All Men are Brothers.: [Shui Hu Zhuan] Translated from the Chinese...

London: Methuen & Co. Ltd,, 1933. In the time of Five Kingdoms confusion reigned high... First UK edition, first impression, of the first full translation into English of one of the most widely read novels in any language, here finely bound by the Chelsea Bindery. The product of five years of scholarship, Buck's translation was first published in the US in 1933 in two volumes, with the present edition following just a few months later. All Men are Brothers tells of 108 heroic outlaws, led by Song Jiang, who establish a fellowship on the Liangshan mountain in Shandong and relentlessly uphold values of kinship and virtue in a world dominated by corruption and evil-doers. The novel provides "a vast social panorama, whose characters include nearly all the types and occupations of China. Priests and courtesans march across the pages, along with merchants, scholars, tavern keepers, politicians and minor officials, farmers, fishermen, slaves, aristocrats, and children. There is even a succession of mythical animals. At the center of the action is the robber band, enforcing rough justice in a bad world" (Conn, p. 137). Octavo. Finely bound by the Chelsea Bindery in black morocco, spine lettered in black on red label within two raised bands, front cover blocked with red vignette of Lin Chong, turn-ins double-ruled in red, red endpapers, edges gilt. With lithographed frontispiece after an illustration from a Chinese edition of the text; vignettes in text. A fine copy. Peter Conn, Pearl Buck: a Cultural Biography, 1998.