Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
My Short Novels / John Steinbeck 15
I. Tortilla Flat
1. Tortilla Flat and the Creation of a Legend / Joseph Fontenrose 19
2. Nonteleological Thinking in Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat / Robert Gentry 31
II. Of Mice and Men
3. A Historical Introduction to Of Mice and Men / Anne Loftis 39
4. Of Mice and Men: John Steinbeck's Parable of the Curse of Cain / William Goldhurst 48
5. Of George and Lennie and Curley's Wife: Sweet Violence in Steinbeck's Eden / Mark Spilka 59
III. The Red Pony
6. The Red Pony as Story Cycle and Film / Warren French 71
7. John Steinbeck's The Red Pony: A Study in Narrative Technique / Howard Levant 84
IV. The Moon is Down
8. Dr. Winter's Dramatic Functions in The Moon is Down / Tetsumaro Hayashi 95
9. Steinbeck's "European" Play-Novella: The Moon is Down / John Ditsky 101
V. Cannery Row
10. Cannery Row: Escape into the Counterculture / Peter Lisca 111
11. "Some Philosophers in the Sun": Steinbeck's Cannery Row / Robert S. Hughes Jr. 119
12. Cannery Row and Steinbeck as Spokesman for the "Folk Tradition" / Jackson J. Benson 132
VI. The Pearl
13. The Shadow and the Pearl: Jungian Patterns in The Pearl / John H. Timmerman 143
14. Precious Bane: Mining the Fool's Gold of The Pearl / Michael J. Meyer 161
15. Steinbeck's The Pearl: Legend, Film, Novel / Roy S. Simmonds 173
VII. Sweet Thursday
16. Steinbeck's Version of the Pastoral / Charles R. Metzger 185
17. Critics and Common Denominators: Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday / Louis Owens 195
18. Steinbeck's Bittersweet Thursday / Richard Astro 204
VIII. Burning Bright
19. Burning Bright: The Shining of Joe Saul / Carroll Britch and Clifford Lewis 217
20. Straining for Profundity: Steinbeck's Burning Bright and Sweet Thursday / Mimi Reisel Gladstein 234
IX. The Short Reign of Pippin IV
21. Steinbeck's "Deep Dissembler": The Short Reign of Pippin IV / Louis Owens 249
22. The Narrative Structure of The Short Reign of Pippin IV / Howard Levant 257
X. Overview
23. Steinbeck and the Stage / Robert E. Morsberger 271
Notes 295
Steinbeck's Short Novels: Comprehensive Checklist of Criticism 315
Contributors 347

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Demonstrates that even in the short novels there is more depth and sophistication than has generally been acknowledged