'The Good Earth' by Pearl S. Buck

The main character of the novel 'The Good Earth' is Wang Lung, a poor peasant farmer. He marries a slave. And after that he gradually rises from being a poor, humble farmer to being a wealthy, landowner. Having support of his faithful wife he multiplied his wealth. His faith in the capacity of the good earth.

The novel begins with the lines:

"It was Wang Lung's marriage day. At first, opening his eyes in the blackness of the curtains about his bed, he could not think why the dawn seemed different from any other. The house was still except for the faint, gasping cough of his old father, whose room was opposite to his own across the middle room. Every morning the old man's cough was the first sound to be heard. Wang Lung usually lay listening to it and moved only when he heard it approaching nearer and when he heard the door of his father's room squeak upon its wooden hinges."