The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that
galvanized--and sometimes outraged--millions of readers. Nominated as
one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American
Read
A Penguin Classic
First published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the
Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and
tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads--driven from
their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of
California. Out of their 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. 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, the novel captures the horrors of the Great
Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in
America. 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.
This Penguin Classics edition contains an introduction and notes by
Steinbeck scholar Robert Demott.
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.
