John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. was an American author, who won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." Most of Steinbeck's work is set in central California, particularly in the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges region. His works frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists. The Grapes of Wrath, the best-known novel by John Steinbeck, published in 1939. It arouses sympathy for the struggles of migrant farmworkers. The Grapes of Wrath is set in the Great Depression and describes a family of sharecroppers, the Joads, who were driven from their land due to the dust storms of the Dust Bowl. The title is a reference to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, also known as "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" outside of the United States, a lyric by the American writer Julia Ward Howe. Steinbeck masterfully depicted the struggle to retain dignity and to preserve the family in the face of disaster, adversity, and vast, impersonal commercial influences. When preparing to write the novel, Steinbeck wrote: "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this." He famously said, "I've done my damnedest to rip a reader's nerves to rags." Enjoy free online English audiobook “The Grapes of Wrath”, breathtaking and one of the most significant novels by John Steinbeck.
