East of Eden

Zusatztext "A novel planned on the grandest possible scale...One of those occasions when a writer has aimed high and then summoned every ounce of energy! talent! seriousness! and passion of which he was capable...It is an entirely interesting and impressive book." The New York Herald Tribune "A fantasia and myth...a strange and original work of art." The New York Times Book Review "A moving! crying pageant with wilderness strengths." Carl Sandburg "When the book club ended a year ago! I said I would bring it back when I found the book that was movingand this is a great one. I read it for myself for the first time and then I had some friends read it. And we think it might be the best novel we've ever read!" Oprah Winfrey Informationen zum Autor John Steinbeck ! born in Salinas! California! in 1902! grew up in a fertile agricultural valley! about twenty-five miles from the Pacific Coast. Both the valley and the 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). The Grapes of Wrath won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 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). Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962! and! in 1964! he was presented with the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Steinbeck died in New York in 1968. Today! more than thirty years after his death! he remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures. Klappentext Unabridged! 22 CDs! 25 hours Read by Richard Poe The masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years-a vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis ...

Autorentext
John Steinbeck, born in Salinas, California, in 1902, grew up in a fertile agricultural valley, about twenty-five miles from the Pacific Coast. Both the valley and the 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). The Grapes of Wrath won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 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).

Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, and, in 1964, he was presented with the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Steinbeck died in New York in 1968. Today, more than thirty years after his death, he remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures.

Klappentext

Unabridged, 22 CDs, 25 hours
Read by Richard Poe
The masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years-a vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis
In his journal, Steinbeck called East of Eden "the first book," and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel 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. Here is a work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence.

Zusammenfassung
The masterpiece of Steinbeck’s later years, East of Eden is a sprawling epic in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love’s absence.

Leseprobe

Chapter 1

[1]

THE SALINAS VALLEY is in Northern California. It is a long narrow swale between two ranges of mountains, and the Salinas River winds and twists up the center until it falls at last into Monterey Bay.

I remember my childhood names for grasses and secret flowers. I remember where a toad may live a…