Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. This edition features an introduction by Thomas Fensch.įor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. At the center of the tale is Danny, whose house, like Arthur’s castle, becomes a gathering place for men looking for adventure, camaraderie, and a sense of belonging-men who fiercely resist the corrupting tide of honest toil and civil rectitude.Īs Nobel Prize winner Steinbeck chronicles their deeds-their multiple lovers, their wonderful brawls, their Rabelaisian wine-drinking-he spins a tale as compelling and ultimately as touched by sorrow as the famous legends of the Round Table, which inspired him. The sand dunes crouched along the back of the beach like tired hounds, resting and the waves gently practiced at striking, and hissed a little."Steinbeck is an artists and he tells the stories of these lovable thieves and adulterers with a gentle and poetic purity of heart and of prose." -New York Herald TribuneĪdopting the structure and themes of the Arthurian legend, John Steinbeck created a “Camelot” on a shabby hillside above the town of Monterey, California, and peopled it with a colorful band of knights. They walked side by side along the dark beach toward Monterey, where the lights hung, necklace above necklace against the hill. Thoughts are slow and deep and golden in the morning. when the glittery dew is on the mallow leaves, each leaf holds a jewel which is beautiful if not valuable. It is a time of quiet joy, the sunny morning. In the morning when the sun was up clear of the pine trees, when the blue bay rippled and sparkled below them, they arose slowly and thoughtfully from their beds. And I loved the descriptions of the landscape: They stress the importance of home, friendship, and survival, giving an insight into their life in Tortilla Flat. Some of the stories are humorous, and some are tragic. But they don’t really care about money, they trade what they have or what they find for wine and then share it before sleeping it off. He’s the only paisano who works, making 25 cents a day selling kindling, but he doesn’t spend it, saving it and hiding it. After a while Pirate joins them along with his five dogs who follow him everywhere. They spend their days partying, drinking, sleeping, thieving or in jail. He lives in one house and ‘rents’ the other to his friends, but they are all poor, do not work and never pay him, except in wine. It begins just after the end of the First World War, when they return to find that Danny has inherited two houses from his grandfather. The stories have almost a mythical feel and indeed, Steinbeck compares Danny and his friends to the Knights of the Round Table. They are paisanos, being a mix of Spanish, Indian, Mexican and assorted Caucasian bloods, living in old wooden houses in the midst of pine trees. Tortilla Flat is a collection of stories about their escapades, and their thoughts and endeavours. And after a somewhat slow start I soon settled into the book and thoroughly enjoyed it.Īs Steinbeck explained in his Preface this is the story of Danny and of Danny’s friends, Pilon, Pablo, Jesus Maria, and Big Joe. Monterey is also the setting for Cannery Row (the first of John Steinbeck’s novels that I read) and Sweet Thursday, both of which I enjoyed, so I was expecting this book to be just as good. Tortilla Flat is on the hill high above Monterey, an old city on the coast of California. It was John Steinbeck’s fourth novel, first published in 1935. Tortilla Flat was my Classics Club Spin book to read by 30th April.
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