THE BOOK OF DISQUIET
(WRITTEN c.1913–35; PUBLISHED
1982), FERNANDO PESSOADescribed by Portuguese author
Pessoa (1888–1935) as a “factless
aut obio g raphy,” The Book of Disquiet
was only published 47 years after
his death. A Modernist masterpiece,
it is a fluid, kaleidoscopic, and
unfinished mosaic of fragments that
combine glimpses of self-revelation
with reveries and maxims of literary
criticism and philosophy. Pessoa
filtered his writing through the use
of heteronyms—invented authorial
personae—and this highly original
book gives a spellbinding insight
into the process. Although a study
in loneliness and despair, the story
has a brilliant inventiveness that
makes it engaging.OF MICE AND MEN
(1937), JOHN STEINBECKSteinbeck’s most popular book and
widely praised at the time of its
publication, Of Mice and Men is
set in 1930s’ California during theGreat Depression. It follows two
itinerant ranch workers whose
dream is to have a small farm of
their own. An incident involving
a ranch-owner’s daughter propels
the story into tragedy. Steinbeck’s
themes include the hardship of
penury, our desperate wish for
comfort in loneliness, and the way
aggressive self-interest can flourish
in the weak as well as the strong.NAUSEA
(1938), JEAN-PAUL SARTREA major work of existentialism,
Nausea was the first novel by
French philosopher Jean-Paul
Sartre (1905–80), who was later
awarded—but declined to accept—
the 1964 Nobel Prize. In a seaside
town an introverted historian is
captivated by the idea that his
intellectual and spiritual freedoms
are circumscribed by the objects
and situations that impinge upon
him. The consequence is nausea,
which turns into a profound angst
and self-loathing that undermine
his sanity. He begins to feel that
relationships are empty: thestruggle to make sense of the world
can only be conducted within
himself. Eventually the protagonist
views reality’s indifference to his life
as liberating, since he is now free to
create his own version of meaning,
with all the responsibility it brings.THE GRAPES OF WRATH
(1939), JOHN STEINBECKLike Of Mice and Men (see left),
Steinbeck’s masterpiece The
Grapes of Wrath is set in the 1930s
during the Great Depression. It
focuses on the suffering of the
Joads, an Oklahoma dust-bowl
family who drive a car converted
into a truck along Route 66 to
California to find work. Like many
other economic migrants, they flee
drought, dispossession, and unpaid
debts. This powerful novel, which
conveys the resilience of the human
spirit under stress through poetic
prose and sharp characterization,
publicized the exploitation of
migrant workers in America during
the 1930s and drew attention to the
cause of social improvement. While
the Joads are imperfect, they
gradually exhibit a capacity for
empathy: the final scene
(controversial at the time of the
book’s publication), features an act
of great compassion by the family’s
teenage daughter, Rose of Sharon.MOTHER COURAGE AND
HER CHILDREN
(1941), BERTOLT BRECHTAn important antiwar play, Mother
Courage and Her Children is set
during the Thirty Years’ War of
1618–48, although its ramifications
are contemporary with the time of
the author: German poet, theater244 FURTHER READING
John Steinbeck
A Nobel Prize winner, John
Steinbeck explored in fiction
the relationship between
humankind and the land. Born,
in 1902 in Salinas, California—
most of his stories were set in
the central and southern regions
of the state—he was the son of a
library treasurer. He majored in
English at Stanford University
but left in 1925 without a degree.
His first successes as a writer
date from the early 1930s, and in
1940 he won the Pulitzer Prize
for Fiction for The Grapes ofWrath. In addition to writing
fiction Steinbeck served as a war
reporter, covering World War II
in 1943 and the Vietnam War in- He returned to California
in 1944 and concentrated on local
themes in his fiction. He died in
New York, where he was living
at the time, in 1968 at 66.
Key works1937 Of Mice and Men (see
above)
1939 The Grapes of Wrath (see
above)
1952 East of EdenUS_240-245_FR_CH5.indd 244 08/10/2015 13:08