Tortilla Flat (Penguin Modern Classics)
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Product Description
Product Description
Steinbeck's first major critical and commercial success, TORTILLA FLAT is also his funniest novel. Danny is a paisano, descended from the original Spanish settlers who arrived in Monterey, California, centuries before. He values friendship abovemoney and possessions, so that when he suddently inherits two houses, Danny is quick to offer shelter to his fellow gentlemen of the road. Their love of freedom and scorn for material things draw them into daring and often hilarious adventures. Until Danny, tiring of his new reponsibilities, suddenly disappears...
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.
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First Sentence
How Danny, home from the wars, found himself an heir, and how he swore to protect the helpless. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
How Danny, home from the wars, found himself an heir, and how he swore to protect the helpless. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Some readers will see the pure story of Tortilla Flat, some will gain hints of the book's wider moral undertones, others again will see its romantic side.
But for me this book has all that and more. I have read it regularly, about every two or three years during my adult life, and each time it reveals something new about *me* and the way I live my life in the present.
For true fans of Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath carries more indignant social commentary, Pippin IV more humour, Burning Bright more romanticism and Of Mice and Men more depth of character, However, if you want to see all these attributes distilled into one short volume, here it is.
To me this little book is John Steinbeck's masterpiece. I cherish every word of it and can honestly say that in my humble opinion it is the finest book in the English language.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
`Tortilla Flat' was Steinbeck's break through novel and it is also one of his funniest. Following the exploits of Danny, Pilon, Pablo and various other Paisanos in the Monterey area, this book has one humorous adventure after another. As I've come to expect from Steinbeck (and I've yet to be let down!) this book has beautiful prose that sinks you immediately into the time and setting of the story. You can feel the colours, textures, smells and ambiance of every scene and you experience the facets of this book keenly and richly. If I sound like a fan, that's because I am, I love Steinbeck and this book only solidifies that opinion. You can see the emergence of Mack and the boys from `Cannery Row' in the dialogue and exploits of Danny and the rest in this novel and this shows the development of Steinbeck's group narrative and descriptions very well between the two. If you want a short, yet highly humorous book (that had me chuckling out loud on more than one occasion), with a more poignant ending that you'd expect, then this is the book for you and as you may have guessed this is one I recommend a great deal.
Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.
Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The characters in Tortilla Flat justify their delinquent "activities" in the town by imagining that they are acting selflessly, in the best interests of someone else. That may mean spending another's money on wine to stop that person buying candy that's bad for their teeth. Or it may mean stealing someone's money to see that it is "wisely invested". In recounting these tales, Steinbeck has tapped into something we can all relate to in some way or another, and he does it with great wit. For this reason (as well as the excellent introduction to this PMC edition), I liked the book. However, while the book is worth reading, I prefer the intensity of Steinbeck's more sombre novels.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Laugh out loud tale
I read this book a few years ago and thouroughly enjoyed it. The wonderful way in which the characters justify their actions and structure their lives is enough to bring a smile to... Read more
Published 6 months ago by 3redcats
The good intentions of beautiful losers...
The lyrics of an old Leonard Cohen song, "A Bird on a Wire," kept rolling around in my brain as I read this: "... Read more
Published 13 months ago by John P. Jones III
Adventures in 30's Monterey Sub-Culture
All the Steinbeck ingredients are there only in smaller amounts.There is no plot to the story it being made up of vignettes of an immigrant vagrant lifestyle, which is not a... Read more
Published 15 months ago by nicholas hargreaves
A Simple But Beautiful Pleasure
This is my favourite book of all time. Most people would enjoy reading it but a certain few would love it and I am smitten. Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2010 by Dave Kelly
A sublime tale in which the wine rarely stops flowing
Briefly, Danny, the chief protagonist in this novel, returns from the war to Tortilla Flat (a paisano district that sits upon a hillside above Monterey), to find he has inherited... Read more
Published on 3 Aug 2008 by Robert Burdock
A Merry Tale!
“Tortilla Flat” is an entertaining tale of Danny and his paisano friends as they live the lives of a merry band of unemployed alcoholics. Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2003 by James Gallen
The Young Ones go west
A friend lent me this book and said that she wanted me to love it as much as she did. Although it is admirably short and by the same author as the classic 'Grapes of Wrath' I... Read more
Published on 15 Sep 2002 by Mr. T. Sturrock
A wonderful classic by a wonderful author of his time.
I had read most of the John Steinbeck novels when I was in school but I seemed to have missed this one. Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2002
Excellent. Unputdownable. Vintage Steinbeck.
Steinbeck is admitably my favourite author of the 20th Century. He paints vivid pictures of his time (30s California) and shapes interesting characters. Read more
Published on 2 Mar 2001
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