Steinbeck Novels and Stories 1932-1937

Product Description Here, collected in a single volume for the first time, are the novels and stories of rural California that established John Steinbeck's reputation. The stories in The Pastures of Heaven capture the stormy inner lives and sometimes disastrous fates of families in a seemingly tranquil California valley. A sense of primeval magic dominates To a God Unknown, as a farmer reverts to pagan nature worship. Steinbeck's sympathetic portrayal of ne'er-do-well residents of Tortilla Flat, a ramshackle town overlooking Monterey, is a triumph of life-affirming humor and first won him popular attention. In Dubious Battle, a moving drama of a migrant fruit-pickers' strike, anticipates The Grapes of Wrath. With Of Mice and Men, a masterpiece of concentrated emotional power, Steinbeck secured his fame. Lennie and George, itinerant farmhands held together in the face of absolute deprivation only by the frailest of dreams, have long since passed into American mythology.

Includes: The Pastures of Heaven, To a God Unknown, Tortilla Flat, In Dubious Battle, Of Mice and Men