Product Description
A fisherman finds the great pearl, only to lose it again. Re-issue of Steinbeck's classic.
When the news of Kino's great find—the "Pearl of the World"—spreads through the small town, no one suspects its power
to deceive, to corrupt, to destroy
Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver,
gathering pearls from the gulf beds that once brought great wealth to
the Kings of Spain and now provide Kino, Juana, and their infant son
with meager subsistence. Then, on a day like any other, Kino emerges
from th sea with a pearl as large as a sea gull's egg, as "perfect as
the moon." With the pearl comes hope, the promise of comfort and of
security . . .
A story of classic simplicity, based on a Mexican folk tale, The Pearl explores the secrets of man's nature, the darkest depths of evil, and the luminous possibilities of love.
About the Author
JOHN STEINBECK (1902–1968) was born in Salinas, California. He worked as a laborer and a journalist, and in 1935, when he published
Tortilla Flat,
he achieved popular success and financial security. Steinbeck wrote
more than twenty-five novels and won the Nobel Prize in 1962.
Robert DeMott is the Edwin and Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor at Ohio University and the author of
Steinbeck’s Typewriter, an award-winning book of critical essays.
Gary Scharnhorst
is professor of English at the University of New Mexico. He is the
editor of books by Bret Harte and John De Forest for Penguin Classics.
From Library Journal February 27 marks the great Steinbeck's
100th birthday, and the publishing world is celebrating appropriately.
The Library of America volume collects the author's little-known 1942
novel The Moon Is Down along with popular standards Cannery Row (1945),
The Pearl (1947), and East of Eden (1952). If you prefer individual
copies, Penguin is also releasing top-quality paperback Centennial
Editions of several of Steinbeck's titles, which in addition to those
listed above and those in the Library of America collection include his
travelog Travels with Charley in Search of America (ISBN 0-14-200070-1)
and the Pulitzer Prize winner The Grapes of Wrath (ISBN 0-14-200066-3),
perhaps the greatest American novel of the 20th century. Penguin, which
publishes Steinbeck's 26 works, reports that the volumes still sell
more than one million copies annually. Happy birthday, big guy!
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review Steinbeck's peculiarly intense
simplicity of technique is admirably displayed in this vignette - a
simple, tragic tale of Mexican little people, a story retold by the
pearl divers of a fishing hamlet until it has the quality of folk
legend. A young couple content with the humble living allowed them by
the syndicate which controls the sale of the mediocre pearls ordinarily
found, find their happiness shattered when their baby boy is stung by a
scorpion. They dare brave the terrors of a foreign doctor, only to be
turned away when all they can offer in payment is spurned. Then comes
the miracle. Kino find a great pearl. The future looks bright again.
The baby is responding to the treatment his mother had given. But with
the pearl, evil enters the hearts of men:- ambition beyond his station
emboldens Kino to turn down the price offered by the dealers- he
determines to go to the capital for a better market; the doctor,
hearing of the pearl, plants the seed of doubt and superstition,
endangering the child's life, so that he may get his rake-off; the
neighbors and the strangers turn against Kino, burn his hut, ransack
his premises, attack him in the dark - and when he kills, in defense,
trail him to the mountain hiding place- and kill the child. Then- and
then only- does he concede defeat. In sorrow and humility, he returns
with his Juana to the ways of his people; the pearl is thrown into the
sea.... A parable, this, with no attempt to add to its simple pattern.
(Kirkus Reviews)
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