John Steinbeck's concept of man : a critical study of his novels
John Steinbeck, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, was misread for a long time and his work was not considered worthy of 'serious' attention. His critics did finally concede that his fiction reveals, "qualities of insight and discipline which are essential to the creation of great art." This book through a close analysis of his novels affirms that Steinbeck's choice of artistic materials well as his non-teleological thinking is in keeping with his concept of man. The novels, from his first, Cup of gold, to his last, The winter of our discontent, dramatize that man is a "double thing" -part animal, part god. They show, Sunita Jain argues, a mind and art not satisfied with fragments or corrupted with fame or riches, relentlessly seeking to understand and depict life in its varied forms till Steinbeck was able to etch unerasibly his image of man (cover)
Print Book, English, 1979
New Statesman Pub. Co., New Delhi, 1979