. We learn that even though they’re not in agreement, they know how to navigate around each other with the least amount of disturbance. They have lived and worked in the same Baltimore neighborhood for over thirty years.

What the reader learns in the first ten pages:  In her haste to get to the funeral, Maggie has a fender bender with a Pepsi truck, but drives off from the scene of the accident. It is a sore spot between her and her husband, but we also learn that Maggie and Ira have been married for many years, have a grandchild and are “in it for the long haul.” Maggie also discovers that her daughter-in-law is preparing to remarry; the first time was for love, this time will be for security. This has such a strong effect on Maggie that the dichotomy feels catalytic toward a major tension of the story.

Character:  Both Maggie and Ira are very clearly drawn through their clothing choices and the way the comment on each other’s actions. Maggie walks and drives through her nearby neighborhood and the blend of residential and business buildings seems to reflect the kind of people the Moran’s are. Maggie appears unfocused and both characters are upset by the auto accident, but they manage their emotions to avoid confrontation. I mention this as character description, since running parallel to their efforts to avoid confrontation is the upset that their daughter in law is “leaving” their family for another man.

The first ten pages BREATHING LESSONS focuses more on character and character set up than on location or setting. It seems that while these characters fit logically into their setting, who they are is more important that where they are. Still, it is easy to understand that Baltimore and Ira and Maggie Moran run on a parallel track.

Setting:  The action starts in Baltimore and by page 5 the action is on its way to Deer Lick, PA. The settings are simple and put forward simply. While no particular descriptions of their home and neighborhood are detailed, enough information is disclosed to give the reader a sense of the type of neighborhood they live in. It is easy to suppose that they will return home and the reader will receive more details of their home and home life when they return. Since much of the action of the first ten pages centers around their car, the reader has a stronger sense of the vehicle and its (tattered) condition.

Plot & Expectations beyond the tenth page:  There are several parallels and allusions made to happy married life versus secure married life. The first line clues the reader into a marriage that is gone out of balance due to a lost husband. Even though Maggie and Ira cope with their disagreements and differing points of view, there seems to be an underlying tension that Maggie will have to confront. Maggie comments on a trait of Ira’s: he whistles. Not only does he whistle, but when he whistles the lyrics of those songs make sub-textual commentary on conversations between Ira and Maggie, which, according to Ira, are unconscious.

Anne Tyler’s writing style is easy to follow, encouraging the reader to add in the small details. Her characters in BREATHING LESSONS are about to fall into emotional crisis or crisis of personal value. Tyler does not spend a large amount of narrative time on details, since what is about to come is far more important than the buckle on a shoe, or the pattern on a dress. That’s the way I see it.

Random Comments:  I have read two or three of Anne Tyler’s other novels. Middle-aged woman in crisis seems to be a popular theme. It is an easy bet that Maggie will undergo some serious consideration regarding her marriage, her place in the family or the validity of her life to date.

LIVE AND LET DIE / Ian Fleming. 1954 (159 pgs)

First Sentence:  “There are moments of great luxury in the life of a secret agent.”

Prevailing Narrative Voice:  Third person. Very close and observant of the chronological telling of events as if they have just recently happened. The story is told in past tense and often utilizes a passive verb choice, such as “the man had stepped forward” or “what was happening to”. It is very different in tone from the James Bond film franchise where the language is strong and direct. The sensibility in the book is considerably softer and more effete.

What the reader learns in the first paragraphs:  James Bond is a secret agent. James Bond is landing at Idlewild airport (Long Island. The reader is told that luxury and privilege await agent Bond, yet Bond anticipates bureaucratically drudging through customs like a regular visitor with its “drab-green rooms smelling like last year’s air and stale sweat and guilt and fear….”. The list goes on. What I learned in reading the opening of LIVE AND LET DIE that this book, and probably most of the others, are not very well written.

What the reader learns in the first ten pages:  In the first few paragraphs and throughout the first two chapters that comprise the first ten pages, the narrator utilizes several topical references contemporary to the early 1950’s, which are intended to fill in the blanks where the narrator has elected not to give the character’s impression of his situation and location. The narrator name-drops that Bond is arriving on a Stratocruiser (a luxurious flight), FBI, CIA, Secret Service, and over the Triborough Bridge into a teeming concrete jungle smelling of petrol. There are several references to Civil Defense, the cold war and the Atomic Bomb. Upon arrival at the St. Regis Hotel, Bond is whisked to his room, all the mundane details he has anticipated, evaporated. What is odd about these introductory pages is, while the reader is given a great deal of detail of the world surrounding James Bond, there is very little physical description of Bond or what he looks like. Perhaps as LIVE AND LET DIE was the second Bond book (CASINO ROYALE was the first), the author relies on the reader’s memory, and that they have read book #1.

The second chapter is a flashback to James Bond’s meeting with his boss “M”, for whom he has great respect. Bond is deferential and follows orders. The reader is given back-story on Bond’s previous case where he sustained an injury from a Russian spy from SMERSH and his upcoming assignment to the US and Caribbean Islands where he will meet his nemesis Mr. Big, head of the Black Widow voodoo cult and a known member of that evil Russian spy organization!

Character:  In this installment of the James Bond adventure, the reader doesn’t learn so much about the character of James Bond, but instead about the character of the world in which Bond is a secret agent. There is a naïve quality to Mr. Bond, particularly in his meeting with his superior, “M”, which is not present in the film adaptations. The reader, as mentioned before, is given several references to cars, bridges, the cityscape, and the deferential attitudes of those who are greeting Bond. These attitudes reflect back onto Bond and give the reader clues to the identity of this world-class secret agent. Of course it is difficult not to see Sean Connery, or in this case Roger Moore in his debut at Agent 007.

Setting:  Like said above, the world Bond operates within – upstanding and nefarious – is the setting for this story. In a strict sense the reader is placed in the locations of New York, London and will eventually travel to the Caribbean and other places with James Bond, but the underlying setting is that of Cold War Europe and the US. In the first ten pages there are at least two dozen references to Atomic War, bombs, spies, agents, secrets and the need to defend “ourselves”.

Plot & Expectations beyond the tenth page:  Between the first two chapters, the forward motion of this story has been put into place. We have seen Bond land in NYC and welcomed by his FBI / CIA counterparts. We have gotten the background on his assignment to track the golden treasure flowing from the Caribbean to the US via Harlem to finance the Russian underworld dealings of SMERSH.  In keeping with the formulaic style of the genre, the third chapter opens with, “And now it was ten days later,” which insures that the reader returns to New York and where James Bond was operating prior to the flashback.

Random Comments:  It is interesting to note that Ian Fleming’s bio on the book jacket says that he is (in 1962) a member of the editorial board of The London Sunday Times, which makes sense given the journalistic style his book has taken; chronology, single sentence paragraphs, references to current events, and a sense of narrative reportage.

There are several uncomfortable and insulting racial references toward members of several ethnic groups, particularly black characters, which Fleming refers to as Negros and Negresses. While he is being briefed about Mr. Big and the assignment, Bond makes the alarming statement, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a great Negro criminal before…Chinamen, of course, the men behind the opium trade. There’ve been some big-time Japs, mostly in pearls and drugs. Plenty of Negroes mixed up in diamonds and gold in Africa, but always in a small way. They don’t seem to take to big business. Pretty law-abiding chaps, on the whole. I should have thought.” His superior, “M” responds that Mr. Big was born in Haiti with “a big dose of French blood.” It is awkward to read, even fifty years later.

Interestingly, Ian Fleming intended for his second book to be less of an action-thriller and be a more serious meditation on the nature of evil. The novel’s original title was The Undertaker’s Wind, however, his publisher offered him a three book deal and required Bond to continue in the style of the popular CASINO ROYALE.

LORD JIM / Joseph Conrad. 1900 (363 pgs)

First Sentence:  “He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made you think of a charging bull.”

Prevailing Narrative Voice:  A focused, but somewhat distant third person, past-tense voice. This narrator is unlike most of the other third person voices I am familiar with, as he (yes, I experience it as male) is connected to the main character and yet never feels as if he is actually in the same location as the main character, Jim. This narrator is the classic storyteller who, in these early pages, draws the reader / listener into what will, most likely, be a long, satisfying tale.

What the reader learns in the first paragraphs: LORD JIM begins unlike the majority of stories presented on this blog, and unlike most contemporary novels I have read. LORD JIM begins with a brief physical description of an unnamed man and then continues to describe a type of man by the work he does, in this case a ship-chandler’s water-clerk. In the first paragraph we are told that this unnamed man is tall, powerful, and slightly stoop shouldered in the manner of a charging bull. We also learn that his voice is deep and loud, that he wears white and is immaculately dressed. The only hint of location is a vague reference to “various Eastern ports.” Following paragraphs continue with a job description and the type of man who would hold it. The reader is clearly not given much specific information about Jim or where Jim is because Jim does not want to be discovered.

What the reader learns in the first ten pages: Jim is constantly on the move. When his past catches up to him he moves to another of the “various Eastern ports”. In fact the narrator discloses Jim’s behavior as “incognito”, the object of the sentence, as if it is a piece of clothing. In the opening chapter (6 pages) the narrator gives a hasty overview of Jim’s early life and his love of the sea. The narrator acknowledges an event that changed the course of Jim’s life and then teases the reader with Jim’s gradual Eastward retreat from white men to the Malayan jungles where he is eventually given the name Lord Jim. Very few distinguishing facts of Jim’s early life are disclosed, no towns are named, and his mates and teachers are referred to by their rank and title. One curious exception is a story the narrator yields to illustrate the life of adventure Jim expects from the sea.

The second chapter (6 pages) continues at a much more stately pace. The story settles down to more detail. The reader is hooked. The storyteller will offer more information if the reader is willing to wait for it. In chapter two the unnamed narrator (similarly to the scantily detailed “Lord Jim”) becomes more than an unseen third person device, he begins to allow a sense of perspective into the story. This prompts the reader to accept that whatever the tragedy that has kept Jim running to “various Eastern ports” include mitigating circumstances that might require the reader’s consideration. In chapter two Jim begins a journey (from where, we don’t know) on a third-class vessel called the Patna, which is transporting 800+ “souls” from one part of the world to another, led by “an Arab”, their pious leader. Aside from the Patna the only other detail with a proper name is the Red Sea.

Character:  Jim is a mystery, as is the storyteller narrating Jim’s story. The reader is given few identifying details of where the story takes place or the characters in it. Jim’s desire to prevent his past from catching up to him is masterfully illustrated in the method that the narrator gives out very little identifying information, as if he is saying this story will stay just between us. In lieu of character the reader is given a description of the type of man who would love the sea and hold certain jobs. The reader is given the description of a boy who witnesses a river rescue and asserts that a life on the sea would offer the same kind of excitement in every foreign port.

Jim’s incognito drives the mystery. The undisclosed provides the storyteller’s hold over the reader. In a more journalistic telling of Jim’s story, a narrator would know all the events and that narrator would be able to fill in the blanks with material from the conclusion of Jim’s story. The narrator’s hold over the reader is that he is able to parse out the story in a somewhat chronological fashion, throwing tidbits of information into the mix that promote what the narrator really knows, baiting the reader to continue.

Setting:  “Various Eastern ports.” This so goes against the theory I presented in the previous blog about how 85% of the time an author locates his main character in a specific place within the first several sentences of the story. With LORD JIM this is just not so. LORD JIM is a character driven story. The reader is given enough information to deduce that the story takes place in the Middle and Far East. Bombay, Calcutta, Rangoon, Penang, and Batavia are named as some of the last cities Jim visits, but by the telling, Jim is long gone.

Plot & Expectations beyond the tenth page:   I expect Jim’s life story told by a distinguished storyteller. The reader is aware that Jim has done something he is ashamed of. Guilt keeps him running. I expect the narrator to offer evidence to exonerate Jim enough to make him a sympathetic figure. I would expect to get much more deeply into Jim’s psyche and personality, as well as the places he is going. If these things remain secret for a significant portion of the book, this reader will lose interest.

Random Comments:  I found this copy of LORD JIM in a garage sale box and am so glad I did. Reprinted in 1957, it includes several biographical articles and author’s notes that I found very interesting. For instance, born December 3, 1857, Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski (Joseph Conrad), one of the major English novelists, knew no English before he was twenty-one. From the landlocked Ukraine, a son of landed gentry, he developed a passion for the sea and didn’t begin novel writing until he was thirty-eight. He did not achieve any measure of recognition for his stories until he was well over fifty.

THE GOOD EARTH / Pearl S. Buck. 1931 (260)

First Sentence:  “It was Wang Lung’s marriage day.”

Prevailing Narrative Voice: A close third person hovering over the shoulder of Wang Lung, the main character, viewing the world almost exclusively through his senses. In the opening pages of THE GOOD EARTH the narrative voice utilizes each of Wang Lung’s senses as narrative input; his sight, hearing, touch particularly and then frequently dipping into the emotional excitement of his pending marriage night.

What the reader learns in the first paragraphs: Wang Lung is a farmer living with his father in a three-room, mud and straw dwelling. The day begins with a blend of the ordinary and the exceptional, his father’s ritualistic early morning “faint gasping cough” and Wang Lung’s attempt to make the house look more presentable for his bride. Wang Lung is excited and apprehensive. In the first few paragraphs the author shows Wang Lung inside his dark hut glimpsing out to the sky and his fields with the promise of rain on the gentle wind. It is an omen that promises new life for his wheat and his pending new family.

What the reader learns in the first ten pages:  The author gradually paces Wang Lung through the beginning pages with the care of his father and his house with many comments on how life will be different with a woman in the house. The reader learns that everything they have is hard-won from the earth. For example as Wang Lung prepares his father’s morning bowl of warm water he splurges with two small flavorful leaves of tea. He debates the wisdom of using all their water to bathe in preparation of the evening to follow. His most recent full body bath was the previous fall. With each debate and decision he justifies his small gratifications with the promise of moisture on the wind that will bring rain. By the end of the tenth page we have not yet met his bride, a slave in a wealthy man’s house, but the reader is well on the way to that meeting. Wang Lung is a cautious man by nature, he deliberates each of his decisions, particularly as they affect the small amount of silver in his purse. It is interesting to note that the reader meets Wang Lung on an extraordinary day, which creates unusual excitement. An ordinary day would be spent in the fields, as opposed to his journey to town where he buys meat, has a shave, and goes to a great house. This unusual beginning heightens the reader’s experience of everyday life in a remote village, which was Pearl S. Buck’s intention with this story – to introduce Western readers to the East.

Character:  The reader primarily meets Wang Lung and his father in the opening paragraphs and the following ten pages of narrative. There are the occasional voices of other folks as Wang Lung ventures into town to meet his bride. The generational relationship between father and son is a gentle metaphor of young man caring for older father. Wang Lung is respectful, patient and dutiful as his father expects. The father is crotchety, irascible and grateful, as is his right. Through brief, often wordless, exchanges between father and son the author reveals character aspects of these two men as well as the character of men of this region, time and place. It would be easy to see – and perhaps Buck is making this point – these characters as farmers on the plains of Nebraska, or Poland, or Guatemala. There is a universal understanding of type that Buck suggests, one that communicates clearly through the personal actions of one man in the early morning hours preparing for his wedding day.

Setting:  The opening sentences place the reader into Wang Lung’s world. After the opening sentence that sets a tone of excitement and premonition for Wang Lung, the narrative brings us to consciousness of Wang Lung’s world through his first waking moments. The second sentence has him “opening his eyes in the blackness of the curtains about his bed.” With each successive sentence Wang Lung experiences his waking world via sight, sound, and sensation and the reader comprehends the setting from behind Wang Lung’s closed, sleepy eyes, building to the dawning panorama of earth and sky over an endless landscape with Wang Lung thanking Heaven for the blessing of wife and rain, a metaphor of one particular man in a small farming area in a vast and limitless world governed by forces well beyond Man’s influence. While the narrator does not say China, per se, Wang Lung’s name and the customs described are particularly rural Chinese.

Plot & Expectations beyond the tenth page:  The gradual pace of the first pages of this story leads this reader to expect the full story of Wang Lung’s wedding day. As this is a special day, one that has taken Wang Lung away from his fields and responsibilities, this reader would expect for the next chapters to show what every-day life holds. Some of his predictions and wishes will come true, some will not. That’s life. When I mentioned I was reading THE GOOD EARTH to a friend, she clucked her tongue said how sad a book it is. I don’t see that in the first ten pages, and yet I feel prepared for a story of life rising out of the earth like wheat and eventually making its return to dust. The eternal or endless cycle, depending on how one views the flow of life.

Random Comments:  Pearl S. Buck was born in West Virginia in 1892 but raised in China by missionary parents. In writing THE GOOD EARTH and several other books about Asian culture she hoped to bring about a better understanding “between the peoples of Asia and the West.” [Author notes, Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, 1939] She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for THE GOOD EARTH and it was made into a play in 1932 (not successful) and a major motion picture in 1937 (wildly successful). As a book, it remained on the bestseller list for its first two years and returned to the list in 2004 when it was placed on Oprah’s Book Club. THE GOOD EARTH is one of those books that, supposedly, no one escapes High School without reading…except me. I won’t escape grad school in the same fashion. I intend to read the remaining 250 pages right away.