Grapes of Wrath

The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized—and sometimes outraged—millions of readers, Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" has been nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read. First published in 1939, this Penguin Classic chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, who are driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California.

The novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. It is 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. 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.

Out of the Joads' 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. Readers trust the Penguin Classics 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.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. This Penguin Classics edition of "The Grapes of Wrath" contains an introduction and notes by Steinbeck scholar Robert Demott, providing readers with valuable insights into this seminal work of American literature.

product information: