The Grapes of Wrath

By: John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott - introduction, 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 twentieth 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. 'A novelist who is also a true poet' Sunday Times

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

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.