What do you think?
The Murder
A short story.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2005
About the author
John Steinbeck
1,129 books29.2k followersJohn 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
April 10, 2015
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).
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).
April 11, 2026
Il soggetto è di un cinismo troppo spietato, ma la regia è perfetta.
Ebbene sì, Steinbeck sarebbe stato pure un ottimo autore Horror.
Ebbene sì, Steinbeck sarebbe stato pure un ottimo autore Horror.
January 21, 2020
داستان کوتاه
نتیجه اخلاقی داستان:
برای جلب توجه و محبت زنان یوگسلاوی (سابق) باید آنها را زد... 😐
نتیجه اخلاقی داستان:
برای جلب توجه و محبت زنان یوگسلاوی (سابق) باید آنها را زد... 😐
June 21, 2017
(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.
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.
January 24, 2026
(Audiolibro 2026) Titolo italiano: L'omicidio
Racconto terribile nella sua narrazione composta e senza tensione ma che raggiunge l'effetto devastatore che in fondo ci si aspetta in quanto annunciato dal titolo.
Devastante per la naturalezza con cui un crimine sia considerato o non considerato tale a seconda del lato della coppia da cui si guarda: l'uomo può impunenente tradire, quasi fosse colpa della moglie poco do compagnia, mentre se è lei a farlo merita di essere frustata e l'omicidio dell'amante di essere archiviato. Ed infine la moglie deve accettarlo sommessamente e tornare ai suoi compiti domestici come nulla fosse.
Sempre splendido lo stile di Steinbeck.
Racconto terribile nella sua narrazione composta e senza tensione ma che raggiunge l'effetto devastatore che in fondo ci si aspetta in quanto annunciato dal titolo.
Devastante per la naturalezza con cui un crimine sia considerato o non considerato tale a seconda del lato della coppia da cui si guarda: l'uomo può impunenente tradire, quasi fosse colpa della moglie poco do compagnia, mentre se è lei a farlo merita di essere frustata e l'omicidio dell'amante di essere archiviato. Ed infine la moglie deve accettarlo sommessamente e tornare ai suoi compiti domestici come nulla fosse.
Sempre splendido lo stile di Steinbeck.
June 10, 2026
John what the fuck
December 26, 2022
Just ew.
January 19, 2019
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.
August 10, 2014
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.
May 21, 2022
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.
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.
August 31, 2018
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.
July 25, 2011
Steinbeck is just one of the greatest authors whose descriptions of emotions are just superb, read this for an excellent example.
May 3, 2016
Complete waste of my time.
July 29, 2026
📖 قتل | جان استاینبک
امتیاز من: ⭐️ ۷.۵/۱۰
چندمین کتابیه که از جان استاینبکِ عزیزم میخونم و باز هم مثل همیشه قلمش برام جذاب بود. 🤍🎀 (و از ریدینگ اسلامپ نجاتم داد✨🙂↔️)
این کتاب از چند داستان کوتاه تشکیل شده که بیشتر از اینکه روی اتفاقات تمرکز داشته باشن، روی ذهن و ذات انسان دست میذارن. موقع خوندن بعضی داستانها، مخصوصاً «مار»، حس میکردم چیزی مبهمه و مفهوم پشت داستانها واضح نیستن؛ اما همین رازآلود بودن باعث شد بعد از تموم شدن کتاب هم بهش فکر کنم.
کتاب «قتل» از اون کتابهاییه که ذهنتون رو درگیر میکنه و مجبورتون میکنه دنبال معنای پنهانش بگردید.
در مجموع تجربهی متفاوت و لذتبخشی بود و خوشحالم که یکی دیگه از آثار جان استاینبک رو خوندم. 💘
امتیاز من: ⭐️ ۷.۵/۱۰
چندمین کتابیه که از جان استاینبکِ عزیزم میخونم و باز هم مثل همیشه قلمش برام جذاب بود. 🤍🎀 (و از ریدینگ اسلامپ نجاتم داد✨🙂↔️)
این کتاب از چند داستان کوتاه تشکیل شده که بیشتر از اینکه روی اتفاقات تمرکز داشته باشن، روی ذهن و ذات انسان دست میذارن. موقع خوندن بعضی داستانها، مخصوصاً «مار»، حس میکردم چیزی مبهمه و مفهوم پشت داستانها واضح نیستن؛ اما همین رازآلود بودن باعث شد بعد از تموم شدن کتاب هم بهش فکر کنم.
کتاب «قتل» از اون کتابهاییه که ذهنتون رو درگیر میکنه و مجبورتون میکنه دنبال معنای پنهانش بگردید.
در مجموع تجربهی متفاوت و لذتبخشی بود و خوشحالم که یکی دیگه از آثار جان استاینبک رو خوندم. 💘
August 2, 2026
This little book surprised me.
It’s only four stories and just over fifty pages, but Steinbeck packs a lot into them—loneliness, disappointment, poverty, violence, and a few moments of genuine warmth. Some parts are uncomfortable and definitely show their age, but I never felt like I was wasting my time.
What I liked most was how much Steinbeck could say without overexplaining anything. The people in these stories feel ordinary, flawed, and sometimes impossible to understand, which is probably why they stayed with me.
A small book, but not a light one.
⭐ 5 Stars — Loved It / Added to the Library
This exact Pocket Penguin has earned a permanent place on my shelf.
It’s only four stories and just over fifty pages, but Steinbeck packs a lot into them—loneliness, disappointment, poverty, violence, and a few moments of genuine warmth. Some parts are uncomfortable and definitely show their age, but I never felt like I was wasting my time.
What I liked most was how much Steinbeck could say without overexplaining anything. The people in these stories feel ordinary, flawed, and sometimes impossible to understand, which is probably why they stayed with me.
A small book, but not a light one.
⭐ 5 Stars — Loved It / Added to the Library
This exact Pocket Penguin has earned a permanent place on my shelf.
August 18, 2025
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.
April 14, 2022
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???
WTF???
May 17, 2019
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.
January 22, 2020
Required read for class, but what the?
Read
December 13, 2021umm
January 13, 2023
It’s weird for a short story.
Man’s wife is lonely.
She fancy another man.
Man is a jealous.
Therefore murder is needed.
Man’s wife is lonely.
She fancy another man.
Man is a jealous.
Therefore murder is needed.
September 3, 2023
4 excellent short stories.
September 12, 2023
short stories that perfectly encapsulate the perverted but also beautiful nature of rural america. a good introduction to steinbeck
November 11, 2023
درجه یک با قلم عجیب اشتاین بک
May 4, 2024
Steinbeck has a way with words that makes the reader feel like they are a part of the scene he is setting.
August 8, 2024
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'.
August 14, 2024
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.
February 12, 2025
Another fantastic book by steinbeck
February 13, 2025
The stories are short but powerful. John Steinbeck knew how to use minimal words to maximum effect in these four short stories.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews