Most Popular Books by John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck is the author of The Grapes of Wrath (2006), To a God Unknown (2000), The Pearl (1993), Once There Was a War (2007), The Long Valley (2022).

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The Grapes of Wrath

release date: Mar 28, 2006
The Grapes of Wrath
The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized—and sometimes outraged—millions of readers. First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics. This Centennial edition, specially designed to commemorate one hundred years of Steinbeck, features french flaps and deckle-edged pages. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

To a God Unknown

release date: Nov 30, 2000
To a God Unknown
While fulfilling his dead father''s dream of creating a prosperous farm in California, Joseph Wayne comes to believe that a magnificent tree on the farm embodies his father''s spirit. His brothers and their families share in Joseph''s prosperity andthe farm flourishes - until one brother, scared by Joseph''s pagan belief, kills the tree and brings disease and famine on the farm. Set in familiar Steinbeck country, TO A GOD UNKOWN is a mystical tale, exploring one man''s attempt to control theforces of nature and to understand the ways of God.

The Pearl

release date: Feb 01, 1993
The Pearl
“There it lay, the great pearl, perfect as the moon.” Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the gulf beds that once brought great wealth to the Kings of Spain and now provide Kino, Juana, and their infant son with meager subsistence. Then, on a day like any other, Kino emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a sea gull''s egg, as "perfect as the moon." With the pearl comes hope, the promise of comfort and of security.... A story of classic simplicity, based on a Mexican folk tale, The Pearl explores the secrets of man''s nature, the darkest depths of evil, and the luminous possibilities of love.

Once There Was a War

release date: Aug 28, 2007
Once There Was a War
A Penguin Classic “Age can never dull this kind of writing,” writes the Chicago Tribune of John Steinbeck’s dispatches from World War II, filed for the New York Herald Tribune in 1943, which vividly captured the human side of war. Writing from England in the midst of the London blitz, North Africa, and Italy, Steinbeck focuses on the people as opposed to the battles, portraying everyone from the guys in the bomber crew to Bob Hope on his USO tour. He eats and drinks with soldiers behind enemy lines, talks with them, and fights beside them. First published in book form in 1958, these writings, now with a new introduction by Mark Bowden, create an unforgettable portrait of life in wartime that continues to resonate with truth and humanity.

The Long Valley

release date: Jun 07, 2022
The Long Valley
This collection of 12 classic short stories serves as a perfect introduction to John Steinbeck''s work. Set in the Salinas Valley in California, where everyday people farm the land and strive to better themselves, these stories turn on many key themes that Steinbeck explored throughout his career: Included are such classics as The Red Pony, The Murderer, and The Chrysanthemums.

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men
THE STORY: Two drifters, George and his friend Lennie, with delusions of living off the fat of the land, have just arrived at a ranch to work for enough money to buy their own place. Lennie is a man-child, a little boy in the body of a dangerousl

Cannery Row

release date: Oct 05, 2017
Cannery Row
Di Cannery Row, California, Mack dan teman-temannya dianggap sampah masyarakat. Tapi, Doc-seorang ahli maritim-tidak menganggap mereka demikian. Doc selalu berbuat baik kepada mereka, sehingga Mack ingin sekali membalas budi. Namun, ketika niat baik Mack malah berubah menjadi bencana, masihkan Doc bersikap sama terhadap Mack dan yang lainnya? Di dalam premisnya yang sederhana, Cannery Row memiliki kisah memukau tentang kemanusiaan dan kebaikan. John Steinbeck meramu semuanya secara realistis, imajinatif, menggabungkan antara humor, simpati, dan nilai-nilai yang humanis. Berkat kemahirannya itu, John Steinbeck meraih Nobel Sastra di tahun 1962. Inilah karya John Steinbeck yang paling berpengaruh. Bahkan, Ocean View Avenue-tempat yang dijadikan lokasi novel ini-mengubah namanya menjadi Cannery Row sebagai penghormatan untuk buku ini. Dan, ketika diterjemahkan oleh Eka Kurniawan-sastrawan Indonesia pertama yang meraih nominasi di Man Booker Prize International-Cannery Row, tak pelak lagi, menjadi bacaan yang kaya serta penuh makna. Sebab, seperti kotanya sendiri, Cannery Row dipenuhi kebisingan, kebusukan, cahaya, nada, puisi, nostalgia, dan mimpi. [Mizan, Bentang Pustaka, Pengangguran, USA, Indonesia]

Travels with Charley in Search of America

Travels with Charley in Search of America
An intimate journey across America, as told by one of its most beloved writers To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck''s goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years. With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. Along the way he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, the particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and the unexpected kindness of strangers.

America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction

release date: Apr 29, 2003
America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction
A Penguin Classic More than four decades after his death, John Steinbeck remains one of the nation''s most beloved authors. Yet few know of his career as a journalist who covered world events from the Great Depression to Vietnam. Now, this distinctive collection offers a portrait of the artist as citizen, deeply engaged in the world around him. In addition to the complete text of Steinbeck''s last published book, America and Americans, this volume brings together for the first time more than fifty of Steinbeck''s finest essays and journalistic pieces on Salinas, Sag Harbor, Arthur Miller, Woody Guthrie, the Vietnam War and more. This edition is edited by Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw and Steinbeck biographer Jackson J. Benson. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Sweet Thursday

release date: Jul 29, 2008
Sweet Thursday
A Penguin Classic In Monterey, on the California coast, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those days that are just naturally bad. Returning to the scene of Cannery Row—the weedy lots and junk heaps and flophouses of Monterey, John Steinbeck once more brings to life the denizens of a netherworld of laughter and tears—from Doc, based on Steinbeck’s lifelong friend Ed Ricketts, to Fauna, new headmistress of the local brothel, to Hazel, a bum whose mother must have wanted a daughter. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction and notes by Robert DeMott. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

East of Eden

release date: Jul 06, 2017
East of Eden
This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California''s Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks and the Hamiltons--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.

The Winter of Our Discontent

release date: Aug 26, 2008
The Winter of Our Discontent
The final novel of one of America’s most beloved writers—a tale of degeneration, corruption, and spiritual crisis A Penguin Classic In awarding John Steinbeck the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Nobel committee stated that with The Winter of Our Discontent, he had “resumed his position as an independent expounder of the truth, with an unbiased instinct for what is genuinely American.” Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist of Steinbeck’s last novel, works as a clerk in a grocery store that his family once owned. With Ethan no longer a member of Long Island’s aristocratic class, his wife is restless, and his teenage children are hungry for the tantalizing material comforts he cannot provide. Then one day, in a moment of moral crisis, Ethan decides to take a holiday from his own scrupulous standards. Set in Steinbeck’s contemporary 1960 America, the novel explores the tenuous line between private and public honesty, and today ranks alongside his most acclaimed works of penetrating insight into the American condition. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction and notes by leading Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The Moon Is Down

release date: Nov 01, 1995
The Moon Is Down
Occupied by enemy troops, a small, peaceable town comes face-to-face with evil imposed from the outside—and betrayal born within the close-knit community A Penguin Classic In this masterful tale set in Norway during World War II, Steinbeck explores the effects of invasion on both the conquered and the conquerors. As he delves into the emotions of the German commander and the Norwegian traitor, and depicts the spirited patriotism of the Norwegian underground, Steinbeck uncovers profound, often unsettling truths about war—and about human nature. Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck’s self-described “celebration of the durability of democracy” had an extraordinary impact as Allied propaganda in Nazi-occupied Europe. Despite Axis efforts to suppress it (in Fascist Italy, mere possession of the book was punishable by death), The Moon is Down was secretly translated into French, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian and Russian; hundreds of thousands of copies circulated throughout Europe, making it by far the most popular piece of propaganda under the occupation. Few literary works of our time have demonstrated so triumphantly the power of ideas in the face of cold steel and brute force. This edition features an introduction by Donald V. Coers. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

In Dubious Battle

release date: May 30, 2006
In Dubious Battle
A riveting novel of labor strife and apocalyptic violence, now a major motion picture starring James Franco, Bryan Cranston, Selena Gomez, and Zach Braff A Penguin Classic At once a relentlessly fast-paced, admirably observed novel of social unrest and the story of a young man''s struggle for identity, In Dubious Battle is set in the California apple country, where a strike by migrant workers against rapacious landowners spirals out of control, as a principled defiance metamorphoses into blind fanaticism. Caught in the upheaval is Jim Nolan, a once aimless man who find himself in the course of the strike, briefly becomes its leader, and is ultimately crushed in its service. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Steinbeck

release date: Apr 01, 1989
Steinbeck
"Surely his most interesting, plausibly his most memorable, and . . . arguably his best book" —The New York Times Book Review For John Steinbeck, who hated the telephone, letter-writing was a preparation for work and a natural way for him to communicate his thoughts on people he liked and hated; on marriage, women, and children; on the condition of the world; and on his progress in learning his craft. Opening with letters written during Steinbeck''s early years in California, and closing with a 1968 note written in Sag Herbor, New York, Steinbeck: A Life in Letters reveals the inner thoughts and rough character of this American author as nothing else has and as nothing else ever will. "The reader will discover as much about the making of a writer and the creative process, as he will about Steinbeck. And that''s a lot." —Los Angeles Herald-Examiner "A rewarding book of enduring interest, this becomes a major part of the Steinbeck canon." —The Wall Street Journal

The Short Reign of Pippin IV, A Fabrication

release date: Aug 16, 2022
The Short Reign of Pippin IV, A Fabrication
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Short Reign of Pippin IV, A Fabrication" by John Steinbeck. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

The Pastures of Heaven

release date: Apr 01, 1995
The Pastures of Heaven
A Penguin Classic In Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck’s beautifully rendered depictions of small yet fateful moments that transform ordinary lives, these twelve early stories introduce both the subject and style of artistic expression that recur in the most important works of his career. Each of these self-contained stories is linked to the others by the presence of the Munroes, a family whose misguided behavior and lack of sensitivity precipitate disasters and tragedies. As the individual dramas unfold, Steinbeck reveals the self-deceptions, intellectual limitations, and emotional vulnerabilities that shape the characters’ reactions and gradually erode the harmony and dreams that once formed the foundation of the community. This edition includes an introduction and notes by James Nagel. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The Other Side of Eden

release date: May 01, 2010
The Other Side of Eden
The late son of author John Steinbeck, John Steinbeck IV, labored under the burden of being the son of a 20th century legend, yet persevered to become a respected journalist in his own right. Left unfinished by his death, this memoir of John Steinbeck IV is reconstructed by his wife of 12 years, who interweaves her own memories of life with him.

Tortilla Flat

release date: Sep 07, 2000
Tortilla Flat
Steinbeck''s first major critical and commercial success, TORTILLA FLAT is also his funniest novel. Danny is a paisano, descended from the original Spanish settlers who arrived in Monterey, California, centuries before. He values friendship abovemoney and possessions, so that when he suddently inherits two houses, Danny is quick to offer shelter to his fellow gentlemen of the road. Their love of freedom and scorn for material things draw them into daring and often hilarious adventures. Until Danny, tiring of his new reponsibilities, suddenly disappears...

Furore

release date: Sep 18, 2024
Furore
Nuova traduzione integrale di Sergio Claudio Perroni. Pietra miliare della letteratura americana, Furore è un romanzo mitico che nell’odissea della famiglia Joad, sfrattata dalla sua casa e dalla sua terra, in penosa marcia verso la California, lungo la Route 66 come migliaia e migliaia di americani, rivive la trasformazione di un’intera nazione. L’impatto amaro con la terra promessa dove la manodopera è sfruttata e mal pagata, dove ciascuno porta con sé la propria miseria “come un marchio d’infamia”. Insieme romanzo di viaggio e ritratto epico della lotta dell’uomo contro l’ingiustizia, Furore è forse il più americano dei classici americani, da leggere oggi nella traduzione basata sul testo inglese della Centennial Edition dell’opera di Steinbeck, che restituisce ai lettori la forza e la modernità della scrittura del Premio Nobel per la Letteratura 1962.

The Harvest Gypsies

release date: Jan 01, 1988
The Harvest Gypsies
Here are seven articles written by John Steinbeck in 1936 as he toured squatters camps and Hoovervilles in California''s migrant labor region, led by his friend Tom Collins, manager of a federal migrant labor camp. Steinbeck''s personal and literary response led him to dedicate the novel "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939) in part to Tom.

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
The Winter of Our Discontent is John Steinbeck''s last novel, published in 1961. The title comes from the first two lines of William Shakespeare''s Richard III: "Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun [or son] of York". The story concerns mainly Ethan Allen Hawley of New Bay Town, New York, a former member of Long Island''s aristocratic class. Ethan''s late father lost the family fortune, and thus Ethan works as a grocery store clerk in the store his family once owned. His wife Mary and their children resent their mediocre social and economic status, and do not value the honesty and integrity that Ethan struggles to maintain amidst a corrupt society. These external factors and his own psychological turmoil lead Ethan to try to overcome his inherent integrity in order to reclaim his former status and wealth. Ethan''s decision to gain wealth and power is influenced by criticisms and advice from people he knows. His acquaintance Margie urges him to accept bribes; the bank manager (whose ancestors Ethan blames for his family''s misfortunes) urges him to be more ruthless. Ethan''s friend Joey, a bank teller, even gives Ethan a lesson on how to rob a bank and get away with it. On discovering that the current store owner, Italian immigrant Alfio Marullo, may be an illegal immigrant, Ethan makes an anonymous tip to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. After Marullo is taken into custody, he transfers ownership of the store to Ethan through the actions of the very government agent that caught him. Marullo gives Ethan the store because he believes Ethan is honest and deserving. Ethan also considers, plans, and mentally rehearses a bank robbery, failing to perform it only because of external circumstances. Eventually, he manages to become powerful in the town by taking possession of a strip of land needed by local businessmen to build an airport; he gets the land from Danny Taylor, the town drunkard and Ethan''s childhood best friend, by a will made by Danny and slipped under the door of the store. The will was drawn without any spoken agreement some time after Ethan gave Danny money for the purpose of sending Danny to receive treatment for alcoholism. Danny assures him that drunks are liars and that he will just drink the money away, and this is indeed confirmed when Danny is found dead with empty bottles of whiskey and sleeping pills.

"The grapes of wrath", John Steinbeck

release date: Jan 01, 2007

John Steinbeck Cannery Row

John Steinbeck Cannery Row
Cannery Row is a novel by American author John Steinbeck, published in 1945.It is set during the Great Depression in Monterey, California, on a street lined with sardine canneries that is known as Cannery Row. The story revolves around the people living there: Lee Chong, the local grocer; Doc, a marine biologist; and Mack, the leader of a group of derelict people. Cannery Row has a simple premise: Mack and his friends are to do something nice for their friend Doc, who has been good to them without asking for reward. Mack hits on the idea that they should throw a thank-you party, and the entire community quickly becomes involved. Unfortunately, the party rages out of control, and Doc''s lab and home are ruined-and so is Doc''s mood. In an effort to return to Doc''s good graces, Mack and the boys decide to throw another party-but make it work this time. A procession of linked vignettes describes the denizens'' lives on Cannery Row. These constitute subplots that unfold concurrently with the main plot. Steinbeck revisited these characters and this milieu nine years later in his novel Sweet Thursday.

Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck

Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck
Travels with Charley: In Search of America is a 1962 travelogue written by American author John Steinbeck. It depicts a 1960 road trip around the United States made by Steinbeck, in the company of his standard poodle Charley. Steinbeck wrote that he was moved by a desire to see his country on a personal level because he made his living writing about it. He wrote of having many questions going into his journey, the main one being "What are Americans like today?" However, he found that he had concerns about much of the "new America" he witnessed. Steinbeck tells of traveling throughout the United States in a specially made camper he named Rocinante, after Don Quixote''s horse. His travels start in Long Island, New York, and roughly follow the outer border of the United States, from Maine to the Pacific Northwest, down into his native Salinas Valley in California across to Texas, through the Deep South, and then back to New York. Such a trip encompassed nearly 10,000 miles. According to Thom Steinbeck, the author''s oldest son, the reason for the trip was that Steinbeck knew he was dying and wanted to see his country one last time. The younger Steinbeck has said he was surprised that his stepmother allowed his father to make the trip; his heart condition meant he could have died at any time. Part One Steinbeck opened the book by describing his lifelong wanderlust and his preparations to rediscover the country he felt he had lost touch with after living in New York City and traveling in Europe for 20 years. He was 58 years old in 1960 and nearing the end of his career, but he felt that when he was writing about America and its people he "was writing of something [he] did not know about, and it seemed to [him] that in a so-called writer this is criminal" (p. 6). He bought a new GMC pickup truck, which he named Rocinante, and had it fitted with a custom camper-shell for his journey. At the last minute, he decided to take his wife''s 10-year-old French Poodle Charley, with whom he has many mental conversations as a device for exploring his thoughts. He planned on leaving after Labor Day from his summer home in Sag Harbor on the eastern end of Long Island, but his trip was delayed about two weeks due to Hurricane Donna, which made a direct hit on Long Island. Steinbeck''s exploits in saving his boat during the middle of the hurricane, which he details, foreshadow his fearless, or even reckless, state of mind and his courage in undertaking a long, arduous and ambitious cross-country road trip by himself. Part Two Steinbeck began his trip by traveling by ferry from Long Island to Connecticut, passing the U.S. Navy submarine base at New London where many of the new nuclear submarines were stationed. He talked to a sailor stationed on a sub who enjoyed being on them because "they offer all kinds of - future". Steinbeck credited uncertainty about the future to rapid technological and political changes. He mentioned the wastefulness of American cities and society and lamented the large amount of waste that resulted from everything being "packaged." Later he had a conversation with a New England farmer. The two concluded that a combination of fear and uncertainty about the future limited their discussion of the coming election between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Steinbeck enjoyed learning about people by eating breakfast in roadside restaurants and listening to morning radio programs, though he noted that, "If ''Teen-Age Angel'' [sic] is top of the list in Maine, it is the top of the list in Montana" (35), showing the ubiquity of pop culture brought on by Top 40 radio and mass media technologies.
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