The Murder

by John Steinbeck

Combining despair, determination and optimism, the writing of John Steinbeck gave a powerful voice to the suffering poor of America during the Depression and beyond, and Penguin have made the whole range of his most well-loved novels including The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men available to millions of readers. These four tales consider the struggle for survival in 1940s America, against a backdrop of majestic beauty.

- The Chrysanthemums
- Breakfast
- The Vigilante
- The Murder.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, American, Literary Fiction

55 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

John Ernst Steinbeck was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception". He has been called "a giant of American letters."
During his writing career, he authored 33 books, with one book coauthored alongside Edward F. Ricketts, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He is widely known for the comic novels Tortilla Flat (1935) and Cannery Row (1945), the multi-generation epic East of Eden (1952), and the novellas The Red Pony (1933) and Of Mice and Men (1937). The Pulitzer Prize–winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is considered Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of the American literary canon. By the 75th anniversary of its publishing date, it had sold 14 million copies.
Most of Steinbeck's work is set in central California, particularly in the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges region. His works frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

The four short stories in this small collection - The Chrysanthemums, Breakfast, The Vigilante, and The Murder - are set in early 20th century America, focusing mostly on rural communities.

Of the four, I wouldn’t say any really stood out as particularly great which is disappointing as John Steinbeck is easily one of my favourite writers.

The Murder is about an American farmer who marries an eastern European woman but the gulf between their cultures proves too great and they drift apart. She finds solace in another man’s arms and, well, given the title, there’s only one way that goes!

The Vigilante is about two men who attend a lynching of a black man and discuss it afterwards. Both are a bit rattled but seem ok with what their friends and neighbours got up to that night and no punishment of any sort is meted out.

Breakfast is a short portrait of working men in the Depression, chasing farm shifts to make a living and grateful just to be eating breakfast - the kind of men Steinbeck is best remembered for writing about.

The Chrysanthemums is about a farmer’s wife whose limitations on her life choices frustrate her, underlining the lack of women’s rights and opportunities at the time.

All are pretty grim slice-of-life stories that paint an unpleasant picture of America in the 1930s. That said, the stories didn’t leave much of an impact. It isn’t the subject matter I disliked so much as it was the un-impressiveness of the stories themselves. They weren’t as powerful as his novels nor as memorable. Granted it’s a different medium so he doesn’t have the same amount of room to build things up but I was hoping for something more of the great Steinbeck in these tales than what I read here.

Some writers can write short stories and some can’t; Steinbeck seems to be in the latter (his short novels like The Red Pony and The Pearl are also among his weakest prose efforts).

[Mahsa · Rating 3 out of 5]

داستان کوتاه

نتیجه اخلاقی داستان:
برای جلب توجه و محبت زنان یوگسلاوی (سابق) باید آنها را زد... 😐

[Zoë Birss · Rating 5 out of 5]

(This review is for the single short story, The Murder, by John Steinbeck)

Steinbeck has an understated style of writing that is so frighteningly disarming. The worlds he creates with an economy of words are so very real, perfectly normal, beautiful in their everyday familiarity, that even a minor nuance of change in expression or tone can have great impact. This is multiple times true when a steady and familiar setting is disturbed by horror and death.

I read horror fiction. This short story by Steinbeck is no horror. Yet I am as shaken by what I have just read as I have been by much of the far more extreme horror that I've read in the last year. This is unsettling.

This was also a fantastic way to follow The Chrysanthemums, a story which is also bound in this book. Both deal with gender roles and relationships and tensions.

This is powerful. I recommend both of these stories, alone or together.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[acko · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just ew.

[Bud Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The layering of this story with the idea of a castle, the need for a new space, and the various ideas of property and ownership were well constructed. Steinbeck is masterful in cloaking Jim Moore, murderer and wife abuser, as a knight protecting his home, his castle and his property. The mountains around his home are described as castles. He paints Jim as a victim, marrying the beautiful, foreign, Jelka. She cannot communicate with him, and so he must seek solace with the prostitutes of the Three Star. But then, the story shifts and we read a story about the social injustices of domestic abuse, and the lack rights of women in society. Ironically, Steinbeck portrays Jim as upright citizen. Jim Moore is awed and admired in the community after, not before, but after committing adultery, killing a man, and beating his wife into submission.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read any Steinbeck in years, and I'd forgotten how good his writing is. Like Of Mice and Men (the only other book I've read of his), the short stories of Murder capture glimpses of America's great depression. They very casually show the issues that arose on a day to day basis: the way women were kept only as housewives, the way men could lynch a black man and be branded vigilantes, the way a rich white man could get away with murder. It's profound in that the every day style - the small glimpses of a person's life - show how something considered shocking today was a normal occurrence. So far, the books Penguin released for their 70th anniversary are proving to be very interesting, though short, pieces of work that display excellent writing and unusual plot lines.

[Marie S. · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I have to sit through another man killing someone because his wife is doing exactly the same as he does, I'm going to die. I'm so angry, it's not even funny. I wish all that literature could burn I'll probably be more reasonable in a few days, but I'm not recommending it and I'm never going to re-read it.

[Steve Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steinbeck is just one of the greatest authors whose descriptions of emotions are just superb, read this for an excellent example.

[Zohal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Complete waste of my time.

[silver · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars
Except for the last story, 'Murder', I didn't quite understand the points or messages of the short stories. My being confused and not knowing about the short story aspect until I looked it up on Goodreads 3/4 into the book most likely didn't help much, either, haha.

I did like 'Murder', but I am still a bit confused about the main message. "Punishing your wife after she cheats on you with her cousin will make her adore you more"?? Uhh, you do you, I guess... (please don't actually do this. Just divorce her)

[Xristina Karvouni · Rating 2 out of 5]

A selection of short writings by Steinbeck including The Murder, which tells the story of an American man named Jim Moore and his Slavic wife Jelka Sepic in early 20th century California. It touches themes of marriage, infidelity along with cultural differences. It's nice reading it to pass time, but it's nothing special.

[Sonia Ruseler · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like Steinbeck; hate this selection of stories. One is from the point of view of a lyncher, and how lynching left him feeling as satisfied and drained as having sex. Another story justifies wife-beating, and how much happier the wife is after being whipped.
WTF???

[Tim Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book recently. A couple stories I had not read. A couple years ago I did a major Steinbeck read including a large biography and every book he ever wrote. One of my favorite authors.

[aleksandra ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Required read for class, but what the?

[des]

umm

[Thai · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s weird for a short story.
Man’s wife is lonely.
She fancy another man.
Man is a jealous.
Therefore murder is needed.

[Filip Deptula · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 excellent short stories.

[Enyu Hu · Rating 3 out of 5]

short stories that perfectly encapsulate the perverted but also beautiful nature of rural america. a good introduction to steinbeck

[Bahare · Rating 5 out of 5]

درجه یک با قلم عجیب اشتاین بک

[Sandra Donegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steinbeck has a way with words that makes the reader feel like they are a part of the scene he is setting.

[tru · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like the title and cover oversold this very short collection of four very short, understated stories. I enjoyed the understated style, particularly in the one titled 'The Chrysanthemums'.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't help but love a story about violence and raw vengeance. This, paired with Steinbeck's delicate writing, makes for a vivid story that requires a moment of time to digest.

[Aniela Semeniuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic book by steinbeck

[Erica Smythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories are short but powerful. John Steinbeck knew how to use minimal words to maximum effect in these four short stories.

[Coenraad · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Steinbeck's finely crafted stories are set - as much of his writing - in the western USA, where life is tough and not always precisely regulated by law. Besides the themes of poverty, or, sometimes a more affluent lifestyle which is still extremely hard work because of man's grappling with nature, other themes come to the foreground. In 'The vigilante' racism underlies the lynching that takes place, but other relationships and attitudes are also investigated. In 'The chrysanthemums' there is an enigmatic look at a marriage relationship; this is also true of 'The murder', where marital fidelity and domestic violence also come into play. And then, memorably, the joy of being human and humane, of sharing the good things in life, in the deceptively short text called 'Breakfast'.

In drie van die Steinbeck verhale wat hier aangebied word, word moeilike, subtiele, skaars verwoordbare verhoudings en houdings teenoor die lewe uitgebeeld. Daarenteen, in 'Breakfast', is die lewe vir 'n kort periode positief; die karakters voel sterk en suksesvol, mededeelsaam en menslik. Steinbeck se skryfwerk is uitstekend, onopgesmuk - dit roep die landskap en die karakters wat daaruit voortkom, helder voor die gees.

[Julie Rylie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very small book with short stories from Steinbeck. I have to say that the only story worth reading was actually the one that gives name to the book. About this american farmer guy that marries a quiet polish girl and one day he finds her fucking her cousin in his bed and kills the guy and doesn't get arrested for that (the authorities knew about).

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four slight but enjoyable stories by American icon Steinbeck