Cover of The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck, 1939

American novelist, 1902–1968. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1940.

The Grapes of Wrath is a 1939 novel by John Steinbeck. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1940.

All-Time Canon
  • Prize Winner
  • Stood the Test of Time

On 10 of the 16 lists it was eligible for.

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At a glance

Author
John Steinbeck
First published
1939
Length
528 pages (UK paperback)
Awards
Genre
Literary fiction, Political, Class and society

Is The Grapes of Wrath worth reading?

10 of the 16 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them 100 Best Novels (board's list) (Modern Library) and 100 books of the century (Le Monde).

ListPlaceOriginal
100 Best Novels (board's list) (Modern Library, 1998)No. 10See the list
100 books of the century (Le Monde, 1999)No. 7See the list
100 Books to Read in a Lifetime (Amazon.co.uk, 2014)ListedSee the list
100 novels everyone should read (The Telegraph, 2009)No. 49See the list
All-Time 100 Novels (Time, 2005)ListedSee the list
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (winners and finalists) (Columbia University, 1940)WinnerSee the list
Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian, 2026)No. 4See the list
The 100 best novels written in English (The Guardian / Observer, 2015)ListedSee the list
The Big Read top 100 (BBC, 2003)No. 29See the list
The Great American Read (PBS, 2018)ListedSee the list

Best edition of The Grapes of Wrath

The edition we link to is the Penguin Classics paperback (2000), 528 pages.

Publisher
Penguin Classics (paperback, 2000)
Pages
528
ISBN
9780141185064

How critics, prizes and readers rate The Grapes of Wrath

Prize juries rate it most highly: it earned 100% of the points available on prize lists, against 72% on readers' and booksellers' lists and 57% on critics' lists.

Critics
57%
Prizes
100%
Readers and booksellers
72%

Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work

Books like The Grapes of Wrath

If you liked The Grapes of Wrath, try East of Eden, Catch-22 or Midnight's Children.

Lists used on this page