East of Eden
Description
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. 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. Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness. First published in 1952, East of Eden is the 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. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis. --jacket flap
Available Editions
paperback
Mandarin
Published Jan 1, 1995
665 pages
ISBN: 9780749320478
paperback
Penguin Books
Published Jan 1, 1992
602 pages
ISBN: 9780140186390
hardcover
Penguin Books
Published Jan 1, 2002
601 pages
ISBN: 9780142000656
paperback
Penguin Books Ltd
Published Sep 7, 2000
640 pages
ISBN: 9780141185071
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Details
First Published
1952
Language
eng
Featured in Challenges
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for East of Eden by John Steinbeck.