Of Mice and Men (Penguin Modern Classics)
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck "Essentials") for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
|
There is a newer edition of this item:
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A parable of commitment, loneliness, hope and loss, OF MICE AND MEN is a powerful and moving portrayal of two men striving to understand their own unique place in the world.
Drifters in search of work, George and his simple-minded friend Lennie have nothing in the world except each other - and a dream. A dream that one day they will have some land of their own.
Eventually they find work on a ranch, but their hopes are doomed as Lennie - struggling against extreme cruelty, misunderstanding and feelings of jealousy - becomes a victim of his own strength.
Tackling universal themes, friendship and a shared vision, and giving a voice to America's lonely and dispossessed, OF MICE AND MEN remains Steinbeck's most popular work.
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. From September 2000 his complete works will be published by Penguin.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
64 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the most rewarding books you will ever read,
By Wicker-king (North London, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck "Essentials") (Paperback)
Of Mice And Men is truly a special piece of literature that seems so simple whilst you are reading it but at the same time deals with a lot of complicated issues which all of us have to deal with at some point in our lives.Its a story of two friends, Lennie and George, who wander from town to town looking for work in order to raise the capital to one day settle down in a farm of their own and count out their days. The one snag in this plan is Lennie, a giant of a man with the mind of a child who, although full of good intentions, finds himself trouble at every stop. Steinbeck often tackles weighty issues (most evident in Grapes Of Wrath) and the theme of the future and the dreams of simple men is a hefty one but he handles this book with such poetic grace that you can't help but be drawn into the lives of these two men and as the book draws to its climax nothing can prepare you for the almighty hammer blow at its conclusion. This is a book for all those who have a dream of the future or those who have found themselves somehow lost in life. It deals with how complicated the simple life can be and how elusive true contentment is. There has been many a film made of this film but believe me, nothing can compare to the vivid world that the pages of this book generates inside your minds eye and as you turn the final page it will stay there with you and be with you always.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"A guy needs somebody to be near him....A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody.",
By
This review is from: Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck "Essentials") (Paperback)
Written in 1937, when the Depression was still affecting all aspects of the farming community, this powerful novel depicts the lives of migrant workers--grim, pessimistic, and offering little hope for an improved future. Focusing on two characters who arrive in the Salinas Valley during peak season, Steinbeck creates touching scenes between Lenny, a big, severely limited worker who does not know his own strength, and George, a whippet-thin man who serves as Lenny's constant companion and protector.
Both Lenny and George have dreams of one day living on their own farm, where Lenny, who loves the feeling of soft things--even dead mice--wants to take care of rabbits. George hopes one day to benefit from his own hard work on his own farm and to create an environment where Lenny can be safe from his own impulses. As Steinbeck brings the characters on the ranch to life, he shows how every person there has dreams of a different life but few opportunities to change the lives they already have. Some are physically handicapped from accidents on farms, while others are emotionally handicapped by lack of opportunity or their own personal limitations. Life is lonely, uncertain, and harsh but George tries to make life for Lenny more bearable by allowing him to have one of the new puppies in the barn. When Curley, the boss's son, brings his flirtatious wife to the farm, he introduces a new element which eventually leads to a tragic ending. Women are considered dangerous to the status quo, as they reinforce the need for "soft" elements in lives that otherwise offer little softness. Giving vivid pictures of the natural surroundings while also creating vivid pictures of the interactions of these men, Steinbeck shows that even among those whose lives offer little hope, there is a desire to take advantage of each other. Crooks, the black stable hand who is forced to live alone in the barn, undermines Lenny. Carlson takes advantage of Candy's love for his old, smelly dog and causes pain to Candy. Lenny's puppy, Candy's dog, a heron capturing a water snake, and dreams of their own farm all become symbols which add to the drama of the conclusion. In this powerfully sad novel, Steinbeck offers little hope that the lives of these men will improve and even less hope that they will ever be able to control what happens to them. Mary Whipple
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Short, bleak and very powerful,
By
This review is from: Of Mice and Men (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
Steinbeck's bleak tale of men on the margins and their dehumanising struggle for dignity amidst the uncertainties of day-labouring and casual work in 1930s California is a taut and nervy tale, but one that has withstood the test of time well. Brilliantly constructed, its tragic ending has a narrative inevitability to it, a shocking act in keeping with the brutalising ambience of the world its characters inhabit. Not a great deal `happens' in this short tale of savvy, paternalistically caring George and simple-minded Lennie, but you nevertheless get the feeling that Steinbeck loved people, and loved observing them: for everything happens in the little interactions between characters, whether it's glimpses of warm humanity surfacing amidst the hardness and drudgery of the casual labourer's day, or the mutual suspicions of men competing for affection. For all its tragedy, the ending is nevertheless a kind of assertion of what it means to be human, and of the value of action over passivity that redeems something of George's and Lennie's humanity. Superb.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
