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  • Published: 15 July 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241980330
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 112
  • RRP: $26.00

Of Mice and Men




A stunning new series look for one of the greatest writers of the 20th century

'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.

  • Published: 15 July 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241980330
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 112
  • RRP: $26.00

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About the author

John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, in 17 February 1902. After studying English at Stanford University, he held several jobs including working as a hod-carrier, apprentice painter, laboratory assistant, ranch hand, fruit-picker, construction worker at Madison Square Gardens, New York, and reporter for the New York American. In 1935 he became a full-time writer and was a special writer for the United States Army Air Force during World War II.

Among his most renowned works are Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940.

In 1926 Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature as a mark of his outstanding contribution to literature, his unquestionable popularity and his versatility. In his speech accepting the Nobel Prize, Steinbeck gave his view of authorship: 'The ancient omission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our may grevious faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement. Furthermore, the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit for gallantry in defeat - for courage, compassion and love.'

John Steinbeck died on 20th December 1968.

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Praise for Of Mice and Men

A thriller, a gripping tale that you will not set down until it is finished. Steinbeck has touched the quick

New York Times

A short tale of much power and beauty. Mr. Steinbeck has contributed a small masterpiece to the modern tough-tender school of American fiction

Times Literary Supplement

Brutality and tenderness mingle in these strangely moving pages. . . The reader is fascinated by a certainty of approaching doom.

Chicago Tribune