WORLD'S LONGEST NOVEL

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 145, 16 December 1933, Page 22

WORLD'S LONGEST NOVEL

' The longest and . one of. the oldest novels in the world is about to-be published in a translation by Mrs. Pearl Buck, who rose to instant fame two or three years ago with the publication of her book "The Good Earthi" Called in English, "All Men are Brothers," it date's from the thirteenth century/ since when it has been read by millions of Chinese. Russia, where, after being forbidden for several years, "Robinson Crusoe" and "Gulliver's Tray els" afe now being pushed into young Pleaders' hands, is not the only country that can change its mind about books. "All Men are Brothers" has had a romantic career. In 1799 it was banned by an imperial mandate of the Ch'ing Dynasty. The punishment for buying a copy and reading it was loas of a year's pay. Today the most extreme party in China has issued an edition of the book, with a preface by a leading Communist who describes it as " the first Communist literature of China." Mrs. Pearl Buck topk four years to translate "All Men are Brothers," and the work shows in yet another way her intimate sympathy with the human atmosphere and real character of Chinese culture. Her method, of tran> lation is interesting. "First I, re-read the entire"book carefully alone.« Then Air. Lung (Mrs. Buck's Chinese collaborator) read it aloud to me while I translated as accurately as I could, sentence by sentence, but at tthe same time I kept my own copy of the original open beside me for reference. Then Mr. Lung and I went over the entire book again comparing the translation word for word with, the original."