Of Mice and Men
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First published in 1937, Of Mice and Men follows George Milton and Lennie Small, two itinerant ranch workers travelling through California during the Great Depression. Bound by an unlikely friendship, the pair move from one temporary job to another, holding on to a shared dream of owning a small piece of land where they might finally live independently. When they arrive at a ranch near Soledad, their hopes encounter the suspicions, loneliness and quiet cruelties of a world in which the vulnerable have little protection. George’s sharp intelligence and Lennie’s immense strength, gentle nature and limited understanding make their companionship both tender and precarious.
Written with remarkable economy, Steinbeck’s novella explores friendship, isolation, dignity and the fragile promise of the American Dream. Its spare dialogue, carefully shaped scenes and dramatic intensity give the story the force of a modern tragedy, while its attention to migrant labourers places it firmly within the social literature of Depression-era America. One of Steinbeck’s most enduring works, it anticipates the larger portrait of dispossession and economic hardship he would develop in The Grapes of Wrath.
From the book
“Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.”
— John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men
On Of Mice and Men
“A grand little book, for all its ultimate melodrama.”
— Ralph Thompson, The New York Times