Of Mice and Men

George and Lennie are travelling together across Depression-era California, looking for work. George is small and sharp; Lennie is enormous, immensely strong, and has the mind of a child. They have a dream — a small piece of land, their own, where no one can tell them what to do and Lennie can tend rabbits. It is not a big dream. But it is theirs.

John Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men as an experiment in the play-novella form — it has the dramatic economy of a play and the novelistic depth of character — and the experiment succeeded beyond any reasonable expectation. The novel is a masterpiece of compression: every sentence carries weight, every detail is necessary, and the ending — which you see coming from the opening pages and cannot do anything to stop — is among the most devastating in American literature.

One of the most widely read and studied texts in the English-speaking world. Still, despite that familiarity, completely devastating on every reading. A masterpiece of economy, compassion, and craft. Published by Penguin Modern Classics.