East of Eden - Softcover

Steinbeck, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0142004235 ISBN 13: 9780142004234

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2003

Synopsis

This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks and the Hamiltons--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. "A strange and original work of art."--New York Times Book Review. (Literature/Classics)

About this title

Review

"A novel planned on the grandest possible scale...One of those occasions when a writer has aimed high and then summoned every ounce of energy, talent, seriousness, and passion of which he was capable...It is an entirely interesting and impressive book."
--The New York Herald Tribune

"A fantasia and myth...a strange and original work of art."
--The New York Times Book Review

"A moving, crying pageant with wilderness strengths."
--Carl Sandburg

"When the book club ended a year ago, I said I would bring it back when I found the book that was moving...and this is a great one. I read it for myself for the first time and then I had some friends read it. And we think it might be the best novel we've ever read!"
--Oprah Winfrey

About the Author

No writer is more quintessentially American than John Steinbeck. Born in 1902 in Salinas, California, Steinbeck attended Stanford University before working at a series of mostly blue-collar jobs and embarking on his literary career. Profoundly committed to social progress, he used his writing to raise issues of labor exploitation and the plight of the common man, penning some of the greatest American novels of the twentieth century and winning such prestigious awards as the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He received the Nobel Prize in 1962, "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." Today, more than thirty years after his death, he remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0142004235
• ISBN 13: 9780142004234
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 601