- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Classics; Revised edition (Aug 2 1995)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140187510
- ISBN-13: 978-0140187519
- Product Dimensions: 20.2 x 12.9 x 1.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #926,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Book Description
Set in familiar Steinbeck territory, To a God Unknown is a mystical tale, exploring one man's attempt to control the forces of nature and, ultimately, to understand the ways of God.
About the Author
Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck is remembered as one of the greatest and best-loved American writers of the twentieth century. His complete works will be available in Penguin Modern Classics.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence
When the crops were under cover on the Wayne farm near Pittsford in Vermont, when the winter wood was cut and the first light snow lay on the ground, Joseph Wayne went to the wing-back chair by the fireplace late one afternoon and stood before his father. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
When the crops were under cover on the Wayne farm near Pittsford in Vermont, when the winter wood was cut and the first light snow lay on the ground, Joseph Wayne went to the wing-back chair by the fireplace late one afternoon and stood before his father. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thought-Provoking Steinbeck,
By JMack (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: To a God Unknown (Paperback)
John Steinbeck has a habit of leaving the reader hanging a little bit at the end of his stories. "To a God Unknown" is no different. This is one of the more admirable qualities of Steinbeck as he does not tell the reader what to think. He trusts the reader's intelligence.Steinbeck tells this story in the setting that seems to be his trademark, the early agricultural societies of the West. Joseph Wayne is struggling in his faith. He adopts pagan beliefs because they work while his land prospers. When the tree that is the center of his pagan beliefs is killed by his religious brother, the farm and his life begin a downward spiral. While the story almost seems biblical in the beginning, it becomes strange after the tree is killed. While Joseph seems to be a saint in the beginning, his character unravels. After the death of his wife and giving away his only son, Joseph takes to worshiping the moss growing on a rock. Eventually, the moss becomes the center of his life. The mossy rock becomes the scene of his demise as it was the scene of his wife's demise. The last scene will require some thought and reflection for the reader. Perhaps you will find your own interpretation. In the final scene, the priest hopes Joseph is happy with the rain. He says this unknowing of Joseph's death/apparent suicide. Both the pagan and the priest received what they prayed for in the end. The priest has the last word. I think this tells you who was right. The thought-provoking nature of the book makes it a very underrated classic from Steinbeck.
3.0 out of 5 stars
To a God Unknown,
By Samantha (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: To a God Unknown (Paperback)
The novel To a God Unknown, by John Steinbeck is about a man, Joseph Wayne, moving from Vermont to California after his father dies. When he and his family get to the house where his father lived, his relatives meet him there. One of his brothers starts killing trees because of Joseph's mournings. Joseph is a father of two girls and a boy. Joseph lived in Vermont until he finds out his father dies. When he found out that his father dies, he and his family move from Vermont to California. I didn't really like the book because of the killing of nature and Joseph's brother killing the trees. I would not recommend the book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
well, he tried,
By A Customer
This review is from: To a God Unknown (Paperback)
I've read most of Steinbeck's novels and I feel like with this book, he had an idea but didn't quite get there. Without giving away the ending, you might as well just go rent "Dead Man Walking" because it's along the same lines. It's about a man who tries to start a farming "complex" with his family and the trials they endure such as death, birth, drought, etc. There's also this part about religion and a tree, sounds strange... since this was his second novel, I feel like he went back and developed it into two novels- East of Eden about the religion and God and thou maysest/I brought rain and Grapes of Wrath about drought, plight of farmers, desolation, the land turning bad, etc. I also didn't care for his misogyny. I've found it in many of his works, but this has the most overt example: "I thought he'd pick a wife as he'd pick a cow- to be a good cow, perfect in the activity of cows- to be a good wife and very like a cow" (67). Overall, I'd reccommend reading Grapes of Wrath and/or East of Eden (but with EoE, watch out for the misogyny through the character of evil Cathy the (...) mother/poor wife)
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