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  • The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

John Steinbeck (Author), Robert DeMott - introduction (Author), Robert DeMott (Author),
4.6 out of 5 stars (24,443)
Teachers' pick
John Steinbeck's powerful evocation of the suffering and hardship caused by the Great Depression, and a panoramic vision of the struggle for the American Dream, The Grapes of Wrath includes a critical introduction by Robert DeMott in Penguin Modern Classics. 'I've done my damndest to rip a reader's nerves to rags, I don't want him satisfied.' Shocking and controversial when it was first published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer prize-winning epic The Grapes of Wrath remains his undisputed masterpiece. Set against the background of Dust Bowl Oklahoma and Californian migrant life, it tells of Tom Joad and his family, who, like thousands of others, are forced to travel west in search of the promised land. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires and broken dreams, yet out of their suffering Steinbeck created a drama that is intensely human, yet majestic in its scale and moral vision. Adapted into a celebrated film directed by John Ford, and starring Henry Fonda, The Grapes of Wrath is an eloquent tribute to the endurance and dignity of the human spirit. John Steinbeck (1902-68), winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for literature, is remembered as one of the greatest and best-loved American writers of the twentieth century. During the Second World War Steinbeck served as a war correspondent, with his collected dispatches published as Once There Was a War (1958); in 1945 he was awarded the Norwegian Cross of Freedom for his novel The Moon is Down (1942), a portrayal of Resistance efforts in northern Europe. His best-known works include the epics The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952), and his tragic novella Of Mice and Men (1937). John Steinbeck's complete works are published in Penguin Modern Classics. If you liked The Grapes of Wrath, you might enjoy East of Eden, also available in Penguin Classics. 'A novelist who is also a true poet' Sunday Times
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  1. Listening Length
    21 hours and 1 minute
  2. Author
    John Steinbeck, see all
  3. Narrator
    Dylan Baker
  4. Publication date
    June 15, 2011
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Penguin Audio
  7. ASIN
    B0055WXT56
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length 21 hours and 1 minute
Author John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott - introduction, Robert DeMott
Narrator Dylan Baker
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date June 15, 2011
Publisher Penguin Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B0055WXT56
Best Sellers Rank

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
24,443 global ratings

Customers say

Customers consider "The Grapes of Wrath" a must-read classic that resonates with modern readers. The book features beautifully drawn characters with palpable personalities, and customers appreciate its descriptive scenes and lyrical prose. Customers find the book heart-rending and sad, though they value its quality paper for the price point.
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715 customers mention content, 646 positive, 69 negative
Customers describe this book as a must-read classic and a great piece of American literature.
This was a great book. I loved it. Can't believe i was an English major back in college and have read a great deal since then, but had never read it....Read more
A good book, though I'm not a fan of Steinbeck's writing style. When it ended, I sat there wondering why he ended it there and like that.Read more
...Good read about the way life was for many during that time period. But I feel the book goes into too much minute detail...Read more
What a wonderful book! I'd never read Steinbeck, even though I grew up (some) in California. Now I'm hooked! Loved it!Read more
247 customers mention story, 190 positive, 57 negative
Customers appreciate the story of the book, describing it as a gripping narrative with a poignant ending.
Great story, pain and fear, strength, courage . A powerful tenacity for love, life and family, all families and God.Read more
Brilliant, beautiful story that spells out in the starkest terms the cruelty of man when values become focused solely on personal gain with no...Read more
Beautifully written, wonderful story, heartbreaking and valuable. One of the best, if not the best, I've ever read im a long life.Read more
I am disappointed in the ending and was wishing it was a happy ending and at least some of the families would find a better life worth living.Read more
217 customers mention classic, 216 positive, 1 negative
Customers describe this book as a classic American novel.
Classic Must read for everyoneRead more
If you are looking for a great classic, you won't be disappointed. You won't want to let go of the characters by the end.Read more
A classic but I would have rather seen the movie again. The book is very slow. I got it for a book group I am in.Read more
Grapes of Wrath is a classic book. This 1940 printing was published by the Heritage Press. Thomas Hart Benton did the amazing illustrations....Read more
182 customers mention writing style, 175 positive, 7 negative
Customers praise the writing style of the book, highlighting its descriptive scenes and lyrical prose, with one customer noting how it was "blown away by this writing."
The book is an amazing, and beautifully written, account of the impoverished people working on drought-stricken land who are forced - by big banks...Read more
...crossing the road but besides from that issue, the book was great; well written, develops characters well & tells a gripping story of the effects of...Read more
Very well written! Gives us idea of what people went through during dust bowl era....Read more
Still so relevant. Such a tremendous writer and so beautifully written. Today it's the same story, but with Latin immigrants from the south.Read more
174 customers mention readability, 133 positive, 41 negative
Customers find the book easy to read and consider it required reading for all, with one customer noting it can be re-read multiple times.
Great read. Couldn't put the book down. Very eye opening about how cruel people could be and then how kind people could be. Rich vs. Poor....Read more
Excellent read. Great historic background. I lived in OR and a youngster and CA and OK and as adult. Gave great context to real world observations.Read more
Classic read but far too wordy. The family is traveling with many others looking for work as they head to California....Read more
...About time I read this again...! But not an easy read if you want to catch all of Steinbeck's subtleties. 475 pgs (in an 8 font!)......Read more
75 customers mention character development, 71 positive, 4 negative
Customers appreciate the character development in the book, noting the beautifully drawn and palpable personalities with amazing resilience, and one customer specifically mentions loving the vernacular in which the characters speak.
LOVED the story, characters, and the history of this book. I plan on reading more Steinbeck and early 20th century writers.Read more
...The reader on the audio book was very good . Great characters and history lesson. Very thought provoking. Highly recommend.Read more
I got to know this family and join them on the road. These characters were so real that I was sad to say goodbye to them at the end of the book....Read more
Superb characterisation in a deeply disturbing story of the greed and selfishness of capitalism in the early 20th century....Read more
60 customers mention value for money, 47 positive, 13 negative
Customers find the book to be a great value, appreciating the quality paper for its price point and considering it well worth the read.
Book seller described the condition of the book accurately, and at a great price!Read more
...Definitely worth the read!Read more
...The Grapes of Wrath is a powerful classic, well worth reading, but difficult to digest (particularly the last third), and, therefore, best consumed...Read more
...Completely unreadable. Not worth 99 cents.Read more
147 customers mention emotional, 96 positive, 51 negative
Customers have mixed reactions to the emotional content of the book, with many finding it heart-rending and heartbreaking, leaving them somewhat depressed.
Depressing! Memorable. Impactful. Deserving of it's place in classic American Literature. The abrupt ending left me hanging - is there a sequel?Read more
Gripping and heart wrenching! But I want to know what happened to Tom! I presume the family was safe after the rain but what happened to Tom!Read more
It was a good book but sad and very thought provoking. Everyone should read it. I can't imagine living through what those people did....Read more
...'s struggle to build a new life in Depression-era California is heartbreaking and beautiful, and Steinbeck's critique of the ravages of unfettered...Read more
A Pin In Steinbeck's Greatness
5 out of 5 stars
A Pin In Steinbeck's Greatness
This book caused quite an uproar when it was originally released, so it makes sense that some literature classes force you to read it. Have no fear though, this is another one of the great books that John Steinbeck gifted to the public. Any book that causes a conversation on its content is worth the read. The story takes on some pretty serious themes, all the while, keeping it entertaining enough to stay invested. If you have already read some of Steinbeck's other work and are looking for more, then this book will continue to please.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Rose Richards
    5.0 out of 5 stars No kicks on Route 66
    Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    In this novel about Oklahoma farmers forced by the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression to seek a new life for themselves as migrant laborers in California, John Steinbeck may well have written the Great American Novel. "The Grapes of Wrath" is the story of the Joad family, but it's also the story of a people on the move, a nation in crisis, and humanity in its extremes of greed and goodness.

    The first quarter of the novel tells of young Tom Joad's homecoming after several years in prison for killing a man in a drunken brawl. Contact with his family has been minimal over the years, and he looks forward to seeing his parents, grandparents, and siblings again - but the house is empty, obviously abandoned, like so many others in this land where a combination of drought and poor agricultural techniques has resulted in failure and foreclosure on countless family farms. Fortunately, Tom learns from a neighbor that his family has gone over to his uncle's place, and he arrives there just in time to join them on their way to California, where they've been told there's plenty of work in the state's lush Central Valley.

    The second quarter of the novel is the story of the Joads' arduous journey west on Route 66, a trip distinguished by breakdowns, death, and intimations by those who have been there that California may be something less than the paradise they've been led to imagine. The final half of the novel follows the Joads after they arrive in California, only to discover that it's possible to starve even in a land of plenty as too many would-be workers are forced to compete for available jobs by accepting wages barely sufficient to buy enough food from one day to the next. The novel ends with one of the most stunning and affecting scenes you'll ever read, and although nothing at all is resolved, the story feels complete.

    The structure of the novel underscores Steinbeck's creation of the Joads as the human face of a social crisis. Long chapters that advance the plot alternate with short chapters in which the Joads are never mentioned, in which Steinbeck's richly poetic prose establish the physical and moral setting of his work: the conditions leading to the Dust Bowl, the loss of a way of life, the journey to a new beginning, and the disillusionment and growing anger of the migrants - all on a massive scale. These short, poignant chapters are as beautiful, captivating, and necessary as the story chapters, as they provide context and grant a kind of holy universality to the Joads' experiences.

    Steinbeck's writing is raw, earthy, and viscerally powerful. This is realism at its finest: full of small, telling details, and at times casually vulgar, not for shock value but because life itself is casually vulgar. I was about 13 the first time I read this novel, and the blunt honesty of the writing was a bit much for my somewhat sheltered mind; I remember feeling uncomfortable when an old man reached into his pants and "contentedly scratched under the testicles," as that wasn't a word I was used to seeing in print, at least outside of biology texts. I loved the background chapters but found the Joad chapters distasteful for the first hundred pages or so, when I finally allowed the vivid immediacy of Steinbeck's style to make the characters real for me. As an adult, I have no such difficulties and am able to appreciate the masterful style and rich characterizations immediately. This is a mature novel, about people too crassly human to elicit our pity, but too warmly human not to elicit our compassion.

    I must admit that as a native Californian, I feel a special connection with this novel. For most of my life I lived just a few blocks away from the old Route 66 (although farther west than the point where the Joads left it to go north). Several of my husband's children live in the Central Valley, around places Steinbeck mentions by name. However, Steinbeck's skill is such that even if you've never been there, you'll close this novel feeling as though you had. This is a novel every American should read - indeed, everyone interested in what it means to be human in trying times. These days more than ever we need this book, we need this reminder of the values of proud self-sufficiency and fierce decency, for it is when we stop pulling, and pulling together, that we lose our way.
    68 people found this helpful
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  • JAY
    5.0 out of 5 stars In this specific video clip Louis makes a farcical argument that all men love women's breasts
    Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2016
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    It quite paradoxical and embarrassing how I became known about Grapes of Wrath. I was introduced to Grapes of Wrath from a youtube clip of Louis C.K. who is stand-up comedian. In this specific video clip Louis makes a farcical argument that all men love women's breasts. Regarding the book, he says "I don't want to ruin the book for you, but you should have read the book by now. If you read the book, Grapes of Wrath, that's how it ends. With an old dying man sucking milk out of pretty young girl's boobs. And then the book is over. And you are like Geez... What happened at the end there? There is no other book in that genre -Dense historic classic that ends with weird ‘porny’ paragraph. We [men] love breasts" Then I bethought myself of reasons to read this book. First, as an immigrant American, I have duty to know and appreciate History of the Great Depression. Second, I already knew the book will end with an old dying man sucking milk out of a pretty young girl. I have to disclose that the latter was a stronger motivation for me to purchase this very book. Third, I desired to know what let up to such an ending. Fourth, is the curiosity in that how such a book of pornographic content has become an American Classic quintessential to that epoch. Whichever the motivation was – either more perverted content or curiosity – was I glad that it made me purchase the book and commit myself to read this thick book cover to cover.
    The story is about a family. It is people's story with whom you will smile, laugh, frown, and cry together. Each character is very special in their own ways. I felt the deepest connections with each one than any other books I had read thusly, even though I had had nothing in common with these characters. I grew up in a different country; I lived all my life in urban surroundings; I knew nothing about farming; I had never experienced hunger, poverty, or famine of any sort; I had never encountered any inhuman treatment from others. I drove cross country twice from east to west. Even then my experience was very different than that of the Joad's family. I found myself fraught with anger for the family throughout their journey to West and then their journey to happiness and stabilization (living like a normal family). The book is very straight forward. It shows from the beginning that the family won't ever reach to what they are look for, all of which are jobs, house, and food. Nothing goes right for them. The family was told on multiple times that bright expectations California are false -- an illusion created by greedy farm owners.
    The family presses on with hope that everything would work out. They did not lose hope when the grandpa, grandma died in a horrible way; Connie ran away; The preacher was arrested and died; multiple occasions that the truck broke down; they ran out of food to eat; they were treated inhumanly; they were underpaid; Tom was wanted again for murder; Rose of Sharon had a stillborn baby. The book shows sad political and societal background and injustice towards migrant farmers during the great depression through the Joad's family. Is the book just valuable because it contains the historic accounts of reality during the Great Depression?
    I do not love this book because it has the historic value to it, of which, however, I enjoyed. Nonetheless, I love this book because this book is all about hope. Through the story of the Joad family, I learned that I could hope no matter what situation in which I find myself, and I can always hope more. The ending of the book wherein the dying old man feeds on Rose of Sharon's breastmilk with her smiling is not "porny". Rather is it a “hopy”. The hope the family has been dragging on goes on and spreads onward. The book is 464 pages. Has the book been thicker and the story went on further, the family would have still had that hope which helped them to continue on. Maybe that's the same hope as the hope that the poor were able to survive with during the Great Depression in real life, and the author just wanted to capture that in his book.
    9 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • R
    1.0 out of 5 stars Low quality
    Reviewed in the Netherlands on May 15, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Basic Amazon print, the pixels of the cover art are visible because it is just copy pasted......
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  • Maria Luiza Busnello
    5.0 out of 5 stars Edição maravilhosa com Prefácio e notas do Robert Demmot
    Reviewed in Brazil on December 3, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    A experiência de leitura nessa edição é demais, começando pela introdução maravilhosa do Robert Demmot, um estudioso da obra de Steinbeck, que também é responsável pelas notas.
    O prefácio traz a contextualização e os desdobramentos do impacto da obra na história norte-americana, além de uma análise do autor, de suas obras e muitas dicas sobre filmes, documentários, músicas (há uma canção do Bon Dylan para um dos personagens) e até de uma paródia da revista Mad.
    Robert Demmot também é responsável pelas notas de rodapé, que são bem importantes nessa obra, pois há bastante gíria e o autor utiliza a forma coloquial da fala da região em sua escrita.
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  • Gregory F. Hutch
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Grapes of Wrath is a powerful novel that combines a family saga with sweeping social critique.
    Reviewed in Canada on February 20, 2026
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    The Grapes of Wrath is a powerful novel that combines a family saga with sweeping social critique. It is a vivid depiction of the 1930's, but it also has a timeless urgency. It has very strong themes around ethics, justice and resilience. The characters are memorable. Steinbeck's style is distinctive. He alternates between intimate plot-driven realism and omniscient chapters. It is a historical document, but has a timeless moral argument that still resonates. Steinbeck’s novel is a moral argument for the ethical responsibilities of community.
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  • Max Taverna
    5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendo, angosciante, duro... bellissimo.
    Reviewed in Italy on September 11, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Riletto in lingua originale dopo che non ero riuscito a finirlo quasi 60 anni fa in versione tradotta.
    La storia di disperazione e speranza di questa famiglia che va a Ovest oggi è tragicamente attuale vedendo un intero continente che cerca un futuro a Nord.
    Si fa fatica a finirlo, la disperazione non finisce mai. Poi il colpo di genio, nelle ultime righe. Da leggere, come tutti i libri di Steinbeck, d'altra parte.
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  • FictionFan
    5.0 out of 5 stars "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn" Robert Burns
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    When Tom Joad returns to his parents' farm after serving a prison sentence for murder, he finds it deserted. In the four years he has been gone, the land has turned to dust through a combination of drought and poor farming practices. The onset of the Great Depression has meant that the banks have taken over ownership of vast tracts of the land and, in pursuit of profit, are expelling the small tenant farmers to create massive one-crop farms, worked by machines rather than men. Driven by poverty and lack of work, many of the farmers are uprooting their families to go to California, their own promised land, where, they are told, the country is filled with fruit ripe for picking, and there is work for all. Tom and his family join the exodus.

    First published in 1939, this is a fairly contemporaneous account of the devastation wrought on Oklahoma farming communities during the Depression, and Steinbeck's anger and disgust come through loudly in the power of his prose. A starkly political novel, it's interesting that there is little or no reference to either the politicians or policies of the period. This adds to the feeling of the farmers being isolated, abandoned by their nation and utterly reliant on their own limited resources. It falls somewhere between a call to arms for the poor to unite to overthrow the forces of capitalism, and a warning to the powers that be that the result of driving people to the limits of desperation might be just such an outcome. I didn't know Steinbeck's own political stance before reading the book, but was unsurprised to read later that at this period he was involved in the Communist movement within the US.

    It's undoubtedly one of the most powerful books I've read and it has left me with many indelible images. The writing is never less than excellent and is sometimes stunning, while the characterisation and brilliant use of dialect make the Joad family and the people they meet on their journey completely real. The story is a simple one, of man's inhumanity to man - a story that has been told often, but rarely with such concentration and power. But it's several weeks since I finished reading the book and I still haven't quite decided what I think of it.

    On the one hand, most of the first half of the book drags terribly as Steinbeck tells the story of the journey in minute, endless detail. I feel I could now get a job as a car mechanic working on 1930s models. I get the importance of the car to these families, but I don't care whether bronze wire will wear away as the widget rubs against the doodah - I truly don't. But the tedium and repetitiveness of parts of the book didn't bother me as much as the heavy-handed and unnecessary polemical interludes, where Steinbeck spells out his message in case the reader has been too stupid to understand it. I'm guessing any reader who doesn't `get' it, will have given up the book long before Steinbeck gets to the political pamphlet chapters. Occasionally it stops feeling like a novel at all and becomes almost like a ranty student essay on the evils of capitalism. If he explained the process of supply and demand once, he must have explained it a hundred times - ironic really, since it is surely only needed once, if at all. And the constant misery! Again, yes, absolutely - the story is appalling, more so for being true, and of course we need to see the horrible impact of absolute poverty on people's lives and humanity. But when authors feel they have to top up the human misery with the old `dead dog' technique, I fear they cross the line between emotional truth and emotional trickery. Of Mice and Men was the book that taught me how easily pathos can turn into bathos, and decades later I feel exactly the same about this one. And then there's the ending... but we'll come to that...

    On the other hand, the story is an important one that is as relevant today, sadly, as at the time of writing. Whether one agrees or not with Steinbeck's call of Workers Unite! and class struggle as the solution to poverty and ongoing waves of mass migration, whether one believes that capitalism or socialism is the system most likely to bring a more fair and just society in the end, the vivid picture that he draws of humanity's imperative struggle for survival in even the most hopeless of circumstances cannot fail to move and must surely stir the consciences of those of us whose present comfort depends on the poverty of others. I found myself drawing parallels with the current influx of people from Africa and Asia into Europe, and the issues surrounding illegal immigration in the US. But more than that, I discovered I was making comparisons to slavery and reflecting that at least under that repellent system, the owners felt that they had to protect their 'investment', whereas these people belonged to no-one, had no intrinsic 'economic value' and were thus ultimately even more dispensable. An uncomfortable train of thought and a tribute to Steinbeck's anger that he made me think it against everything I believe.

    Sometimes the quality of the writing takes the book almost to the sublime. From the first chapter, with the unforgettable images of the windstorm and the dust and the dying corn, with the women watching to see if their men will break, he makes the land a character in its own right, as important as any Joad, and its death as moving as one of theirs. The story of the turtle's indomitable spirit as it unwittingly spreads the seed that will allow nature to have its rebirth is one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I have read. While I was never quite sure what message he was attempting to send with the biblical themes, they added a sense of eternality, of inevitability, to the struggle for a more just society. The sheer power and anger of the 'Moses' scene will stay with me forever, as will that ending - which I hated even while I recognised the force of its essential truthfulness, and which left me as angry about humanity being reduced to this as Steinbeck could possibly have desired. And just as angry about the emotional manipulation he used to achieve that effect.

    Not a book that I can say I wholeheartedly enjoyed, but one that I am glad to have read and will not forget. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
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