The Grapes of Wrath

The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized and sometimes outraged millions of readers.

First published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning Great Depression epic chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of an Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. From their trials and repeated collisions with the harsh realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet clear, tragic yet ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man's fierce response to injustice, and of one woman's stoic strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, a captivity tale, a road novel, and a transcendental gospel, Steinbeck's powerful historical novel is perhaps the most American of American classics.

This Penguin Classics edition contains an introduction and notes by Steinbeck scholar Robert Demott.

For over seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With over 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global library of the best works throughout history and across all genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.