Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Series Editor's Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Cup of Gold (1929)
- 2 The Pastures of Heaven (1932)
- 3 To a God Unknown (1933)
- 4 Tortilla Flat (1935)
- 5 In Dubious Battle (1936)
- 6 Of Mice and Men (the novel, 1937)
- 7 The Red Pony (1937)
- 8 Of Mice and Men (the play, 1937)
- 9 The Long Valley (1938)
- 10 The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
- 11 The Forgotten Village (1941)
- 12 Sea of Cortez (1941)
- 13 The Moon Is Down (the novel, 1942)
- 14 The Moon Is Down (the play, 1942)
- 15 Bombs Away (1942)
- 16 Cannery Row (1945)
- 17 The Wayward Bus (1947)
- 18 The Pearl (1947)
- 19 A Russian Journal (1948)
- 20 Burning Bright (the novel, 1950)
- 21 Burning Bright (the play, 1950)
- 22 The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951)
- 23 East of Eden (1952)
- 24 Sweet Thursday (1954)
- 25 The Short Reign of Pippin IV (1957)
- 26 Once There Was a War (1958)
- 27 The Winter of Our Discontent (1961)
- 28 Travels with Charley in Search of America (1962)
- 29 America and Americans (1966)
- 30 Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969)
- 31 The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976)
- 32 Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath 1938–1941 (1989)
- Index
18 - The Pearl (1947)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Series Editor's Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Cup of Gold (1929)
- 2 The Pastures of Heaven (1932)
- 3 To a God Unknown (1933)
- 4 Tortilla Flat (1935)
- 5 In Dubious Battle (1936)
- 6 Of Mice and Men (the novel, 1937)
- 7 The Red Pony (1937)
- 8 Of Mice and Men (the play, 1937)
- 9 The Long Valley (1938)
- 10 The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
- 11 The Forgotten Village (1941)
- 12 Sea of Cortez (1941)
- 13 The Moon Is Down (the novel, 1942)
- 14 The Moon Is Down (the play, 1942)
- 15 Bombs Away (1942)
- 16 Cannery Row (1945)
- 17 The Wayward Bus (1947)
- 18 The Pearl (1947)
- 19 A Russian Journal (1948)
- 20 Burning Bright (the novel, 1950)
- 21 Burning Bright (the play, 1950)
- 22 The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951)
- 23 East of Eden (1952)
- 24 Sweet Thursday (1954)
- 25 The Short Reign of Pippin IV (1957)
- 26 Once There Was a War (1958)
- 27 The Winter of Our Discontent (1961)
- 28 Travels with Charley in Search of America (1962)
- 29 America and Americans (1966)
- 30 Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969)
- 31 The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976)
- 32 Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath 1938–1941 (1989)
- Index
Summary
Robert E. Kingery.
“The Pearl.”
Library Journal, 72
(1 November 1947), 1540.
Retelling of an old Mexican folk tale- the finding of the Great Pearl by Kino, a fisherman and what then happened to him, his wife Juana and their baby Coyotito, before Kino threw the pearl into the sea again. Within that simple frame, Steinbeck achieves a major artistic triumph full of subtle overtones, large fundamentals and universal significance. This is Steinbeck in full stature and in culmination, and is, therefore, without reservation, absolutely essential in all collections…
Maxwell Geismar.
“Fable Retold.”
Saturday Review, 30
(22 November 1947), 14–15.
This is an old Mexican folk tale which John Steinbeck has recast in his familiar paisano vein. It originally appeared in The Woman's Home Companion under the title of “The Pearl of the World” and now, with full-page original drawings by Orozco, it forms a modest and attractive little volume. But it also raises some serious questions about almost all Steinbeck's recent books and his work as a whole.
The story deals with a Mexican fisherman named Kino who is devoted to his wife, Juana, and his child, Coyotito. The child is bitten by a scorpion and the white doctor refuses to treat it. Kino discovered a huge pearl, the greatest pearl in the world according to his Mexican neighbors. The doctor tries to steal it, the pearl merchants (also white) try to cheat him out of it, and Kino is forced, in what is apparently an inevitable sequence of tragic consequences, to flee from his village and to murder the “trackers” who come after him.
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- Information
- John SteinbeckThe Contemporary Reviews, pp. 313 - 326Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996