The Pearl

Author: Steinbeck, Mr John

Reading age: from c 12 years

Published on 7 August 2014 by Penguin Books Ltd (Penguin Classics) in the United Kingdom as part of 'the Penguin Clothbound Classics' series.

Hardback | 128 pages
132 x 205 x 15 | 232g

The Pearl is Steinbeck's flawless parable about wealth and the evil it can bring. When Kino, an Indian pearl-diver, finds 'the Pearl of the world' he believes that his life will be magically transformed. He will marry Juana in church and their little boy, Coyotito, will be able to attend school. Obsessed by his dreams, Kino is blind to the greed, fear and even violence the pearl arouses in him and his neighbours. Haunting and lyrical, The Pearl sets the values of the civilized world against those of the primitive and finds them tragically inadequate.