The Soil

by Kwang-su Yi, Sun-Ae Hwang (Translation), Horace Jeffery Hodges (Translation)

A major, never before translated novel by the author of "Muj?ng / The Heartless"--often called the first modern Korean novel--"The Soil" tells the story of an idealist dedicating his life to helping the inhabitants of the rural community in which he was raised. Striving to influence the poor farmers of the time to improve their lots, become self-reliant, and thus indirectly change the reality of colonial life on the Korean peninsula, "The Soil" was vitally important to the social movements of the time, echoing the effects and reception of such English-language novels as Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle."

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Literature, Asian Literature

512 pages, Paperback

First published September 26, 2013

About the author

Yi Kwang-su (Hangul: 이광수) was born in 1892 during the twilight years of the Korean monarchy, which ended in 1910 with the anexation of Korea by Japan. Recognized as one of modern Korea's best novelists, especially for his 1917 novel The Heartless, he died in disfavor in 1950, accused of collaboration with the Japanese.