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Book Description
A STANDOUT in the Steinbeck canon, Cup of Gold is edgy and adventurous, brash and distrustful of society, and sure to add a new dimension to the common perception of this all-American writer. Steinbeck?s first novel and sole work of historical fiction contains themes that resonate throughout the author?s prodigious body of work.
From the mid-1650s through the 1660s, Henry Morgan, a pirate and outlaw of legendary viciousness, ruled the Spanish Main. He ravaged the coasts of Cuba and America, striking terror wherever he went. And he had two driving ambitions: to possess the beautiful woman called La Santa Roja, and to conquer Panama, the ?cup of gold.?
From the mid-1650s through the 1660s, Henry Morgan, a pirate and outlaw of legendary viciousness, ruled the Spanish Main. He ravaged the coasts of Cuba and America, striking terror wherever he went. And he had two driving ambitions: to possess the beautiful woman called La Santa Roja, and to conquer Panama, the ?cup of gold.?
About the Author
JOHN STEINBECK was born in Salinas, California, in 1902, grew up in a fertile agricultural valley about twenty-five miles from the Pacific Coast and both valley and coast would serve as settings for some of his best fiction. In 1919 he went to Stanford University, where he intermittently enrolled in literature and writing courses until he left in 1925 without taking a degree. During the next five years he supported himself as a laborer and journalist in New York City, all the time working on his first novel, Cup of Gold (1929). After marriage and a move to Pacific Grove, he published two California books, The Pastures of Heaven (1932) and To a God Unknown (1933), and worked on short stories later collected in The Long Valley (1938). Popular success and financial security came only with Tortilla Flat (1935), stories about Monterey's paisanos. A ceaseless experimenter throughout his career, Steinbeck changed courses regularly. Three powerful novels of the late 1930s focused on the California laboring class: In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and the book considered by many his finest, The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Early in the 1940s, Steinbeck became a filmmaker with The Forgotten Village (1941) and a serious student of marine biology with Sea of Cortez (1941). He devoted his services to the war, writing Bombs Away (1942) and the controversial play-novelette The Moon is Down (1942). Cannery Row (1945), The Wayward Bus (1948), another experimental drama, Burning Bright (1950), and The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951) preceded publication of the monumental East of Eden (1952), an ambitious saga of the Salinas Valley and his own family's history. The last decades of his life were spent in New York City and Sag Harbor with his third wife, with whom he traveled widely. Later books include Sweet Thursday (1954), The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication (1957), Once There Was a War (1958), The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), Travels with Charley in Search of America (1962) America and Americans (1966), and the posthumously published Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969), Viva Zapata! (1975), The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976), and Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath (1989). He died in 1968, having won a Nobel Prize in 1962.
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First Sentence
"All afternoon the wind sifted out of the black Welsh glens, crying notice that Winter was come sliding down over the world from the Pole; and riverward there was the faint moaning of new ice." Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
"All afternoon the wind sifted out of the black Welsh glens, crying notice that Winter was come sliding down over the world from the Pole; and riverward there was the faint moaning of new ice." Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Vintage Steinbeck; Good Nonetheless,
By A Customer
This review is from: Cup of Gold: A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History (Mass Market Paperback)
A number of reviewers have given this novel single stars, and I am truly at a loss as to the reason. "Cup Of Gold" is not vintage Steinbeck. The characters are more flat and less motivated than in his classic novels, and there always seems to be an underlying question of "where is this book taking us, and why should we care?"However, bearing all that in mind, "COG" is a fairly well-written novel about two things: how greatness arises from childish ambition, and how even the most lauded of conquerers are laden with insecurities and doubts. Despite some of the callowness of the characters (mainly Morgan), I found myself enjoying this novel, and seeing a lot of depth within...but a detached depth. In fact, I likened it to Kubrick's fine film "Barry Lyndon" which is more focused on observing a character's traits than drawing any conclusions about him. Steinbeck never tries to beat you over the head with the fact that Morgan is / was a deceitful, ambitious and insecure zealot who cares far more about his reputation and how he is perceived than any of his actual accomplishments. Instead, the reader is left to absorb all this and shake one's head with a grim smile at the commonality of truth regarding people such as Morgan. I contend that this book is well-written, despite some obvious foibles of a first-time novelist. Certain words were used too frequently ("cried" as a synonym of "said" was annoyingly common) and it lacks the gentle flow that many of Steinbeck's novels offer, but there is certainly a depth here that forms the basis of many of his later themes. So before you judge this book by other reviews here, consider the power of a few early sentences in this novel: "Why do men like me want sons?...it must be because they hope in their poor beaten souls that these new men, who are their blood, will do the things they were not strong enough nor wise enough nor brave enough to do. It is rather like another chance with life; like a new bag of coins at a table of luck after your fortune is gone."
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nihilism and the Denial of Teleology,
By galactic_pot_healer (Earth) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Cup of Gold: A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History (Mass Market Paperback)
Perhaps one of the finest works of fiction ever created by the humans. This is the story of "being human", a tale lived authentically for all eternity, by all humanity: human consciousness smashing its head against the seen and unseen forces that blind our eyes and minds to our eventual fate-the Void.Our dreams, desires, goals, pains, pleasures, and our vanity-all but sound and fury, signifying nothing. Blind "genes", groping forth in the darkness, propagating for no purpose... Read on! Time is short.
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Importance of Writing The First One,
By Stacey Cochran (Raleigh, NC, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Cup of Gold: A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History (Mass Market Paperback)
Cup of Gold is important in that it was Steinbeck's first novel. If you look closely you can see the kind of *heart* that would characterize Steinbeck's humanity in later works. His sensitivity, if you will. But that kind of sensitivity is at its best when balanced with Steinbeck's wit and satirical edge. Here, though, in Cup of Gold was a young Steinbeck without the momentum -- nor the boldness -- to balance a sense of humanity with cutting satire, and the novel ultimately sounds too sentimental and limp. In my opinion, Steinbeck really came into his own with Tortilla Flat (1935). Pastures of Gold (1932) and To a God Unknown (1933) were both closer to Cup of Gold in their romantic tendancies. But Tortilla Flat is the first novel where Steinbeck really enjoyed writing a novel, and the result was a comedy. Cup of Gold provides a window into a young writer's mind (Steinbeck published it at 27) -- a writer trying to find his calling -- and ultimately, a writer who would go on the write better novels with maturity and the development of his craft.
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