Staff Pick
The third and final of Steinbeck's "play-novelettes" (after
Of Mice and Men and
The Moon Is Down),
Burning Bright is a brief yet remarkably powerful exploration of pride and paternity. Steinbeck considered the work an experiment, "a combination of many old forms." In the foreword he outlines his reasons for attempting this synthesis, well aware of the format's inherent obstacles: "The difficulties of the technique are very great. The writer whose whole training has lain in the play is content to leave physical matters to his director or set designer and has not learned to use description as a fiction writer does. On the other hand, the fiction writer has been trained to let his description pick up his dialogue, and he tends to depart from the tight structure of the theater. If a writer is not accustomed to
seeing his story before his eyes, his use of this form is not likely to be successful." While the form itself is, perhaps, not as potent as either of its parts alone, Steinbeck's endeavoring to craft a new literary structure is both brave and admirable.
Burning Bright bears many similarities to Greek drama, though lacks its depth and brilliance. As a morality play, Steinbeck succeeds in conjuring a situation wherein individuals struggle with the bounds of propriety and duty. His focus on overcoming the work's structural constraints, however, undermines the overall effect of the ethical dilemma he directs the reader to consider. To be fair, this cannot be an easy format to write within, and, perhaps because of that, the book (as well as the stage play) was met with a rather cool reception. Nonetheless, this work further demonstrates Steinbeck's commitment to exploring human compassion when confronted with hardship. He is neither sanctimonious nor reductive, but seemingly content to craft a tale that illustrates the essence of the ongoing human drama. This is not Steinbeck's strongest outing, yet that is no reason to forsake it altogether. Like any intriguing work of art,
Burning Bright raises more questions than it ever attempts to answer.
It is the race, the species that must go staggering on. Mordeen, our ugly little species, weak and ugly, torn with insanities, violent and quarrelsome, sensing evil — the only species that knows evil and practices it — the only one that sense cleanness and is dirty, that knows about cruelty and is unbearably cruel.
Our dear race, born without courage but very brave, born with a flickering intelligence and yet with beauty in its hands. What animal has made beauty, created it, save only we? With all our horrors and our faults, somewhere in us there is a shining. This is the most important of all facts. There is a shining.
Recommended By Jeremy G., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
The last of John Steinbecks play-novelettes,
Burning Bright was the authors final attempt after 1937s
Of Mice and Men and 1942s
The Moon is Down to create what he saw as a new, experimental literary form. Four scenes, four people: the husband who yearns for a son, ignorant of his own sterility; the wife who commits adultery to fulfill her husbands wish; the father of the child; and the outsider whose actions will affect them all. In this turn on a medieval morality play, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck casts an unwavering light on these four intertwined lives, revealing in their finely drawn circumstances the universal contours of vulnerability and passion, desperation and desire. This edition features an introduction and notes for further reading by Steinbeck scholar John Ditsky.
Synopsis
Written as a play in story form, this novel traces the story of a man ignorant of his own sterility, a wife who commits adultery to give her husband a child, the father of that child, and the outsider whose actions affect them all
Synopsis
The last of John Steinbeck's play-novelettes and his final attempt, after 1937's Of Mice and Men and 1942's The Moon is Down, to create what he saw as a new, experimental literary form A Penguin Classic
Four scenes, four people: the husband who yearns for a son, ignorant of his own sterility; the wife who commits adultery to fulfill her husband's wish; the father of the child; and the outsider whose actions will affect them all. In this turn on a medieval morality play, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck casts an unwavering light on these four intertwined lives, revealing in their finely drawn circumstances the universal contours of vulnerability and passion, desperation and desire. This edition features an introduction and notes for further reading by Steinbeck scholar John Ditsky.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Synopsis
Four scenes, four people: the husband who yearns for a son, ignorant of his own sterility; the wife who commits adultery to fulfill her husbands wish; the father of the child; and the outsider whose actions will affect them all. In this novel of extraordinary sensitivity and insight, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck casts an unwavering light on these four intertwined lives, revealing in their finely drawn circumstances the universal contours of vulnerability and passion, desperation and desire.