Tortilla Flat
First edition
|
|
| Author | John Steinbeck |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Ruth Gannett |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Covici-Friede |
|
Publication date
|
1935 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| OCLC | 576516 |
| 813.52 | |
| LC Class | PS3537.T3234 |
Tortilla Flat (1935) is an early John Steinbeck novel set in Monterey, California. The novel was the author's first clear critical and commercial success.
The book portrays a group of paisanos—literally, countrymen—a small band of errant friends enjoying life and wine in the days after the end of the Great War.
Tortilla Flat was made into a film in 1942. Steinbeck would later return to some of the panhandling locals of Monterey (though not the Spanish paisanos of the Flat) in his novel Cannery Row (1945).
Above the town of Monterey on the California coast lies the shabby district of Tortilla Flat, inhabited by a loose gang of jobless locals of Mexican-Indian-Spanish-Caucasian descent (who typically claim pure Spanish blood).
The central character Danny inherits two houses from his grandfather where he and his friends go to live. Danny's house, and Danny's friends, Steinbeck compares to the Round Table, and the Knights of the Round Table. Most of the action is set in the time of Steinbeck's own late teenage and young adult years, shortly after World War I.
The following chapter titles from the work, along with short summaries, outline the adventures the dipsomaniacal group endure in order to procure red wine and friendship.
1 How Danny, home from the wars, found himself an heir, and how he swore to protect the helpless. — After working as a mule-driver during The Great War, Danny returns to find he has inherited two houses from his deceased grandfather. Danny gets drunk and goes to jail. He and the jailer drink wine at Torelli's. After escaping, Danny talks his friend, a clever man named Pilon into sharing his brandy and his houses.
2 How Pilon was lured by greed of position to forsake Danny's hospitality. — Danny fails to get the water turned on. Pilon kills a rooster, rents Danny's second house for money which it is understood he will never pay, and exchanges paper roses for a gallon of Señora Torelli's wine.
...
Wikipedia