The Grapes of Wrath

Books | Fiction / Classics

4.1

(387)

John Steinbeck

The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized—and sometimes outraged—millions of readers.One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years 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.

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Author

John Steinbeck

Pages

544

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

2006-03-28

ISBN

1440637121 9781440637124

Ratings

Google: 4

Community ReviewsSee all

"+ The writing is both biblical and poetic. On one hand John Steinback is able to create a sense of time and mood so that the setting we are in comes alive in our imaginations. This book doesn't create a tight narrative that only moves forward and progresses the events. Instead we come to this world with words that paint a portrait and have us take in the scene. One of the beginning chapters follows the movements of a turtle and the many obstacles it faces just crossing a highway road, but in this one detailed, poetic section we are given symbolism about what the farmers will encounter as they leave Oklahoma to look for work in California during the Great Depression. I can see how a person reading it can get easily bored with this section, but for me the imagery he draws up presents a portal into the realms of empathy and compassion. That is what THE GRAPES OF WRATH felt like: a portal. Steinback truly makes the novel come alive in vivid fashion. Like Mark Twain's THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN that came before it, the characters speak in deep southern dialect, something I didn't like when I was younger, but loved in this book as it added to the vivid poetic description. This is both heartachingly melancholy, and funny. It felt like a deep, penetrating odyssey. Loved it. - It is a bit long, and some of the stream of consciousness writing lost me in terms of hearing the music of words on the page. I'm confident that this problem can be fixed with a reread, but it felt more of a stylistic choice that didn't quite pay off in the way that it was meant. A small gripe. Still, I can see why this is considered a classic. The views in the novel feel like they belong to a writer in a purgatorial state of mind. Specifically in terms of his ideas about dignity, but also believing in ideas like ownership and expounding on sentiments like pride (the main obstacle to humility and, in turn, dignity). I would love to revisit this at a later time. Wonderful book."

Ernie Truman

"3/10. I read this book for school and I hated it. I struggled to find motivation to continue to read this book. it was so long and boring. the book would take forever to say something that could have been summarized in 2 sentences. the beginning and ending sucked. also, the writing style was weird and confusing. I know this is a classic but I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone."

Samantha McDaniel

"It’s iconic. Steinbeck is just not my favorite author. Generally, books about the Great Depression depress me. "

Sylvia Hall

"I don’t know why this is a classic nor why students are forced to read it every year. I couldn’t focus- the chapters were so long and dry. Yes there were a few good twists and the overall message was fair, but it was a struggle to get to. I would never read this book again unless I had to. "