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The Long Love
Vintage paperback
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1949
8 people are currently reading
193 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.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 9, 2019
This book could have been nothing more than a good Harlequin Romance, except that in the hands of Pearl S. Buck it becomes more, much more. The story of a lifelong love and the transformation that loves makes at different times. Well written, excellent.
April 2, 2017
Za neke bi bila dosadna zbog manjka akcije, ali meni je baš trebalo nešto lagano, bez suviše drame, a sa određenom dozom pozitivizma. Eh, ova knjiga je baš to bila. Svidio mi se način opisivanja osjećaja prema jednoj ženi i općenito braku sa stajališta jednog muškarca. Sve će žene zasigurno osvojiti ovaj muškarac koji, zbog pretjerane ljubavi prema svojoj supruzi, nikad nije osjećao potrebu da pogleda neku drugu ženu.
February 16, 2014
This book is one of the few that I can reread over again and take something new from it each time. I first read it when I started dating my husband and it described the love and loyalty of relationships so beautifully that I reread it when I lose sight of what really matters and the profound beauty of long term love. Buck is such a fantastic writer that she draws me in every time.
June 23, 2010
A look at the married life of a New England white couple of the early 1900's in four chapters. Each chapter takes a look at a different time in their marriage. The first chapter is their engagement/marriage. The second chapter looks at their lives with young children. The third chapter looks at their lives as their children are ready to marry and grow up. The fourth portrays marriage with an empty nest. It is a realistic book about love and marriage. I would compare it to Joy in the Morning which was also about a white couple in the early 1900's except that "Joy" only covered the engagement/marriage phase of love and the couple came from a lower class of white people. There is discreet and modest mention of sex and sexual tensions common to marriage. I wonder if the portrait of a once common marriage painted by Ms Buck is now rare. I think that what she wrote is valuable to those who believe in marriage or want to believe in a healthy marriage. The kind of marriage portrayed in the book is possible and does still exist among those of us who want it. The Chinese wish a married couple the happiness symbolized by a pair of ducks. A healthy marriage happens as two different people begin to swim together and find happiness in what they share instead of asserting their differences. This book shows that as a process of time.
April 8, 2014
I love these old books that have withstood the test of time. This is all about relationships and how we come into them with plans and dreams and how we evolve through life, adapting as we go along, until what we end up with only vaguely resembles what we planned for and dreamt about, but in reality is much better.
October 26, 2009
Childhood read; this was my first inkling of the complexity of marriage.
July 12, 2014
I only keep books in my collection that I have read and found valuable. I have had this book for many years and even had the cover plasticized to preserve it. It wasn't until I added it to goodreads, that I realized that this writer is actually the great Pearl Buck. No wonder I thought it a great book.
February 11, 2019
Excellent illustration of a man and wife and family through the years with a bit of an abrupt ending. I believe accurately portrayed especially of the times. Medium difficult to read, not hard but a little slow at times.
May 25, 2025
Background: The Red Shirt Problem
Regular viewers of the original Star Trek TV series noticed a pattern: Whenever the ship’s officers descended to a new planet, in the company of enlisted men wearing red shirts, those in red shirts often died on the mission.
Romantic fiction exhibits a similar pattern. If a book or movie begins with a happy coupling, we count the minutes until something—more often someone—destroys it. One example is William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, in which the lovers meet-cute on a Sunday evening, then everything goes straight to hell. By sundown Thursday both are dead, along with four other principal characters. It wasn’t enough that the relationship didn’t work out, everyone had to die before Friday.
The implication: If a couple stays together, if they remain happy and satisfied with each other, no drama is possible. Happy couples are boring. Right or wrong, this conclusion severely limits the kinds of stories we tell, to loves that suffer terrible damage or succumb to it. That repetition itself becomes tedious. I, for one, wanted to read about people who stayed together, without undue mayhem. Where were their stories?
Pearl S. Buck to the rescue
“John Sedges” is a pen name for a female author, Pearl S. Buck. She blew me away from the beginning, by getting inside the heart of our hero, Edward Haslatt, and caring about his feelings. This is unusual, both in literature and in life. Our Ned is a sensitive guy. He knows it, he hates being this way, and he dreads the power his darling Margaret wields over him.
He trembled at the power she had over him. Her lips, thus fastened to his, made his blood fire and his limbs were melted. He struggled against such giving up of himself. Somewhere in him, if he was to remain master of his life, there must be a place where he stood alone to survey all that he had, even her.
Margaret also sees the situation clearly, as they prepare to marry. She tells Ned straight away he’ll need to toughen up, if he wants to live with her. She won’t tiptoe around him.
“I don’t want to be married the way other people are. I want it to be splendid—fun, you know, and strong enough for us to fly at each other when we feel like it, and say what we really think, and yet know that nothing can separate us, not even moments of hate. I’m not a careful person, Ned. I don’t want to have to stop and think whether something is going to hurt your feelings. I’ll get tired of that. Everything’s got to be straight and strong and clear . . .”
He had not imagined such an impasse as this—Margaret willing to marry him if she could be sure he was strong enough! He knew what she meant. With her extraordinary intelligence she had penetrated his weakness, the ease with which he could be wounded—his feelings hurt, as his mother put it.
Ned and Margaret settle down and stay settled. Ned builds a successful business; money is never a problem. They get through other difficulties. On their wedding anniversary, many years later, Ned proves he was fit for the job, all along.
“We’ve only begun to be married,” he declared suddenly. “It’s taken us all these years to get going—earning a living, raising children—now let’s just be married, will you, sweetheart?”
Brava to Pearl, for giving us a couple who succeed, build a life and renew their love. This is not unrealistic in life, it happens all the time. It’s just unusual in literature.
Regular viewers of the original Star Trek TV series noticed a pattern: Whenever the ship’s officers descended to a new planet, in the company of enlisted men wearing red shirts, those in red shirts often died on the mission.
Romantic fiction exhibits a similar pattern. If a book or movie begins with a happy coupling, we count the minutes until something—more often someone—destroys it. One example is William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, in which the lovers meet-cute on a Sunday evening, then everything goes straight to hell. By sundown Thursday both are dead, along with four other principal characters. It wasn’t enough that the relationship didn’t work out, everyone had to die before Friday.
The implication: If a couple stays together, if they remain happy and satisfied with each other, no drama is possible. Happy couples are boring. Right or wrong, this conclusion severely limits the kinds of stories we tell, to loves that suffer terrible damage or succumb to it. That repetition itself becomes tedious. I, for one, wanted to read about people who stayed together, without undue mayhem. Where were their stories?
Pearl S. Buck to the rescue
“John Sedges” is a pen name for a female author, Pearl S. Buck. She blew me away from the beginning, by getting inside the heart of our hero, Edward Haslatt, and caring about his feelings. This is unusual, both in literature and in life. Our Ned is a sensitive guy. He knows it, he hates being this way, and he dreads the power his darling Margaret wields over him.
He trembled at the power she had over him. Her lips, thus fastened to his, made his blood fire and his limbs were melted. He struggled against such giving up of himself. Somewhere in him, if he was to remain master of his life, there must be a place where he stood alone to survey all that he had, even her.
Margaret also sees the situation clearly, as they prepare to marry. She tells Ned straight away he’ll need to toughen up, if he wants to live with her. She won’t tiptoe around him.
“I don’t want to be married the way other people are. I want it to be splendid—fun, you know, and strong enough for us to fly at each other when we feel like it, and say what we really think, and yet know that nothing can separate us, not even moments of hate. I’m not a careful person, Ned. I don’t want to have to stop and think whether something is going to hurt your feelings. I’ll get tired of that. Everything’s got to be straight and strong and clear . . .”
He had not imagined such an impasse as this—Margaret willing to marry him if she could be sure he was strong enough! He knew what she meant. With her extraordinary intelligence she had penetrated his weakness, the ease with which he could be wounded—his feelings hurt, as his mother put it.
Ned and Margaret settle down and stay settled. Ned builds a successful business; money is never a problem. They get through other difficulties. On their wedding anniversary, many years later, Ned proves he was fit for the job, all along.
“We’ve only begun to be married,” he declared suddenly. “It’s taken us all these years to get going—earning a living, raising children—now let’s just be married, will you, sweetheart?”
Brava to Pearl, for giving us a couple who succeed, build a life and renew their love. This is not unrealistic in life, it happens all the time. It’s just unusual in literature.
November 26, 2018
Me decidi a leer este libro debido al argumento, pensé que sería una historia de amor moderna pero me llevé tremenda sorpresa en la primera página. A pesar de eso, fue una lectura amena y entretenida inclusive con todos los comentarios y pensamientos machistas ésa época. La autora logra describir los paisajes y personajes con tanta naturalidad, amé su estilo sencillo y directo. El lenguaje empleado también se me hizo sumamente interesante ya que me transportó a esos años.
Mi personaje favorito fue Margaret al principio y luego empezó a perder la chispa aunque se mostrase igual de ingeniosa y adorable que cuando recién se casó. Ned me aburría, siempre tan taciturno y tímido para expresarse, de joven parecía ser más impulsivo (cosa que tampoco fue muy buena).
No sé si el libro me enseñó más sobre el amor. Daba la impresión de que vivían más bien en una prisión y no lo tomaría como ejemplo a seguir para un matrimonio saludable. No tenían otra opción más que seguir juntos. Me dio pena especialmente por las mujeres y niñas. Pero dentro de todo no me arrepiento de leerlo!
Mi personaje favorito fue Margaret al principio y luego empezó a perder la chispa aunque se mostrase igual de ingeniosa y adorable que cuando recién se casó. Ned me aburría, siempre tan taciturno y tímido para expresarse, de joven parecía ser más impulsivo (cosa que tampoco fue muy buena).
No sé si el libro me enseñó más sobre el amor. Daba la impresión de que vivían más bien en una prisión y no lo tomaría como ejemplo a seguir para un matrimonio saludable. No tenían otra opción más que seguir juntos. Me dio pena especialmente por las mujeres y niñas. Pero dentro de todo no me arrepiento de leerlo!
July 9, 2017
Confession: I'm a literature lover and a collector of Pearl S. Buck books, but I've never actually read one through until now. I tried for years to read The Good Earth but never made it past the first chapter. This past spring, I visited her home near Philadelphia, and now I'm delighted that the first book of hers that I've read is The Long Love.
A beautiful, heart-stirring book, "gripping" not in its salacious telling of some true crime story but instead in its faithful rendering of a love through the years, through gains and losses, wars and victories. I'll be re-reading this, I'm sure. And I'll be recommending it often. What a beautiful author, with words and deeds.
A beautiful, heart-stirring book, "gripping" not in its salacious telling of some true crime story but instead in its faithful rendering of a love through the years, through gains and losses, wars and victories. I'll be re-reading this, I'm sure. And I'll be recommending it often. What a beautiful author, with words and deeds.
September 2, 2021
This was part of a triptych that I bought from our library used book sale. I was intrigued because it was written by Pearl Buck under the name of John Sedges. As a child I used to read Pearl Buck short stories when they were published in Good Housekeeping magazine. I also read "The Good Earth". I have to say that sticking with the story took some discipline. There were times I could have sworn that I had read this before....one of the reasons I completed the book was to see how it ended. The ending proved me wrong...it was not one that I had read before. I guess part of the reason I gave it two stars was its being pretty dated and like I said, a rather worn plot.
January 12, 2022
lo muchísimo que los académicos™ han atacado a Pearl S. Buck acusándola de escribir un par de novelas buenas y un montón de novelas rosas que no la hacían merecer el Nobel.... después de leer este libro (escrito bajo pseudónimo) que entraría dentro de esa segunda categoría me pregunto: ¿el problema no será que se ven reflejados en ellas y lo que ven no les gusta?
September 18, 2021
I... guess that ending was satisfying. I didn't really love the characters so I feel a tiny bit cheated at the happy ending HOWEVER the entire series was dynamic and engaging and I loved it.
Translation: Milena Šafarik, published by Rad, Matica srpska in 1973
Translation: Milena Šafarik, published by Rad, Matica srpska in 1973
May 20, 2025
I had a great time with this book. Lovely story about a marriage from the man’s perspective (but written by a woman) So perceptive! I’m happy I read it at this age and it’ll be fun to reread at different stages in life
December 30, 2019
Memorable book, a keeper for reading at every stage of life.
March 30, 2020
The interesting thing about these American books is the bewilderment and awe with which these husbands view their wives. They are really odd little books, but strangely compelling.
December 7, 2021
A love story that starts with a marriage instead of ending with one. Full of Pearl S. Buck's insights on the human condition.
October 28, 2014
Chato, muito chato. Andei meio apaixonada pela Pearl Buck, mas me arrependi de ter escolhido este. Foi difícil terminar, não aguentava mais. É piegão naquele jeito clássico romântico dos anos 50, esse romantismo machista. Apesar de ser a principal personagem, a moça da história não é um personagem feminino bacana. Fiquei procurando por pistas de força feminina escondida, mas não encontrei. Humpf.
May 22, 2014
Can a man put his marriage first when he is also in love with his life work? Written by Pearl Buck under the name of John Sedges.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews