Product Description

Drifters in search of work, George and his simple-minded friend Lennie, have nothing in the world except each other - and a dream. A dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Eventually they find work on a ranch, but their hopes are doomed as Lennie - struggling against extreme cruelty, misunderstanding and jealousy - becomes a victim of his own strength. Tackling universal themes, friendship and a shared vision, and giving a voice to America's lonely and dispossesed, "Of Mice And Men" remains Steinbeck's most popular work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13357 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Review
Steinbeck refuses to allow himself to be pigeonholed. This is as completely different from Tortilla Flat and In Dubious Battle as they are from each other. Only in his complete understanding of the proletarian mentality does he sustain a connecting link - though this is assuredly not a "proletarian novel". It is oddly absorbing - this picture of the strange friendship between the strong man and the giant with the mind of a not-quite-bright child. Driven from job to job by the failure of the giant child to fit into the social pattern, they finally find - in a ranch - what they feel their chance to achieve a homely dream they have built. But once again, society defeats them. There's a simplicity, a directness, a poignancy in the story that gives it a singular power, difficult to define. Steinbeck is a genius - and an original. (Kirkus Reviews)

Synopsis
Drifters in search of work, George and his simple-minded friend Lennie, have nothing in the world except each other - and a dream. A dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Eventually they find work on a ranch, but their hopes are doomed as Lennie - struggling against extreme cruelty, misunderstanding and jealousy - becomes a victim of his own strength. Tackling universal themes, friendship and a shared vision, and giving a voice to America's lonely and dispossesed, "Of Mice And Men" remains Steinbeck's most popular work.

About the Author
Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck is remembered as one of the greatest and best-loved American writers of the twentieth century. His complete works will be available in Penguin Modern Classics.

Customer Reviews

A wonderful story
I first read this book at school and I really enjoyed it. I found it very moving and the friendship between George and Lenny was well written. All in all this is a wonderful story and it's one of the few books that I could read again and again.

A confession.
I must have been one of the few people who never studied Of Mice and Men at school so came across it rather later in life. It wasn't the first Steinbeck I'd read - that accolade goes to Cannery Row (one of the few books I've read and read again!) so I approached this with a bit of trepidation wondering why it was such a popular "school text"

Well it's now obvious why. There is so much to be drawn out of this, short, novel that resonates today and which today's students can expand upon.

As a by the by, a current TV news item is covering internet plagiarism for school exams, and the example they are using is -you've guessed it - Of Mice and Men

And so to my confession. I got into this book so much that I read three quarters of it in one sitting and finished it whilst on my tube journey into work. And yes, those of you on the Central Line all those years ago, I was the ugly big bloke crying his eyes out in the corner (having gone three stops past the one I wanted).

This is the only book that has made such an emotional impact on me and if no one has read it yet please do so and also read ALL of Steinbeck's books. My favourites are the classics, East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath of course, but also lesser known works - Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday, both set in Monterey and The Wayward Bus, a compelling tale using an unlikely premise, but drawing out superb descriptions of place and character.

He wrote many other novels, travelogues, journalistic pieces and copious letters which have been collected in varying forms. - PLEASE READ THEM ALL! They put most (all?) of today's literature into the shade.

I believe everything he wrote is published in one form or another except "Bombs Away" a wartime Airforce recruitment book - and I am still kicking myself for not getting a copy I saw when in Monterey myself, believing that I could pick it up cheaper in the UK - What a fool!

And to finish, a brief quotation from where I believe Steinbeck drew his title

" The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley (often go wrong)
An' lea'e us nought but grief an'pain,
For promised joy.

Robert Burns To a Mouse (1785)

A parable of loneliness and poverty
Two penniless itinerant workers arrive in California's Salinas Valley with dreams of owning their own farm and settling down in peace. But first they must hold down a job and get some money together. George Milton and his giant, dim-witted friend Lennie Small have nothing in the world except each other and each acts as the other's protector in different ways. Unfortunately, although gentle and child-like, Lennie's emotional instability and immense strength are a constant source of trouble and George has to keep baling him out of trouble. Arriving late on their first day of employment at a ranch, things begin ominously when the boss's son takes a dislike to Lennie, and then slide inexorably into heart-breaking tragedy. Powerful and poignant, Of Mice and Men is one of the twentieth century's great parables of loneliness and poverty.