The Grapes of Wrath is immensely ambitious, and there is nothing old-fashioned about that: America's preoccupation with the 'big book', the Great American Novel, seems an anchored constant in its floating literary consciousness.

An epic story of the 1930s Depression which traces the fate of one destitute family among the thousands who fled the Dust Bowl to the promise of California, THE GRAPES OF WRATH awakened the conscience of a nation. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize on its appearance in 1939,Steinbeck's novel has been compared in its impact and influence with Uncle Tom's Cabin.