To a God Unknown (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) - Softcover

Steinbeck, John; DeMott, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140187510 ISBN 13: 9780140187519

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1995

Synopsis

Ancient pagan beliefs, the great Greek epics, and the Bible all inform this extraordinary novel, which occupied Steinbeck for more than five difficult years. While fulfilling his dead father's dream of creating a prosperous farm in California, Joseph Wayne comes to believe that a magnificant tree on the farm embodies his father's spirit. His brothers and their families share in Joseph's prosperity, and the farm flourishes - until one brother, frightened by Joseph's pagan belief, kills the tree, allowing disease and famine to descend on the farm. Set in familiar Steinbeck country, "To a God Unknown" is a mystical tale, exploring one man's attempt to control the forces of nature and, ultimately, to understand the ways of God and the forces of the unconscious within.

About this title

Review:

By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

About the Author:

John Steinbeck (1902-68) is remembered as one of the greatest and best-loved American writers of the twentieth century. During the 1930s, his works included The Red Pony, Pastures of Heaven, Tortilla Flat, In Dubious Battle, and Of Mice and Men. The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, earned him a Pulitzer Prize. In 1962, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0140187510
• ISBN 13: 9780140187519
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240