John Steinbeck, página 4 de 15

"Lo Steinbeck del dualismo poveri-ricchi con ""L'inverno del nostro scontento"" muove decisamente verso la satira di ambiente sociale. Il libro racconta infatti l'avventura morale di un piccolo uomo di provincia, pago del suo modesto destino, che d'improvviso, quasi invasato dalla religione del successo, tesse una trama sottile e tenace attraverso la quale muove alla conquista del potere e della ricchezza, mascherando il proprio arrivismo sotto le piu nobili e conformistiche virtu del cittadino medio americano. Incorniciando le gesta di questo eroe in una tipica cittadina marittima del New England, con un altrettanto tipica popolazione di ""indigeni"" e immigrati di varia origine e ancor piu varia mentalita, Steinbeck ci offre un vero e proprio spaccato di quell'America di provincia, gretta e invischiata nel mito del benessere come conquista della felicita, che tanta parte ha avuto nella letteratura statunitense del Novecento. "

Etats-Unis, années 1930. Lennie et George, deux ouvriers agricoles, traversent la Californie et s'arrêtent dans un ranch pour y travailler. Ils n'ont qu'un rêve : réunir assez d'argen

París, un año de estos. Los representantes de los distintos partidos en la Asamblea Nacional no consiguen ponerse de acuerdo para formar gobierno. Finalmente se impone una solución de compromiso: restaurar la monarquía. El candidato ideal parece ser el último descendiente de Carlomagno, Pipino Arnulfo Héristal, un modesto rentista dedicado a su gran afición, la astronomía. Pipino no desea ser rey, pero a regañadientes acepta la corona.

This moving parable of wealth and the evil it can bring is based on a Mexican folktale. The simple life of Kino, a pearl fisher, changes for ever when he finds a great pearl, a pearl as large as a seagull's egg. The story is of the finding of the pearl, the dreams it represents and its loss. Kino is blind to the greed, fear and even violence the pearl arouses in his neighbours - and in himself - and the promise of great wealth and a better life for Kino and his family brings nothing but misfortune and enemies

Working as an enforcer in London's criminal underworld brought Dan Shaper to the edge of a breakdown. Now he's a private investigator, kept perilously afloat by a growing cocktail of drugs. He needs to straighten-up and rebuild his life, but instead gets the attention of his old gangland masters and a job-offer from Mr George Glass. The elderly eccentric claims to be a New Age Messiah, but now needs a saviour of his own. He's been marked for murder.Adrift amidst liars and thugs, Shaper must push his capsizing mind to its limits: stalked not only by a unique and terrifying killer, but by the ghosts of his own brutal past.

'A red pony colt was looking at him out of the stall. Its tense ears were forward and a light of disobedience was in its eyes. Its coat was rough and thick as an Airedale's fur and its mane was long and tangled'. Jody Tiflin is a ten-year-old boy, living on his father's ranch. One day his father brings home a small pony. He's Jody's, if the boy will learn to feed, clean, stable and care for him. But Jody learns, through the colt, and through his other adventures on the ranch, that with responsibility can come sacrifice and pain. Joy may swiftly turn to tragedy. And he also discover that the simplicities of childhood must eventually turn into the complications of adulthood. "The Red Pony" is Steinbeck's brilliant, and sometimes brutal, celebration of adolescence

'"Cannery Row in Monterey in California" is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, nostalgia, and a dream". Meet the gamblers, whores, drunks, bums and artists of Cannery Row in Monterey, California, during the Great Depression. They want to throw a party for their friend Doc, so Mack and the boys set about, in their own inimitable way, recruiting everyone in the neighbourhood to the cause. But along the way they can't help but get involved in a little mischief and misadventure. It wouldn't be Cannery Row if it was otherwise, now would it?

Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck, one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century, offers a powerful but tragic tale in Of Mice and Men. 'Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place.' George and his large, simple-minded friend Lennie are drifters, following wherever work leads them. Arriving in California's Salinas Valley, they get work on a ranch. If they can just stay out of trouble, George promises Lennie, then one day they might be able to get some land of their own and settle down some place. But kind-hearted, childlike Lennie is a victim of his own strength. Seen by others as a threat, he finds it impossible to control his emotions. And one day not even George will be able to save him from trouble. Of Mice and Men is a tragic and moving story of friendship, loneliness and the dispossessed.