This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks and the Hamiltons--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.

"This classic collection, first published in 1938, serves as a wonderful introduction to Steinbeck's work. Set in the beautiful Salinas Valley of California, where simple people farm the land and struggle to find a place for themselves in the world, these stories reflect Steinbeck's characteristics: the tensions between town and country, laborers and owners, past and present"--Back cover.

From the Publisher: This second volume in The Library of America's authoritative edition of John Steinbeck features his acknowledged masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath. Written in an incredibly compressed five-month period, the novel had an electrifying impact upon publication in 1939, unleashing a political storm with its vision of America's dispossessed struggling for survival. It continues to exert a powerful influence on American culture, and has...

While recovering from a gunshot wound, John Marshall Tanner meets a woman worth fighting for John Marshall Tanner left most of his blood in a vacant lot on Twentieth Street, along with the body of his closest friend. Tanner and Charley Sleet shot each other at the same time-a tragic finale to a long friendship that left Sleet dead and Tanner bleeding out on the sidewalk. The EMTs saved Tanner, but he isn't sure he wants to be alive. The uncertainty...

Rebel without a cause: The adolescent son of a well-to-do family gets into trouble with other kids and the police. East of Eden: A wayward Salinas Valley youth vies for the affection of his hardened father with his favored brother.

Dos trabajadores del campo en California durante la Gran Depresión. George Milton, un hombre inteligente pero sin formación, y Lennie Small, un hambre de gran estatura y fuerza, pero limitatdas habilidades mentales, están en camino hacia otra parte de California en Soledad. Esperan cumplir algún dia su sueño compartido de tener sus propias tierras y sus propios animales. La parte del sueño de Lennie es simplemente cuidar (y tocar) conejos...

East of Eden (1955): A wayward Salinas Valley youth vies for the affection of his hardened father with his favored brother. Rebel without a cause (1955): The adolescent son of a well-to-do family gets into trouble with other kids and the police. Giant (1956): Bick Benedict, his society-gilded wife and three generations of land-rich Texas sons and daughters love, swagger, connive and clash in a monumental drama of family strife, racial bigotry and...

Two itinerant migrant workers, one mentally disabled and the other his carer, take jobs as ranch hands during the Great Depression to fulfill their shared dream of owning their own ranch.