What do you think?
Rate this book
Letter from Peking
From the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Good Earth: The New York Times-bestselling novel of a Chinese-American family separated by war.
Elizabeth and Gerald MacLeod are happily married in China, bringing up their young son, Rennie. But when war breaks out with Japan, Gerald, who is half-Chinese, decides to send his wife and son back to America while he stays behind. In Vermont, Elizabeth longingly awaits his letters, but the Communists have forbidden him from sending international mail. Over time, both the silences and complications grow more painful: Gerald has taken up a new love and teenager Rennie struggles with his mixed-race heritage in America. Rich with Buck's characteristic emotional wisdom, Letter from Peking focuses on the ordeal of a family split apart by race and history. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author's estate.
Elizabeth and Gerald MacLeod are happily married in China, bringing up their young son, Rennie. But when war breaks out with Japan, Gerald, who is half-Chinese, decides to send his wife and son back to America while he stays behind. In Vermont, Elizabeth longingly awaits his letters, but the Communists have forbidden him from sending international mail. Over time, both the silences and complications grow more painful: Gerald has taken up a new love and teenager Rennie struggles with his mixed-race heritage in America. Rich with Buck's characteristic emotional wisdom, Letter from Peking focuses on the ordeal of a family split apart by race and history. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author's estate.
200 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1957
439 people are currently reading
1504 people want to read
About the author
Pearl S. Buck
789 books3,048 followersPearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for The Good Earth, the best-selling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and which won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China" and for her "masterpieces", two memoir-biographies of her missionary parents.
Buck was born in West Virginia, but in October 1892, her parents took their 4-month-old baby to China. As the daughter of missionaries and later as a missionary herself, Buck spent most of her life before 1934 in Zhenjiang, with her parents, and in Nanjing, with her first husband. She and her parents spent their summers in a villa in Kuling, Mount Lu, Jiujiang, and it was during this annual pilgrimage that the young girl decided to become a writer. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, then returned to China. From 1914 to 1932, after marrying John Lossing Buck she served as a Presbyterian missionary, but she came to doubt the need for foreign missions. Her views became controversial during the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy, leading to her resignation. After returning to the United States in 1935, she married the publisher Richard J. Walsh and continued writing prolifically. She became an activist and prominent advocate of the rights of women and racial equality, and wrote widely on Chinese and Asian cultures, becoming particularly well known for her efforts on behalf of Asian and mixed-race adoption.
Buck was born in West Virginia, but in October 1892, her parents took their 4-month-old baby to China. As the daughter of missionaries and later as a missionary herself, Buck spent most of her life before 1934 in Zhenjiang, with her parents, and in Nanjing, with her first husband. She and her parents spent their summers in a villa in Kuling, Mount Lu, Jiujiang, and it was during this annual pilgrimage that the young girl decided to become a writer. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, then returned to China. From 1914 to 1932, after marrying John Lossing Buck she served as a Presbyterian missionary, but she came to doubt the need for foreign missions. Her views became controversial during the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy, leading to her resignation. After returning to the United States in 1935, she married the publisher Richard J. Walsh and continued writing prolifically. She became an activist and prominent advocate of the rights of women and racial equality, and wrote widely on Chinese and Asian cultures, becoming particularly well known for her efforts on behalf of Asian and mixed-race adoption.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 150 reviews
November 19, 2024
نامه ای از پکن ، کتابی ایست از پرل باک ، نویسنده آمریکایی . کتاب او روایتگر داستانی عاشقانه و تلخ است که در بستر انقلاب کمونیستی چین رخ میدهد.
قهرمان کتاب او زنی آمریکایی به نام الیزابت است که با مردی دو رگه چینی – آمریکایی ازدواج کرده . این پیوند نه تنها در جامعهی آمریکا که در چین نیز با نگاهی متفاوت روبرو شده و هم الیزابت و هم همسر و پسر او را در دل کشمکشی بین دو فرهنگ قرار داده. انقلاب کمونیستی چین، زندگی آرام آنان را به هم ریخت و الیزابت را در گرداب تصمیمگیریهای دشوار قرار داد. تغییرات بنیادین در جامعهی چین، هویت و باورهای آنان را به چالش کشید و او را مجبور کرد تا بین تعلقات فرهنگی خود و واقعیت جدیدی که با آن روبرو بود، یکی را انتخاب کند.
الیزابت در زندگی خود، تغییرات زیادی را تجربه میکند. او از یک زن آمریکایی که با فرهنگ چینی آشنایی ندارد، به زنی تبدیل میشود که با فرهنگ پیچیده مشرق زمین کاملا آگاه است . الیزابت در فرهنگ چین غرق می شود و در بسیاری جهات ، زیبایی و ظرافت آن را به خشونت فرهنگ آمریکا ترجیح می دهد . با وقوع انقلاب ، او سرانجام مجبور می شود به وطن خود بازگردد .
نامه ای از پکن را می توان داستان یک جدایی هم دانست ، این جدایی نه تنها به معنای جدایی فیزیکی بین شخصیتها و حس دلتنگی است، بلکه جدایی درونی و احساسی نیز هست. هم چنین این جدایی را از این جهت که زنی آمریکایی خود را در وطن غریب می بیند و دلتنگ زندگی در پکن می شود بسیار جالب توجه است .
در پایان ، نامه ای از پکن را باید داستان عاشقانه و لطیفی در بستر تغییرات عظیم تاریخی چین دانست که عشق را به چالش کشیده و آن را به یک آزمون بزرگ برای وفاداری تبدیل میکند .
قهرمان کتاب او زنی آمریکایی به نام الیزابت است که با مردی دو رگه چینی – آمریکایی ازدواج کرده . این پیوند نه تنها در جامعهی آمریکا که در چین نیز با نگاهی متفاوت روبرو شده و هم الیزابت و هم همسر و پسر او را در دل کشمکشی بین دو فرهنگ قرار داده. انقلاب کمونیستی چین، زندگی آرام آنان را به هم ریخت و الیزابت را در گرداب تصمیمگیریهای دشوار قرار داد. تغییرات بنیادین در جامعهی چین، هویت و باورهای آنان را به چالش کشید و او را مجبور کرد تا بین تعلقات فرهنگی خود و واقعیت جدیدی که با آن روبرو بود، یکی را انتخاب کند.
الیزابت در زندگی خود، تغییرات زیادی را تجربه میکند. او از یک زن آمریکایی که با فرهنگ چینی آشنایی ندارد، به زنی تبدیل میشود که با فرهنگ پیچیده مشرق زمین کاملا آگاه است . الیزابت در فرهنگ چین غرق می شود و در بسیاری جهات ، زیبایی و ظرافت آن را به خشونت فرهنگ آمریکا ترجیح می دهد . با وقوع انقلاب ، او سرانجام مجبور می شود به وطن خود بازگردد .
نامه ای از پکن را می توان داستان یک جدایی هم دانست ، این جدایی نه تنها به معنای جدایی فیزیکی بین شخصیتها و حس دلتنگی است، بلکه جدایی درونی و احساسی نیز هست. هم چنین این جدایی را از این جهت که زنی آمریکایی خود را در وطن غریب می بیند و دلتنگ زندگی در پکن می شود بسیار جالب توجه است .
در پایان ، نامه ای از پکن را باید داستان عاشقانه و لطیفی در بستر تغییرات عظیم تاریخی چین دانست که عشق را به چالش کشیده و آن را به یک آزمون بزرگ برای وفاداری تبدیل میکند .
March 5, 2018
"Gerald has not deserted me nor I him. We are divided by history, past and present." —Elizabeth
What a heartbreaking, but uplifting story! I feel like the themes tackled in this book are perfect for readers of Celeste Ng's work. This epistolary novel is written in the form of a long diary entry. In it, Elizabeth seeks to make sense of a letter her husband, Gerald, has sent her from Peking, where he remains amidst China's Cultural Revolution. This last letter is a catalyst for Elizabeth, who has at the moment of beginning her "book," been separated from her husband for five years, and has been raising their son alone on her family's Vermont farm.
Gerald is biracial, his father American and mother Chinese, and Elizabeth takes us back to their first encounter and eventual marriage. I loved how apt her understanding was of being divided and not feeling accepted either here or there. Identity and self-awareness especially manifest themselves in Elizabeth's son, Rennie, who fears to mention his Chinese-American father in the presence of others because of popular opinion of the country at time (1957). "So he's a Communist?" seems to be the common response.
"Buck’s fiction explored the many differences between East and West, tradition and modernity, and frequently centered on the hardships of impoverished people during times of social upheaval."
I loved the language throughout; I felt like Elizabeth and I were the closest of friends, and that she was trying to bridge gaps in my understanding of a culture that isn't mine so as not pass judgement. Very unexpected! This edition included a small biography of Buck's life complete with photographs. In learning about the things she was passionate about, you can definitely see the common theme in her novels. I feel like she was the perfect author to read in honor of Women's History Month.
"For her body of work, Buck was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature—the first American woman to have won this honor. Buck also supported various humanitarian causes throughout her life. These included women’s and civil rights, as well as the treatment of the disabled."
July 8, 2025
The year is 1950, and Elizabeth MacLeod stands in the flaming hush of a Vermont autumn, reading a letter from her husband Gerald, stranded, perhaps forever, in Maoist China. “Let me tell you that I love only you,” he writes. That’s always the prelude to catastrophe.
The story spirals from that charred declaration into the heartbreak of a woman who has already lost her husband before losing him. From the hills of Vermont to the vanished courtyards of Peking, Buck orchestrates a slow immolation of love, marriage, race, and identity.
Elizabeth, white, American, and stubbornly loyal, married Gerald, a man of mixed Chinese and American parentage whose elegance “began with his hands” and whose silence carries the weight of dynasties. Their son, Rennie, beautiful and bewildered, inherits not just blood but a borderless confusion that no sugar bush or maple syrup can mask. “Your father and I were not built for walls,” Elizabeth reflects, and yet history locks every door.
In one scene, Elizabeth recalls how Gerald hesitated to marry her because he feared his “Chinese flesh” might revolt her. She silences him with desire, not rhetoric. In another, she faces her mother’s patrician horror - “Oh, Elizabeth - no!” - when learning her daughter would marry a half-Chinese man.
Every recollection in this book is a charged act of self-vindication and confession. Rennie struggles with being a quarter-Chinese in a town that’s suspicious of even his father’s photograph. A maple orchard, a sugaring season, and a room prepared for a grandfather long thought lost all take on the weight of epic milestones.
Buck never raises her voice, but the air bristles. “I shall never get another letter from Gerald,” Elizabeth whispers, sealing the page like a coffin lid. A hundred things happen - wars, affairs, births, exile, and one jaw-dropping letter that implies a betrayal so quiet you might miss it if you blink.
Pearl S. Buck herself was born in West Virginia and raised in China, where she spoke Chinese before English. Her fiction, especially this one, carries the mark of someone perpetually between shores. Letter from Peking is a love song warbled through barbed wire, a book where silence speaks Mandarin and grief is adorned in silk. This is a book about marriages undone by politics, nations undone by race, and identities unraveled by inheritance.
“My mother’s little mouth opened. She looked at me with horror.
'Oh, Elizabeth—no!'
Only my mother called me Elizabeth...
'Gerald’s father lives in Peking. He is American but he married a Chinese lady and so Gerald is half Chinese.'
My mother stared at me. 'I have a dreadful fear that when you have a child it will look Chinese. Children do take after the grandparents.'
…
'How I could bear to have a Chinese grandchild I do not know. I could not explain it in Boston.'”
"...“I’ve been completely happy,” I said. “So happy that I must make sure Rennie will be happy, too. I couldn’t let him marry a girl who merely tolerated his being partly Chinese. She must be glad of it. She must be proud of it. She must understand that he is the richer for it, as a man and a person—yes, even as an American.” She could not follow me. She tried, bless her,..."
The story spirals from that charred declaration into the heartbreak of a woman who has already lost her husband before losing him. From the hills of Vermont to the vanished courtyards of Peking, Buck orchestrates a slow immolation of love, marriage, race, and identity.
Elizabeth, white, American, and stubbornly loyal, married Gerald, a man of mixed Chinese and American parentage whose elegance “began with his hands” and whose silence carries the weight of dynasties. Their son, Rennie, beautiful and bewildered, inherits not just blood but a borderless confusion that no sugar bush or maple syrup can mask. “Your father and I were not built for walls,” Elizabeth reflects, and yet history locks every door.
In one scene, Elizabeth recalls how Gerald hesitated to marry her because he feared his “Chinese flesh” might revolt her. She silences him with desire, not rhetoric. In another, she faces her mother’s patrician horror - “Oh, Elizabeth - no!” - when learning her daughter would marry a half-Chinese man.
Every recollection in this book is a charged act of self-vindication and confession. Rennie struggles with being a quarter-Chinese in a town that’s suspicious of even his father’s photograph. A maple orchard, a sugaring season, and a room prepared for a grandfather long thought lost all take on the weight of epic milestones.
Buck never raises her voice, but the air bristles. “I shall never get another letter from Gerald,” Elizabeth whispers, sealing the page like a coffin lid. A hundred things happen - wars, affairs, births, exile, and one jaw-dropping letter that implies a betrayal so quiet you might miss it if you blink.
Pearl S. Buck herself was born in West Virginia and raised in China, where she spoke Chinese before English. Her fiction, especially this one, carries the mark of someone perpetually between shores. Letter from Peking is a love song warbled through barbed wire, a book where silence speaks Mandarin and grief is adorned in silk. This is a book about marriages undone by politics, nations undone by race, and identities unraveled by inheritance.
“My mother’s little mouth opened. She looked at me with horror.
'Oh, Elizabeth—no!'
Only my mother called me Elizabeth...
'Gerald’s father lives in Peking. He is American but he married a Chinese lady and so Gerald is half Chinese.'
My mother stared at me. 'I have a dreadful fear that when you have a child it will look Chinese. Children do take after the grandparents.'
…
'How I could bear to have a Chinese grandchild I do not know. I could not explain it in Boston.'”
"...“I’ve been completely happy,” I said. “So happy that I must make sure Rennie will be happy, too. I couldn’t let him marry a girl who merely tolerated his being partly Chinese. She must be glad of it. She must be proud of it. She must understand that he is the richer for it, as a man and a person—yes, even as an American.” She could not follow me. She tried, bless her,..."
March 25, 2010
One of the best and unfortunately most forgotten of Ms. Buck's fantastic catalog. The story of one women torn across two countries by the love of one man and the forces of history. Nothing is more heart-breaking than a love thwarted by forces outside of human control. This book revels slowly the with finesse and exquisite detail the pain and longing of a love lost.
Find it. Read it.
Find it. Read it.
September 28, 2011
In this gently written story in the manner that only Pearl Buck can write, a woman living in Vermont (where Pearl Buck had one of her homes) is dealing with the separation she must endure from her half-Chinese husband who is living in Peking, China. The separation is due to the Communist takeover. Pearl has said that this book “reaches deep into my own life...Elizabeth is not myself and yet she is myself in some aspects, in character if not in events.” (“For Spacious Skies:Journey in Dialogue”)
Pearl goes on to say that the husband in the story was based on a young man in her own life whose father was American and mother was Chinese. The young man’s American father, disappointed in his first love of a beautiful English girl, had then married a Chinese woman, “rationalizing this act by saying that a Chinese wife would help him in his work among the Chinese people”. After the Chinese wife died, the father “married rather soon his former love, by then widowed”. The son from the mixed marriage was “fiercely defensive” of his Chinese mother when he learned that his American “father had never loved his mother, though he had been good to her in his fashion.”
Pearl writes that she “listened with understanding” but withdrew from the relationship because “I am an American woman and I perceived that what he needed was a Chinese wife. He denied this with vehemence but I knew him better than he knew himself. When I had absented myself completely by going to another country, and ceasing to write- at what cost it seemed to me then- he married a Chinese. We met years later, and I saw at his side a quite plain-faced woman like his mother. Was she happy? Was he? It was a question not to be asked because it was not to be answered.” (“For Spacious Skies: Journey in Dialogue”- Pearl S. Buck with Theodore F. Harris)
It is a poignant, intensely romantic story and speaks volumes of the passionate nature of Pearl Buck. It brought tears to my eyes several times.
Pearl goes on to say that the husband in the story was based on a young man in her own life whose father was American and mother was Chinese. The young man’s American father, disappointed in his first love of a beautiful English girl, had then married a Chinese woman, “rationalizing this act by saying that a Chinese wife would help him in his work among the Chinese people”. After the Chinese wife died, the father “married rather soon his former love, by then widowed”. The son from the mixed marriage was “fiercely defensive” of his Chinese mother when he learned that his American “father had never loved his mother, though he had been good to her in his fashion.”
Pearl writes that she “listened with understanding” but withdrew from the relationship because “I am an American woman and I perceived that what he needed was a Chinese wife. He denied this with vehemence but I knew him better than he knew himself. When I had absented myself completely by going to another country, and ceasing to write- at what cost it seemed to me then- he married a Chinese. We met years later, and I saw at his side a quite plain-faced woman like his mother. Was she happy? Was he? It was a question not to be asked because it was not to be answered.” (“For Spacious Skies: Journey in Dialogue”- Pearl S. Buck with Theodore F. Harris)
It is a poignant, intensely romantic story and speaks volumes of the passionate nature of Pearl Buck. It brought tears to my eyes several times.
August 13, 2021
داستان ساده و سرراستی داره،و این که اگر اول کتاب نام مترجم رو نبینید،حین داستان متوجه میشوید که این کتاب رو بهمن فرزانه ترجمه کرده.
April 19, 2011
The book's core doesn't stray much from Pearl Buck's much beloved theme - the east and west reaching out to love and accept each other. Elizabeth is an American ardently in love with her half-Chinese husband, Gerald. Her fervent love for Gerald made her a strong woman who was ready to rebel , leave her country and make a home in China. Following the Communist's upheaval within China, Elizabeth and her son are forced to leave Gerald and move to America. Gerald's patriotism and loyalty towards China forbids him to abandon his country - and so he remains, torn with guilt and longing for his family, and a fierce sense of duty towards his country. His occasional letters sent surreptitiously every few months remained the only vestige of hope for the family to unite, until the letters dwindled and a final one came along. The tale is about a heartrending love between two people, separated by the world, because of the races that profiled their faces and genes.
Being half-Chinese and half-American was so pitiful a state when the world tore apart and the oceans distinctly marked the two continents as different and distant. Those like Gerald and his son were stranded, befuddled on where to turn and which country to hold close to them, while both countries silently rejected and never completely accepted them. But both father and son struggle to make home in the country they choose, yielding to sacrifices they couldn't escape from. Meanwhile Elizabeth lives on hope, and nourishes her life through the deep and unending love for Gerald. The book reads on as Elizabeth's journal. It records events that are simple and plain, emotions that are deep and pure.
Pearl Buck's tales have so much realism in them that within a few pages they cease to be a story, a novel - they transform to images of real people living their realities, without embellishments, fancy twists or miracles. Elizabeth's journal captures the pain, the love, the maturity and growing wisdom of a woman cruelly separated from her husband and is left to cope with loneliness. Pearl Buck's characters always come alive from her stories and it's difficult to shake them off as fictitious. Elizabeth comes to life representing many separated and lonely women - victims of the world breaking apart.
The writing in this book is one of Pearl Buck's best. Words rustle and trickle so beautifully, capturing and reflecting on every little emotion and feeling. A simple description of the sunlight out the window, or the spring in the air... seemingly minor in detail, but so immaculately wonderful in their expression. To me, this book symbolizes Pearl Buck's literary spirit.
Being half-Chinese and half-American was so pitiful a state when the world tore apart and the oceans distinctly marked the two continents as different and distant. Those like Gerald and his son were stranded, befuddled on where to turn and which country to hold close to them, while both countries silently rejected and never completely accepted them. But both father and son struggle to make home in the country they choose, yielding to sacrifices they couldn't escape from. Meanwhile Elizabeth lives on hope, and nourishes her life through the deep and unending love for Gerald. The book reads on as Elizabeth's journal. It records events that are simple and plain, emotions that are deep and pure.
Pearl Buck's tales have so much realism in them that within a few pages they cease to be a story, a novel - they transform to images of real people living their realities, without embellishments, fancy twists or miracles. Elizabeth's journal captures the pain, the love, the maturity and growing wisdom of a woman cruelly separated from her husband and is left to cope with loneliness. Pearl Buck's characters always come alive from her stories and it's difficult to shake them off as fictitious. Elizabeth comes to life representing many separated and lonely women - victims of the world breaking apart.
The writing in this book is one of Pearl Buck's best. Words rustle and trickle so beautifully, capturing and reflecting on every little emotion and feeling. A simple description of the sunlight out the window, or the spring in the air... seemingly minor in detail, but so immaculately wonderful in their expression. To me, this book symbolizes Pearl Buck's literary spirit.
September 1, 2019
داستان این کتاب که از نظر زمانی در سال 1950 میلادی در ورمونت آمریکا می گذرد،شرح زندگی روزانه زنی آمریکایی است که از زبان خودش، ماجرای ازدواجش با مردی چینی_آمریکایی و اینکه به خاطر شرایط چین مجبور می شود این کشور را ترک کند، شرح می دهد...
چاپ اول این کتاب در سال چهل و شش و ویرایش دوم در سال نود و سه انجام شده است و هر چند خالی از اشکالات ویراستاری نیست، اما خواندن چنین کتابی که در پنجاه شصت سال پیش ترجمه و چاپ شده است و از ویرایش دومش هم شش سال می گذرد، حس خوب و بامزه ای دارد...
این اولین کتاب از برنامه پرل باک خوانی ام در سال نود و هشت است.
چاپ اول این کتاب در سال چهل و شش و ویرایش دوم در سال نود و سه انجام شده است و هر چند خالی از اشکالات ویراستاری نیست، اما خواندن چنین کتابی که در پنجاه شصت سال پیش ترجمه و چاپ شده است و از ویرایش دومش هم شش سال می گذرد، حس خوب و بامزه ای دارد...
این اولین کتاب از برنامه پرل باک خوانی ام در سال نود و هشت است.
Read
December 11, 20223.3 stars
خانم پرل باک نویسنده این اثر و برنده جایزه پولیتزر در ۱۹۳۲ و جایزه نوبل ادبیات در ۱۹۳۸ در این اثر میخواهد فاصله عمیق بین جامعه کمونیستی چین و لیبرال آمریکا را که در دهه ۵۰ موجب پیشداوری هایی در مورد مردم چین از طرف مردم آمریکا بود را کمتر کند و به نوعی میخواهد دو ملت را به هم نزدیک کند علی رغم مسائل سیاسی ، حاکمیتی و ایدئولوژیکی
نویسنده با بهره گیری از عنصر روابط انسانی و عشق که عموما نویسندگان خانم در بیان و شرح آن مهارت دارند، می خواهد مرز های سیاسی را به واسطه نیروی مبهم و جاودانه عشق کم رنگ کند
شرح عشقی غزل گونه از نوع عشق در یک نگاه یک دختر آمریکایی به پسری دورگه که نیمی امریکایی و نیمی چینی است
نویسنده در بخش های متعددی از کتاب به بیان ویژگی های برجسته و مطلوب مردم چین می پردازد تا بتواند آنها را در چشم مردم مغرب زمین از نوع نگاه سیاسی حاکمانشان که به انها القاء شده است، تبرئه کند
در این اثر آنچنانکه که گفتم، عشق ابزاری برای نزدیک شدن انسانها فارغ از توجهات سیاسی حاکمان است حاکمانی که چه در دنیای غرب( در گدشته) و چه در دنیای شرق تمایل به همسان سازی دارند چرا که برای آنها اتحاد و همبستگی ایجاد میکند، اتحادی که ثمره آن پایداری حکومت هاست ولی نویسنده به عنوان یک دختر غربی که نمی خواهد توجهی به مانیفست سیاسی حاکمان داشته باشد، به عشفی شعر گونه همسر دورگه آمریکایی- چینی خود را می پرستد و ستایش می کند و از این رهگذر است که انسانها فارغ از مقولات مذهبی و سیاسی با یکدیگر پیوندی عمیق و جاودانه می خورند
خانم پرل باک نویسنده این اثر و برنده جایزه پولیتزر در ۱۹۳۲ و جایزه نوبل ادبیات در ۱۹۳۸ در این اثر میخواهد فاصله عمیق بین جامعه کمونیستی چین و لیبرال آمریکا را که در دهه ۵۰ موجب پیشداوری هایی در مورد مردم چین از طرف مردم آمریکا بود را کمتر کند و به نوعی میخواهد دو ملت را به هم نزدیک کند علی رغم مسائل سیاسی ، حاکمیتی و ایدئولوژیکی
نویسنده با بهره گیری از عنصر روابط انسانی و عشق که عموما نویسندگان خانم در بیان و شرح آن مهارت دارند، می خواهد مرز های سیاسی را به واسطه نیروی مبهم و جاودانه عشق کم رنگ کند
شرح عشقی غزل گونه از نوع عشق در یک نگاه یک دختر آمریکایی به پسری دورگه که نیمی امریکایی و نیمی چینی است
نویسنده در بخش های متعددی از کتاب به بیان ویژگی های برجسته و مطلوب مردم چین می پردازد تا بتواند آنها را در چشم مردم مغرب زمین از نوع نگاه سیاسی حاکمانشان که به انها القاء شده است، تبرئه کند
در این اثر آنچنانکه که گفتم، عشق ابزاری برای نزدیک شدن انسانها فارغ از توجهات سیاسی حاکمان است حاکمانی که چه در دنیای غرب( در گدشته) و چه در دنیای شرق تمایل به همسان سازی دارند چرا که برای آنها اتحاد و همبستگی ایجاد میکند، اتحادی که ثمره آن پایداری حکومت هاست ولی نویسنده به عنوان یک دختر غربی که نمی خواهد توجهی به مانیفست سیاسی حاکمان داشته باشد، به عشفی شعر گونه همسر دورگه آمریکایی- چینی خود را می پرستد و ستایش می کند و از این رهگذر است که انسانها فارغ از مقولات مذهبی و سیاسی با یکدیگر پیوندی عمیق و جاودانه می خورند
August 5, 2021
Letter from Peking is written from the perspective of a young American woman, Elizabeth, who has moved back to Vermont from China with her son Rennie. Her half Chinese, half American husband, Gerald, has chosen to stay in China, even under Communist rule, and from the letters he sends her, two things become increasingly clear. First, that he has come to value his country over her, and second, that they will likely never meet again. The story takes place when one day, Elizabeth receives what appears to be the last letter her husband will ever write for her again.
I thought that I loved Elizabeth's descriptions and dialogues and just overall as a character, it was really easy to sympathize with her and understand the situation that she's in. By the end of the book, though what happens to Garold is tragic, in a way, it feels like Elizabeth has also attained more freedom for herself and she's able to move on without any lingering feelings. I also genuinely loved how the book tackles this clash between cultures especially with Rennie's part of the book where his love for Allegra is rejected because part of him is Chinese even though it has nothing to do with his love.
Overall, I thought that this was a short, heartwarming read and I would recommend it to anyone who takes an interest in it.
I thought that I loved Elizabeth's descriptions and dialogues and just overall as a character, it was really easy to sympathize with her and understand the situation that she's in. By the end of the book, though what happens to Garold is tragic, in a way, it feels like Elizabeth has also attained more freedom for herself and she's able to move on without any lingering feelings. I also genuinely loved how the book tackles this clash between cultures especially with Rennie's part of the book where his love for Allegra is rejected because part of him is Chinese even though it has nothing to do with his love.
Overall, I thought that this was a short, heartwarming read and I would recommend it to anyone who takes an interest in it.
February 10, 2016
From the very first pages, I fell in love with book and the writer both. And to be fair my Persian edition translated by Bahman Farzaneh has a significant role in this good sense. Also the writing method that was daily memoir which later I noticed it has so many resemblances with Mrs. Buck's life. Reading the others' daily memoir with the writer's permission is very sweet and pleasant.
January 9, 2023
A book I didn't expect from this author; but I admit I knew her only for her The Good Earth.
Where that one is mostly a "political" book, describing the life in China before and after Mao's Revolution, this one, definitly shorter, is mainly on relationships: mother and daughter, husband and wife, mother and son, all centered in the main character, the "narrating I".
I've liked it, even if I have to say I've found it a bit too...absolute. The love descrived I think almost unreal, and from someone knowing life as she seemd to in her omst famous work I had not expected such..."flatness".
My mother was a pretty woman, slender as long as she lived, and she lived years after my father died. But she was rigid in mind and body. She demanded fences and gates and she seldom went beyond them. When I told her I wanted to marry Gerald MacLeod she was not pleased. She had not enjoyed marriage, in spite of loving my father, and she did not want me to marry.
I can see no further than the gate to the dooryard. My father put up the fence for my mother who, Boston reared, could not bear the frightening distances she saw from the windows of this house, the mountains rolling away.
“I must live behind a gate,” she told my father, “else how do I know where I belong?”
“These Vermont winters will be the death of me,” she always said, and, in the end, it was true. She was winter-killed, but part of it was the winter she carried in her own soul, wherever she was.
Rennie did not answer. Instead, rather ostentatiously, he lit a cigarette. I know that he smokes, and he knows that I know, but it is the first time he has done so before me.
“Give me one, will you?” I said.
He looked surprised enough to amuse me and held out the pack. “I didn’t know you smoked,” he said and lit my cigarette.
“I don’t.” I retorted. “But you seem to enjoy it, and why not I?”
He was embarrassed and I fear the pleasure went out of his cigarette. Perhaps it is necessary for the young to have something to defy. I suspect they hate this modern permissiveness. There is nothing in it to set their teeth against.
She is a woman, however small her heart, and it is wrong for her to be unhappy. I am for women even against my son. I had not thought of it so before. Deeper than motherhood is womanhood.
“Would that we could pray in this fashion and believe!”
“It is not that we cannot believe,” he replied. “It is that we do not want anything enough. Faith rises from necessity. We have no necessity.”
It was no longer what I wished to give but what he would accept. He had gone away once and so, now and forever, it would be easy to go again. He had learned to live without me and without his home.
Where that one is mostly a "political" book, describing the life in China before and after Mao's Revolution, this one, definitly shorter, is mainly on relationships: mother and daughter, husband and wife, mother and son, all centered in the main character, the "narrating I".
I've liked it, even if I have to say I've found it a bit too...absolute. The love descrived I think almost unreal, and from someone knowing life as she seemd to in her omst famous work I had not expected such..."flatness".
My mother was a pretty woman, slender as long as she lived, and she lived years after my father died. But she was rigid in mind and body. She demanded fences and gates and she seldom went beyond them. When I told her I wanted to marry Gerald MacLeod she was not pleased. She had not enjoyed marriage, in spite of loving my father, and she did not want me to marry.
I can see no further than the gate to the dooryard. My father put up the fence for my mother who, Boston reared, could not bear the frightening distances she saw from the windows of this house, the mountains rolling away.
“I must live behind a gate,” she told my father, “else how do I know where I belong?”
“These Vermont winters will be the death of me,” she always said, and, in the end, it was true. She was winter-killed, but part of it was the winter she carried in her own soul, wherever she was.
Rennie did not answer. Instead, rather ostentatiously, he lit a cigarette. I know that he smokes, and he knows that I know, but it is the first time he has done so before me.
“Give me one, will you?” I said.
He looked surprised enough to amuse me and held out the pack. “I didn’t know you smoked,” he said and lit my cigarette.
“I don’t.” I retorted. “But you seem to enjoy it, and why not I?”
He was embarrassed and I fear the pleasure went out of his cigarette. Perhaps it is necessary for the young to have something to defy. I suspect they hate this modern permissiveness. There is nothing in it to set their teeth against.
She is a woman, however small her heart, and it is wrong for her to be unhappy. I am for women even against my son. I had not thought of it so before. Deeper than motherhood is womanhood.
“Would that we could pray in this fashion and believe!”
“It is not that we cannot believe,” he replied. “It is that we do not want anything enough. Faith rises from necessity. We have no necessity.”
It was no longer what I wished to give but what he would accept. He had gone away once and so, now and forever, it would be easy to go again. He had learned to live without me and without his home.
January 19, 2022
از ایده کلی کتاب خوشم آمد، مگرنه ۲ ستاره هم زیاد بود.
داستان از هدفی که در ابتدای کتاب هست کاملا به بیراهه می رود. پایان کتاب نوعی نقض کل هدف داستان است.
+ من تنها چیزی که خوشم آمد تعریفی بود که از عشق حقیقی بیان می شد، یا همان «گنجایش بیش از یک فنجان »
داستان از هدفی که در ابتدای کتاب هست کاملا به بیراهه می رود. پایان کتاب نوعی نقض کل هدف داستان است.
+ من تنها چیزی که خوشم آمد تعریفی بود که از عشق حقیقی بیان می شد، یا همان «گنجایش بیش از یک فنجان »
June 9, 2009
Inspired by my recent trip to China, I read my first Pearl S. Buck book. This is a wonderful story about love, and family, and country. A married couple who are very much in love are torn apart by politics & duty when the husband, who is 1/2 Chinese, decides to stay in newly Communist China, while the wife, who is American, flees back to America with their son. She builds a new life in Vermont, dealing with loneliness, waiting for his letters...until the last one arrives. Their son grows up and wrestles with his identity, feeling he must choose between his mother and his father, America and China. Flashbacks of the couple's romance and time living in Peking are woven through the story. I loved the comparisons of Peking to the countryside of Vermont. Very moving story.
February 25, 2012
I found this 1950's paperback among my Gran's things after she died and it looked so trashy that I read it for a laugh. As soon as I got into it though, I realised it was a bit special. I was wholly ignorant of the fact that Pearl S Buck is a literary superstar who won a Nobel prize! The book is evocative of China and focuses on a woman's relationship with her seventeen year old son and the father of her husband. The husband is forbidden to leave China and the son and grandfather are the only links she has to them. It's a slow, sad book and would make an excellent movie, no doubt with Julianne Moore playing the lead!
August 11, 2015
I just can't say enough about how much I admire this little lady. Read it on the Kindle and there was an amazing quote or deep thought on every single page. She is just so full of wisdom and insight it just ain't fair. The only reason it didn't get 5 stars is I found it a bit comical that every man that came to the door fell in love with her and proposed marriage and she kept talking about how plain and boring she was. I loved how my Kindle version had pictures of her in the back and lots of photos. Pearl you are a gem!
July 6, 2015
ترجمه : بهمن فرزانه
نشر اميركبير
كتابي بسيار شيرين كه ذهن را آرام ميكند و زندگي را روان شرح ميدهد
نشر اميركبير
كتابي بسيار شيرين كه ذهن را آرام ميكند و زندگي را روان شرح ميدهد
April 19, 2016
a quiet, lovely and romantic story of longing
April 8, 2020
Heart wrenching tale of romance
June 5, 2021
به نظرم خیلی معمولی بود
September 26, 2021
Trata sobre la historia de una mujer Estadounidense llamada Isabel que está casada con un hombre llamado Gerard quien es mitad Chino mitad Estadounidense, los cuales tuvieron un hijo llamado Rennie. Ellos viven en Pekín hasta que el país deja de ser seguro para Isaben y Rennie, se nos muestra como es su vida separada de su esposo, la congoja y el amor incondicional que le tiene, sin importarle las diferencias culturales y esperando que puedan volver a reencontrarse.
Es un libro que en el principio es un poco lento, solo tienes las ganas de saber que dice la carta, pero no sé sabe hasta bien entrado el libro, lo bueno es que nos muestran más cartas dónde puedes entender que está pasando. Se nos muestra la fortaleza de esta mujer y que, a pesar de todo lo malo y tristeza que ha vivido, no se muestra mezquina. Tiene un desarrollo del final acorde a todo lo relatado y es bastante emocional.
Totalmente recomendado.
Es un libro que en el principio es un poco lento, solo tienes las ganas de saber que dice la carta, pero no sé sabe hasta bien entrado el libro, lo bueno es que nos muestran más cartas dónde puedes entender que está pasando. Se nos muestra la fortaleza de esta mujer y que, a pesar de todo lo malo y tristeza que ha vivido, no se muestra mezquina. Tiene un desarrollo del final acorde a todo lo relatado y es bastante emocional.
Totalmente recomendado.
August 27, 2021
This amazing fiction was my English language textbook for B.Com first year. I was a good reader of fictions that time but never touched this book. Our English lecturer used to ask me questions from this book and I always stood up staring at him. 🤨.
He fed up with my attitude and started avoided me. One day I had nothing to read so I took this book and started reading and couldn't stop. It was an amazing feeling and read it from cover to cover in one sitting.
Now I started reading it again in Kindle app.
He fed up with my attitude and started avoided me. One day I had nothing to read so I took this book and started reading and couldn't stop. It was an amazing feeling and read it from cover to cover in one sitting.
Now I started reading it again in Kindle app.
May 22, 2021
Being one among the few who could marry their first love; Elizabeth and Gerald could not make up to the end. The story was beautifully written in the style of a diary were Ms. Elizabeth dealt with a series of events happened in her family. This story is a combination of American and Chinese combined in an appropriate amount of beauty, envy, desire, citizenship.
March 25, 2023
This was another of my mother's books that I found. I decided to read it because the cover stated that this was one of Pearl Buck's greatest novels, and I agree. Set in Vermont, the novel's suspense is focused on this letter from Peking. However, it was the series of letters that show the crippling effects of communism on China. Such a bitter sweet novel with a hopeful ending.
Read
April 17, 2023خیلی پیچیدگی نداره و کافیه یه ذره ازش پیش بری کل داستان دستت میاد . گره و اوج و قوت و موندگاری نه خبری نیست.
فقط ترجمه مثل همیشه خوب جناب فرزانه که جوریه انگار اصل کتاب فارسیه.
فقط ترجمه مثل همیشه خوب جناب فرزانه که جوریه انگار اصل کتاب فارسیه.
May 9, 2019
A very beautifully written book. I found it interesting but sad reading of the Chinese culture. The way she wrote about her home in Vermont, made you feel you were right there.
March 19, 2024
Libro su un amore, sull'amore tra madre e figlio, tra oriente e occidente; amore per due terre ancora oggi, a più di 50 anni dalla pubblicazione del libro, apparentemente incompatibili
«Ah, se potessimo pregare in questo modo e credere!»
«Non è che non possiamo credere» rispose. «È che non desideriamo in misura sufficiente nessuna cosa. La fede scaturisce dalla necessità. Noi non abbiamo alcuna necessità.»
«Ah, se potessimo pregare in questo modo e credere!»
«Non è che non possiamo credere» rispose. «È che non desideriamo in misura sufficiente nessuna cosa. La fede scaturisce dalla necessità. Noi non abbiamo alcuna necessità.»
December 13, 2025
Un diario personal sobre una historia de amor separada por el comunismo chino y diferentes culturas. El diario es muy tranquilo y lento sin embargo el final me ha conmovido ya que ha sido muy profundo y sentimental.
March 1, 2021
An American woman returns from China with her son after the revolution takes a turn and her Chinese husband thinks it best she take the child to her home. Upon returning to her lovely Vermont home, she learns to cope with the absence of her much beloved husband.
This story is a meditation on love, life, family, and movements from present, past, and future. Deeply internal, as is much of the monologue.
This story is a meditation on love, life, family, and movements from present, past, and future. Deeply internal, as is much of the monologue.
July 28, 2016
Inhoud:
De elfde brief is bijna het einde. 'Mijn innig geliefde, het is beter voor ons als we niet aan de dag van weerzien denken. Het is beter als we ons leven leven zoals het komt, jij aan jouw zijde van de wereld, ik aan de mijne. Laat Rennie een Amerikaans burger worden. Help hem een eigen vaderland te vinden. Als hij mij vergeet, laat het dan zo zijn.'
Het is duidelijk wat er is gebeurd. De stad, die hij verkoos, is zijn cel geworden. hij is niet langer vrij. En ik ben niet vrij omdat ik van hem houd. Zolang als hij leeft, zal ik niet vrij zijn. Laat ik blij zijn, dat hij tenminste een vrouw naast zich heeft. Al ben ik het dan niet, hij heeft iemand bij zich. Dus waarom huil ik eigenlijk? En ik ga door met huilen.
---
Waardering:
Drie sterren omdat het verhaal duidelijk het verschil tussen twee culturen vertelt. Het verhaal is duidelijk geschreven. Er blijven wel vragen achter die niet altijd beantwoord worden. In het boek zijn ook flashbacks verwerkt, maar deze zijn niet vervelend voor het verhaal. Het verhaal is dus wel heel duidelijk.
Het lijkt alsof Buck het verhaal uit eigen ervaring vertelt.
---
Over Pearl S. Buck. Geboren in 1892 in Hillsboro als Pearl Sydenstricker. Haar ouders waren missionarissen in China en naar haar geboorte gingen ze weer terug. Buck groeit op tussen de Chinesen en leert daar hun cultuur en gewoontes. Haar moeder gaf haar de Amerikaanse gewoontes mee. Buck kreeg thuisscholing en moest al vroeg opstels schrijven. Haar eerste publicatie was op 6 jarige leeftijd voor het weekblad Shanghai Mercury children's edition. Ze leerde cufuciaans, De Chinese geschiedenis en Chinees in schrift en taal. In 1910 gaat Pearl terug naar de Verenigde Staten om daar aan Randolph Macon Woman College te gaan studeren. Ze haalt haar graag in filosofie en gaat lesgeven. Ze stopt daar vrij snel weer mee om naar China terug te gaan om voor haar zieke moeder te zorgen. In 1917 trouwt ze met John Lossing Buck en woont samen met hem de eerste vijf jaar van hun huwelijk in het noorden van China. De herinneringen aan die tijd zijn de basis voor haar bestseller "The Good Earth", waarmee zij in 1932 de Pulitzer Prijs wint. In 1920 wordt Carol geboren, hun enige biologische kind. Buck heeft al snel door dat haar dochter ziek is, maar wordt hierin niet gesteund door de doktoren en haar man. In de VS terug heeft ze intensief contact met Richard Walsh die in haar geloofde en haar boeken onder de aandacht bracht van de uitgeverij waar hij werkte. Hun contact wordt zo intiem dat Pearl in 1935 gaat scheiden van Buck en trouwt met Walsh. Ze gebruikt nog wel de naam van John Buck, omdat dat haar bekendheid gaf. In 1938 krijgt Pearl S. Buck de Nobelprijs voor de Literatuur en is daarmee de eerste vrouw die zowel de Pulitzer als de Nobelprijs wint. In 1973 overlijdt ze aan longkanker.
Meer informatie over Pearl S. Buck en haar nalatenschap is te vinden op de onderstaande sites.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
http://www.psbi.org/page.aspx?pid=369
http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects...
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0118406/bi...
---
Boekinformatie:
De Geïllustreerde Pers
Letter from Peking
188 pagina's; pocket editie
De elfde brief is bijna het einde. 'Mijn innig geliefde, het is beter voor ons als we niet aan de dag van weerzien denken. Het is beter als we ons leven leven zoals het komt, jij aan jouw zijde van de wereld, ik aan de mijne. Laat Rennie een Amerikaans burger worden. Help hem een eigen vaderland te vinden. Als hij mij vergeet, laat het dan zo zijn.'
Het is duidelijk wat er is gebeurd. De stad, die hij verkoos, is zijn cel geworden. hij is niet langer vrij. En ik ben niet vrij omdat ik van hem houd. Zolang als hij leeft, zal ik niet vrij zijn. Laat ik blij zijn, dat hij tenminste een vrouw naast zich heeft. Al ben ik het dan niet, hij heeft iemand bij zich. Dus waarom huil ik eigenlijk? En ik ga door met huilen.
---
Waardering:
Drie sterren omdat het verhaal duidelijk het verschil tussen twee culturen vertelt. Het verhaal is duidelijk geschreven. Er blijven wel vragen achter die niet altijd beantwoord worden. In het boek zijn ook flashbacks verwerkt, maar deze zijn niet vervelend voor het verhaal. Het verhaal is dus wel heel duidelijk.
Het lijkt alsof Buck het verhaal uit eigen ervaring vertelt.
---
Over Pearl S. Buck. Geboren in 1892 in Hillsboro als Pearl Sydenstricker. Haar ouders waren missionarissen in China en naar haar geboorte gingen ze weer terug. Buck groeit op tussen de Chinesen en leert daar hun cultuur en gewoontes. Haar moeder gaf haar de Amerikaanse gewoontes mee. Buck kreeg thuisscholing en moest al vroeg opstels schrijven. Haar eerste publicatie was op 6 jarige leeftijd voor het weekblad Shanghai Mercury children's edition. Ze leerde cufuciaans, De Chinese geschiedenis en Chinees in schrift en taal. In 1910 gaat Pearl terug naar de Verenigde Staten om daar aan Randolph Macon Woman College te gaan studeren. Ze haalt haar graag in filosofie en gaat lesgeven. Ze stopt daar vrij snel weer mee om naar China terug te gaan om voor haar zieke moeder te zorgen. In 1917 trouwt ze met John Lossing Buck en woont samen met hem de eerste vijf jaar van hun huwelijk in het noorden van China. De herinneringen aan die tijd zijn de basis voor haar bestseller "The Good Earth", waarmee zij in 1932 de Pulitzer Prijs wint. In 1920 wordt Carol geboren, hun enige biologische kind. Buck heeft al snel door dat haar dochter ziek is, maar wordt hierin niet gesteund door de doktoren en haar man. In de VS terug heeft ze intensief contact met Richard Walsh die in haar geloofde en haar boeken onder de aandacht bracht van de uitgeverij waar hij werkte. Hun contact wordt zo intiem dat Pearl in 1935 gaat scheiden van Buck en trouwt met Walsh. Ze gebruikt nog wel de naam van John Buck, omdat dat haar bekendheid gaf. In 1938 krijgt Pearl S. Buck de Nobelprijs voor de Literatuur en is daarmee de eerste vrouw die zowel de Pulitzer als de Nobelprijs wint. In 1973 overlijdt ze aan longkanker.
Meer informatie over Pearl S. Buck en haar nalatenschap is te vinden op de onderstaande sites.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
http://www.psbi.org/page.aspx?pid=369
http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects...
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0118406/bi...
---
Boekinformatie:
De Geïllustreerde Pers
Letter from Peking
188 pagina's; pocket editie
Displaying 1 - 30 of 150 reviews