[It is] as novelist, as pure literary artist, that Mrs. Buck regards herself and prefers to be regarded. It seems worth while, therefore, to consider her books as novels, works of art, to analyze them as fiction, without prejudging them by applying any label. Let us, that is, for a moment forget that Mrs. Buck is famous as "the novelist of China," "the author of those Chinese books," and inquire simply, as with any unknown novelist, into her choice of material and her technique. Such an analysis is in her case difficult, for there is a firm unity in her work which makes its component parts not easily distinguishable, but I am sure that the degree of permanence to be achieved by any fiction can only be ascertained by assessing it as a work of art. (p. 791)

Mrs. Buck's chosen scene—and it is part of our scheme to state it thus coolly—is modern China. There are parts of that vast country where modern China means the same as ancient China; there are parts where the change of date implies a profound social change. These two Chinas, the old and the new, form the material for Mrs. Buck's art….

[The] attempt is made to present China from within, as the Chinese see it…. [The] landscape in Mrs. Buck's novels is always presented as seen by familiar eyes. Now this is one of the great difficulties of the novelist who chooses to write about a land not native to him; he is likely to write of the scenery as he, the stranger, sees it, not as the man who has lived with it all his life; the dawns are lurid with beauty to the stranger, where the native sees the coming of rain or the rising of a wind…. Mrs. Buck has lived in China so long that she really knows the landscape, and she never once, in all the volume of her work, forgets it and goes into raptures as over an alien scene. (p. 792)

In the same way Mrs. Buck aims to present the Chinese customs as familiar, natural and correct, because so would her characters regard them. The customs at birth and death and marriage and new year, the earthen gods, the family ceremonial, the slavery of women, are all copiously illustrated, but always presented, as it were, unself-consciously, as part of the natural process of living; never by the slightest word or turn of phrase does Mrs. Buck call our attention to the difference of these customs from our own. This may be thought a commonplace, but, in fact, an identification with one's characters so complete and so well sustained is rare in fiction; nor is this an unimportant matter, but a quality which goes far in welding the firm unity we have already mentioned. Her picture of the Chinese civilization is highly remarkable, then; for she presents to us China as the Chinese see it, but in language (of both lip and mind) which we understand. (p. 793)

[The] language in which Mrs. Buck presents this material shares the same dual character. It is English—very plain, clear English; yet it gives the impression that one is reading the language native to the characters all the time. This is very largely due, I think, to the entire absence of Chinese words in the prose…. The prose which is broken by many foreign words in italics accentuates our sense of being English-speaking people reading a book written in English about an alien race. Especially is this the case when the foreign word is followed by an explanation of its meaning. Pearl Buck never uses a Chinese word, never needs to explain one. Even "Mah-Jongg," for example, is called "sparrow dominoes"—and very rightly, since that is what the Chinese word means to the Chinese. On the other hand, Mrs. Buck never, I think, uses a word for which a literal translation into Chinese could not be found. The effect of her prose is to translate what the Chinese mean into language which means that to us. That it is also exceedingly beautiful prose is just our luck, so to speak, and a remarkable instance of Mrs. Buck's skill. The grave, quiet, biblical speech, full of dignity, in which Mrs. Buck, without ever "raising her voice," is able to render both the deepest and the lightest emotions—the feeling of a mother over her dead child and the excitement of an old man over his tea—is a fine example of an instrument perfectly adapted to its task. (pp. 793-94)

Mrs. Buck's main characters in each novel, always Chinese, always belong to one family, the action being seen through the eyes of that family alone…. There are other characters, but they are subsidiary; the main drama is not that of clash between house and house, but consists in the varying fortunes and happiness of one house alone. This is probably deeply true to Chinese life, and forms part of Mrs. Buck's essential theme. It does not result, however, in a limitation of scope; indeed, our author's range of character is remarkable. She is equally successful with characters of every age, sex, class, and type, and in the indication of the differences between these various types. (pp. 794-95)

Her presentation of character is objective; that is to say, she does not color her characters too much with her own feelings about them, but allows them to be just and righteous, even though she disapproves of them, and a little peevish and weak, even though they be her heroes…. The parents who cling to the old ways, the children who revolt to the new, are each presented sympathetically; and it is this impartiality which helps to make of Mrs. Buck a novelist, instead of a mere propagandist writer on China. (p. 795)

This reveals itself, too, in her treatment of the minor characters who are present, plentifully though not confusingly, in all her books. The reader feels always that these characters are not in any way to be despised or thought of as less important; they are just as alive as the major persons and have their own deeply interesting story somewhere about them. We do not hear it only because at the moment we chance to be busy with something else…. They add their separate life to the book and enrich its substance. (pp. 795-96)

We may, I think, perceive one or two indications of Mrs. Buck's methods. She observes external appearances closely, and presents them with a detailed accuracy….

Mrs. Buck observes with equal clearness the personal mannerisms of her characters, how they speak and walk and eat and cough. (p. 796)

Any young writer desirous of improving his characterization could learn volumes from Mrs. Buck's choice of verbs, adverbs and adverbial expressions….

An aspect of Mrs. Buck's skill in this branch of her art which cannot be illustrated within the limits of an article because the examples are … so closely woven into the text, is her handling of the moods and changes of mind of her characters. How Yuan in A House Divided cannot make himself love the girl revolutionist and yet cannot free himself from her; how Wang Lung slips into bondage to Lotus out of sheer ennui; the fatal quarrel over a mere length of blue-cotton cloth between the Mother and her husband—these deserve study for their beautifully living quality. One thing buds from another, and the mood grows, as is only possible in living organisms.

One of the severest tests of a writer's power of characterization is his handling of heredity. Does he portray children as the mechanical duplicates of their parents, or as having no resemblance to them at all …? Mrs. Buck's success in this difficult task is well known. The Mother's lads, though so different, are truly brothers; and every child of the horde which crowd the Wang courts is the child of his father and mother, the descendant of Wang and O-Lan, yet a separate person too….

This careful and vigorous presentation of the power of heredity is an essential part of Mrs. Buck's true theme. (p. 797)

Her stories take the epic rather than the dramatic form; that is to say, they are chronological narratives of a piece of life, seen from one point of view, straightforward, without devices; they have no complex plots, formed of many strands skilfully twisted, but belong to the single-strand type, with the family, however, rather than the individual, as unit. East Wind: West Wind tells, it is true, the tales of two marriages in modern China…. Both tales, however, are seen and told by the girl who has bound feet, and are thus wound into a single strand….

It is now time for us to seek the figure in Mrs. Buck's carpet, the theme on which she threads her pearls.

Is it her deep intention to present China to the West? Yes, I suppose it is; and she succeeds in it to admiration. But I do not feel that this is the only figure in the carpet; indeed, at times I feel that China makes the colors of her design rather than the pattern. (p. 798)

Is it her aim to present China in contact with Western civilization, China in revolution, the transition, in a word, from the old China to the new? Yes, I suppose it is; though personally I do not feel this to be the most successful part of her work. In East Wind: West Wind, and still more in A House Divided, some of her truest art is lacking. (p. 799)

For my part I consider that the figure in Mrs. Buck's carpet, her true theme, is the continuity of life.

One aspect of this continuity is beautifully revealed in that miniature masterpiece, The Mother. All the characters in this novel remain anonymous, it will be remembered…. [What] they say and do is deeply true to all human motive, so that we sympathize and understand. This again is a hallmark of quality in a novelist; for those only tell the truth who make us feel the biological certainty that all men are made of the same elements, differently arranged.

Another aspect of this continuity is the one most generally recognized in Mrs. Buck's work—the passing of life on from generation to generation. The sense of this continuity is strongly present in every detail of our author's work, as has already emerged in our discussion of plot and character. It is especially strong in the Good Earth trilogy, and is summed up for us in Sons, where Wang the Tiger is riding to his father's funeral. "Riding thus at the head of his cavalcade," writes Mrs. Buck, "his women and his children, Wang the Tiger took his place in the generations…. he felt his place in the long line of life." (pp. 799-800)

[For] the interest of her chosen material, the sustained high level of her technical skill, and the frequent universality of her conceptions, Mrs. Buck is entitled to take rank as a considerable artist. To read her novels is to gain not merely knowledge of China but wisdom about life. (p. 800)