A wide variety of interpretations have greeted John Steinbeck’s “The White Quail” since its publication in The Long Valley in 1942. Some critics have used it as basic evidence of Steinbeck’s misogyny, believing that his portrait of Mary Teller is… Read More ›
John Steinbeck
Analysis of John Steinbeck’s The Vigilante
John Steinbeck’s “The Vigilante,” as the earlier “The Snake”—both appearing in the story collection The Long Valley (1938)—has its roots in an actual event, a tragic kidnapping and murder that occurred in San Jose in 1933. Steinbeck transforms the event… Read More ›
Analysis of John Steinbeck’s The Snake
In the 1951 essay “About Ed Ricketts,” published as part of The Log from the Sea of Cortez, John Steinbeck records his recollection of the composition of his short story “The Snake” and identifies the occurrence as an actual event… Read More ›
Analysis of John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven
“An often ignored collection of stories that appeared, unceremoniously, in 1932,” The Pastures of Heaven can be considered the cornerstone of much of John Steinbeck’s later, great fiction (Nagel xxix). Upon publication, although it was ignored for the most part… Read More ›
Analysis of John Steinbeck’s Stories
The qualities that most characterize the work of John Steinbeck (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) are a supple narrative style, a versatility of subject matter, and an almost mystical sympathy for the common human being. His fiction is… Read More ›
Lionel Trilling and The Liberal Imagination
In the feverish political climate of the 1930s and 1940s outlined in the introductory section, American critics with left-wing sympathies tubarned James’s disavowal of any direct purpose for the novel against him. They approved of writers such as Theodore Dreiser… Read More ›
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