Description
“This thing fills me with pleasure. I don’t know why, I can see it in the smallest detail.”
First edition of Steinbeck’s story collection set in his beloved Salinas Valley,
containing the first collect appearance of many of his most important stories.
A bright and clean copy preserved in publisher’s binding with dust jacket.
Steinbeck, John. The Long Valley.
New York, The vicking Press,1938.
In-8 [204 x 127] de 303 pp. ; cartonnage demi-toile grise de l’éditeur, jaquette illustrée.
First edition of this collection of short stories in and about California’s Salinas Valley, where Steinbeck was born.
Published on the heels of the success of Mice and Men, this selection of short fiction by John Steinbeck is a bittersweet tour through his beloved Salinas Valley.
Vignettes of farm life in the western US, at times tragic, at times beautiful, are woven with themes such as loss of innocence, racism, and keeping up appearances. Stories in this collection include « The Chrysanthemums and « The Red Pony » novella; also included is « Flight, » published for the first time in this title, making Steinbeck « one of the first American writers to portray sympathetic Hispanic characters » (Laws).
In his exploration of the tensions in rural life between town and country, labourers and owners, Steinbeck gives voice to the lonely and outcast individuals who fall outside the established norms.
“The Red Pony set the artistic and thematic tone for the volume.
With the aim of attempting “to make the reader create the boy’s mind for himself”, Steinbeck intended to explore “the desolation of loss”. By confronting the desolation of loss, one also focuses the challenges that lead to growth.
With such developments in artistic technique, it is indeed accurate to call the stories of The Long Valley “breakthrough” works for Steinbeck. He tested his artistic skills to the limit, exploring and perfecting new ways of telling the story and techniques to use in the telling. These works from the artistic soil out of which the novels of the 1930 grew. They are so important to Steinbeck’s canon that it is surprising that for so long the critical
The short stories of The long Valley continue to attract scholarly attention. Were that not the case, however, the stories would endure in importance for the simple fact of reader interest. Steinbeck’s primary aim as a writer was always to tell a good story. The Long Valley testifies to this aim. The general public as well as those in the academic setting return to these stories over and over. It is primarily there, in the hearts and minds of individual readers, that the significance of these stories persists” (J. H. Timmerman)..
Toutes les nouvelles de la Grande Vallée ont pour cadre la Californie centrale, pays natal de John Steinbeck (1902-1968).
A bright copy preserved in publisher’s binding with dust jacket.
