The Grapes of Wrath

By: John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott

Narrated by: Dylan Baker

John Steinbeck's powerful evocation of the suffering and hardship caused by the Great Depression, and a panoramic vision of the struggle for the American Dream, The Grapes of Wrath includes a critical introduction by Robert DeMott in Penguin Modern Classics. "I've done my damndest to rip a reader's nerves to rags, I don't want him satisfied".

Shocking and controversial when it was first published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer prize-winning epic The Grapes of Wrath remains his undisputed masterpiece. Set against the background of Dust Bowl Oklahoma and Californian migrant life, it tells of Tom Joad and his family, who, like thousands of others, are forced to travel west in search of the promised land. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires, and broken dreams, yet out of their suffering Steinbeck created a drama that is intensely human, yet majestic in its scale and moral vision. Adapted into a celebrated film directed by John Ford, and starring Henry Fonda, The Grapes of Wrath is an eloquent tribute to the endurance and dignity of the human spirit.

John Steinbeck (1902-68), winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for literature, is remembered as one of the greatest and best-loved American writers of the 20th century. During the Second World War Steinbeck served as a war correspondent, with his collected dispatches published as Once There Was a War (1958); in 1945 he was awarded the Norwegian Cross of Freedom for his novel The Moon is Down (1942), a portrayal of Resistance efforts in northern Europe. His best-known works include the epics The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952), and his tragic novella Of Mice and Men (1937). John Steinbeck's complete works are published in Penguin Modern Classics. If you liked The Grapes of Wrath, you might enjoy East of Eden, also available in Penguin Classics.

©1939 John Steinbeck (P)2011 Penguin

Critic reviews

"It is Steinbeck's best novel, i.e., his toughest and tenderest, his roughest written and most mellifluous, his most realistic and, in its ending, his most melodramatic, his angriest and most idyllic. It is great in the way that Unlce Tom's Cabin was great. One of the most impassioned and exciting books of the year." (Time)

"One comes away moved, indignant, protesting, pitying. A fiery document of protest and compassion, as a story that had to be told, as a book that must be read." (Louis Kronenberger, The Nation)

"A novelist who is also a true poet" (Sunday Times)

Foresight and Wisdom

It is a rare book that pinpoints culture in every era. We all read this as children, and I hope today's students are taken through it step by step, but reading it as an adult is a reminder that things, no matter what we think, always stay the same.

The book should be required reading in grade school, high school and college. It goes to Economics, History, Social Justice, sociology, etc. I wish I hadn't waited so long to take it up again.

Wonderful language, superb plotting, pacing, characterization -- all wonderful. Unfortunately, the subject offers no satisfying ending. The closing scene, however, is so startling it will resonate differently with me at my advanced age than it did the first time through.

The narrator was wonderful.

Worth reading again.

Could do without the Harmonica playing

Good Classic story, taken from a hard slice of life of the Jode Fambly. Besides learning about the Great Dust Bowl and the migration of the "Okies" in the 30's, Mr. Steinbeck weaves a tale of the Jode Family's dilemma of living day to day with little to eat but with the hope of a better life. Through it all, they remain giving of what little they have, while those with much more will kill the keep what they have. Every character is drawn out warts and all, with Ma the Matriarch, keeping the family together. The only downside to this audiobook was the annoying harmonica playing between each chapter. The narrator was good, with nice changes is voice style bwtn characters. Just get rid of the harmonica!

What goes around comes around

I love this story. Not because it has wonderful characters and the characters are well developed. They are. The writting is wonderful. But I love this story because it tells the story of class differences. The story takes place during the dust bowl. But it could be written today. Things have not changed much.

There were lessons to be learned when the book was first released. Those lessons still apply. Unfortunately, we still haven't learned them.

I highly recommend this book

history mixed with fiction. my favorite.

history mixed with fiction. my favorite. did not like harmonica at all. story was so sad, but an easy listen.

Good story ok performance

The harmonica interludes were too loud and the delivery was sometimes a bit flat. Story was good, not outstanding.

An Eternal Story

There is a message of family, hope, hard work, and overcoming adversity in the pages of this book that echo through the ages. There are also messages of fear, despair, heart ache and pain that resonate just as much. This is a truly remarkable story, told in stark prose that brings out the characters and the emotions like few authors can.

Hard to believe that I am 39 and this was my first time reading this book, I never had to read it in High School. I'm glad I picked it up now, I likely would have seen it as a chore as a teenager, but as an adult I didn't want the book to end. I wanted to follow Tom Joad, I pulled for him like I have pulled for very few fictional characters.

The reading of this book is adequate. Newer recordings seem to contain voice talent which enhances the story. This reader neither enhances or takes away from, he just reads it, and for a book like this, that works fine.

But it's the story. No it's not even the story, it's the people. It's how real the people feel and how much you can feel both their pain, and their genuine love for each other, that make this book remarkable.

Dramatic reading. Not an easy story.

Dramatic reading. Not an easy story. Highly recommend. The accents and voices transport you into the plot.

An enjoyable masterpiece

I hadn't appreciated this book much in high school. From a more experienced perspective I now see what a fantastic book it is. It raises questions about human existence that are both timeless and timely. Paradoxically, Americans are far better off now than in the era portrayed in the book, and yet in many regards events and attitudes seem entirely too familiar. If you wonder whether there can be a compelling alternative to the recent ascendance of Objectivism, look no further.

While Baker's vocal take on Tom Joad became rather grating after a while, the variety and consistency with which the characters are voiced makes them all the more memorable and three-dimensional. I've never heard a male performer do such a great job with female voices.

Great book from its period

A refugee family, this time within the United States is forced to leave the dust bowl and seek a new life. It is filled with prejudice, wishful thinking, desperation, and how cheap life becomes when people are viewed as the other. The book is relevant today as little except who the other is who we keep out. Well written, compelling people and gripping, however a bit preachy at times.

great, except...

I'm sure this has been said but the harmonica between chapters is very jarring. other than that, great reading by the narrator.