The Short Novels of John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath is generally considered Steinbecks masterpiece, but the short novel was the form he most frequently turned to and most consciously theorized about, and with constant experimentation he made the form his own. Much of the bestand the worstof his writing appears in his short novels. This collection reviews what has been categorized as the good and the bad, looking beyond the careless labeling that has characterized a great deal of the commentary on Steinbecks writing to the true strengths and weaknesses of the works. The contributors demonstrate that even in the short novels that are most often criticized, there is more depth and sophistication than has generally been acknowledged. The essays examine the six most popular short novelsTortilla Flat, The Red Pony, Of Mice and Men, The Moon Is Down, Cannery Row, and The Pearlin addition to the three usually thought of as less successfulBurning Bright, Sweet Thursday, and The Short Reign of Pippin IV. Because most of Steinbecks short novels were adapted and presented as plays or screenplays, many of the essays deal with dramatic or film versions of the short novels as well as with the fiction. The collection concludes with a comprehensive checklist of criticism of the short novels.Contributors. Richard Astro, Jackson J. Benson, Carroll Britch, John Ditsky, Joseph Fontenrose, Warren French, Robert Gentry, Mimi Reisel Gladstein, William Goldhurst, Tetsumaro Hayashi, Robert S. Hughes Jr., Howard Levant, Clifford Lewis, Peter Lisca, Anne Loftis, Charles R. Metzger, Michael J. Meyer, Robert E. Morsberger, Louis Owens, Roy S. Simmonds, Mark Spilka, John Timmerman