Adapted for the 1955 film directed by Elia Kazan introducing James Dean and read by thousands as the book that brought Oprah’s Book Club back, East of Eden has remained vitally present in American culture for over half a century. The masterpiece of Steinbeck’s later years, East of Eden 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. 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.

In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth.

I used to enjoy the motion picture and the music of East of Eden which might be one of the incentives to go to the University of Illinois to study in 1963-1964.A masterpiece of Biblical scope, and the magnum opus of one of America’s most enduring authors How come there is only 4 minutes of the book Comment by Harumi Sasaki 😘its greeat soong!💟 Comment by user681390628 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.īarnes & Noble - Audiobook (downloadable format)Īudible - Audiobook (downloadable format)Į - Audiobook (downloadable format) 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. In his journal, Steinbeck called East of Eden 'the first book,' and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. 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

East of eden penguin classics