Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8564 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Book Jacket
With an Introduction by Robert DeMott

"A novelist who is also a true poet"--Sunday Times

"I've done my damnedest to rip a reader's nerves to rags, I don't want him satisfied". Shocking and controversial when it was first published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer prize-winning epic, The Grapes of Wrath, remains his undisputed masterpiece. Set against the background of Dust Bowl Oklahoma and Californian migrant life, it tells of the Joad family, who, like thousands of others, are forced to travel west in search of the promised land. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires and broken dreams, yet out of their suffering Steinbeck created a drama that is intensely human, yet majestic in its scale and moral vision; an eloquent tribute to the endurance and dignity of the human spirit.

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

For more titles in the Penguin Classics range, visit Amazon.co.uk's Penguin Classics Bookstore.

Synopsis
Shocking and controversial when it was first published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer prize-winning epic remains his undisputed masterpiece. Set against the background of dust bowl Oklahoma and Californian migrant life, it tells of the Joad family, who, like thousands of others, are forced to travel West in search of the promised land. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires and broken dreams, yet out of their suffering Steinbeck created a drama that is intensely human, yet majestic in its scale and moral vision; an eloquent tribute to the endurance and dignity of the human spirit.

Customer Reviews

A book everyone should read
This book is so massive - its influence can be seen through artists such as Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Rage Against the Machine, etc. - and that is just music!

A simple story based around one family moving out to California to escape the Dust Bowl of the 1930's mid-West America. What they found in the beautiful country was abuse, harassment, exploitation and starvation. Faced every day with harsh decisions, there is nowhere to turn for help but within the family and those like them. There is a realization that to fight the rich landowners, and the authorities who support them, the immigrants must organize themselves. Any attempts to do so in the book are cruelly suppressed and fail, but the hope, the only hope, is left hanging...

Ironic then that this 'idealism' originated in America and continue to inspired so many there in the heart of the world's largest capitalist economy.
But the political themes of workers rights, justice and immigration are not the only rich aspects exposed by the story...What happens when we are faced with changing circumstances? How important are the roles of women in leading and protecting the family? How much of our position and identity come from where we live, what we own, what we do? All of these issues are still are relevant today and will be tomorrow.

I guess it is a bad idea to force people to read books, but this certainly is a book everyone should read!

Compulsive Reading !!
Steinbeck has the gift of being able to describe his characters in immense detail without instilling boredom in the reader. You can actually "see" the character he describes.....this book is a work of art.

Gruelling but good
Grapes of Wrath is a gruelling story of the plight of the Joad family. It certainly makes you think about how badly treated these people were in what was suppossed to be a civilized country. There's certainly no happy ending. In fact I found the story petered out rather than came to a satisfactory conclusion.

At times the prose is beautiful and the characters are developed well throughout the story. I found the social commentary chapters a bit strange and didn't feel they added that much. 100 pages too many perhaps.

I know it's regarded as a classic but I can't rate it more than 3 stars because overall I didn't love it.