Steinbeck's tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of
society, dependant on one another for both physical and emotional
survival
A Penguin Classic
Published in 1945, Cannery Row focuses on the acceptance of life as it
is both the exuberance of community and the loneliness of the
individual. Drawing on his memories of the real inhabitants of Monterey,
California, including longtime friend Ed Ricketts, Steinbeck interweaves
the stories of Doc, Dora, Mack and his boys, Lee Chong, and the other
characters in this world where only the fittest survive, to create a
novel that is at once one of his most humorous and poignant works. In
her introduction, Susan Shillinglaw shows how the novel expresses, both
in style and theme, much that is essentially Steinbeck: "Scientific
detachment, empathy toward the lonely and depressed . . . and, at the
darkest level . . . the terror of isolation and nothingness."
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. 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.