From Library Journal
February 27 marks the great Steinbeck's 100th birthday, and the publishing world is celebrating appropriately. The Library of America volume collects the author's little-known 1942 novel The Moon Is Down along with popular standards Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), and East of Eden (1952). If you prefer individual copies, Penguin is also releasing top-quality paperback Centennial Editions of several of Steinbeck's titles, which in addition to those listed above and those in the Library of America collection include his travelog Travels with Charley in Search of America (ISBN 0-14-200070-1) and the Pulitzer Prize winner The Grapes of Wrath (ISBN 0-14-200066-3), perhaps the greatest American novel of the 20th century. Penguin, which publishes Steinbeck's 26 works, reports that the volumes still sell more than one million copies annually. Happy birthday, big guy!
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
“[The Pearl] has the distinction and sincerity that are evident in everything he writes.”—The New Yorker
“Form is the most important thing about him. It is at its best in this work.” —Commonweal
“[Steinbeck has] long trained his prose style for such a task as this: that supple unstrained, muscular power, responsive to the slightest pull of the reins.”— Chicago Sunday Times
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
“Form is the most important thing about him. It is at its best in this work.” —Commonweal
“[Steinbeck has] long trained his prose style for such a task as this: that supple unstrained, muscular power, responsive to the slightest pull of the reins.”— Chicago Sunday Times
Book Description
Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the gulf beds that once brought great wealth to the Kings of Spain and now provide Kino, Juana, and their infant son with meager subsistence. Then, on a day like any other, Kino emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a sea gull's egg, as "perfect as the moon." With the pearl comes hope, the promise of comfort and of security . . .
A story of classic simplicity, based on a Mexican folk tale, The Pearl explores the secrets of man's nature, the darkest depths of evil, and the luminous possibilities of love.
About the Author
No writer is more quintessentially American than John Steinbeck. Born in 1902 in Salinas, California, Steinbeck attended Stanford University before working at a series of mostly blue-collar jobs and embarking on his literary career. Profoundly committed to social progress, he used his writing to raise issues of labor exploitation and the plight of the common man, penning some of the greatest American novels of the twentieth century and winning such prestigious awards as the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He received the Nobel Prize in 1962, "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." Today, more than thirty years after his death, he remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
From AudioFile
In intimate, whispery tones Elizondo relates the tragic tale of how a priceless pearl brings greed, treachery and loss to a poor Mexican pearl diver, his wife and their infant son. Although Elizando's breathy, dramatic reading won't be to everyone's taste, younger readers, in particular, should respond to this interpretation. The narrator's tone lends weight and urgency to the telling and underscores the mythic quality of Steinbeck's classic novella. D.M.L. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to the
Audio Cassette
edition.
