by Pearl S. Buck (1931)
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 in the world, even as the House of Hwang falls.
Irwin Shaw
The Young Lions is a vivid and classic novel that portrays the experiences of ordinary soldiers fighting World War II. Told from the points of view of a perceptive young Nazi, a jaded American film producer, and a shy Jewish boy just married to the love of his life, Shaw conveys, as no other novelist has since, the scope, confusion, and complexity of war.
James Gould Cozzens
The Just and the Unjust by James Gould Cozzens is an acclaimed literary masterpiece celebrating major critical honors and timeless storytelling.
Stark Young
Young’s novel of war coming to the Natchez region of Mississippi has long been considered one of the best of Civil War novels. “If you would understand what was best in the Old South, its attitude toward life, you will find them here, glowing with that same vitality which was theirs in life.”—New York Times. Southern Classics Series.
Robert Penn Warren
The scene of this novel is Kentucky; the time, the early days of this century, when the men who raised tobacco tried to organise themselves against the power of the men who bought it. This conflict of wills and motives led to violence, which bred more and greater violence. The hero, Percy Munn, a young lawyer, is drawn into the battle; against his will, almost before he knows it, he becomes a leader in a struggle that is so pervasive and demanding that he is led by it to abandon first his profession and personal code, then his wife and home, and finally society itself.