In Dubious Battle Read Online Free PDF

orderly, rational change and the use of the talents of the gifted in facilitating the effort—as Doc Burton in this novel wished—“to see the whole picture,” so that there might be an end to dubious battles and a more consecrated effort toward constructive change.

Suggestions for Further Reading
    Astro, Richard.
John Steinbeck and Edward F. Ricketts: The Shaping of a Novelist.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1973.
    Benson, Jackson J.
The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer
New York: Viking Press, 1984.
    Bernstein, Irving:
Turbulent Years: A History of American Labor,
1933-1941. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970.
    Fontenrose, Joseph.
John Steinbeck: An Introduction and Interpretation.
New York: Barnes and Noble, 1963.
    French, Warren.
John Steinbeck.
New York: Twayne Publishers, 1961.
    ——.
John Steinbeck Revisited.
New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.
    Levant, Howard.
The Novels of John Steinbeck: A Critical Study.
Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1974.
    Lisca, Peter.
The Wide World of John Steinbeck.
New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1958.
    Martin, George.
Madam Secretary: Frances Perkins.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.
    Owens, Louis.
John Steinbeck’s Re-Vision of America.
Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1985.
    Shimomura, Noboru K.
A Study of John Steinbeck: Mysticism in His Novels.
Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1982.
    Woodress, James. “John Steinbeck: Hostage to Fortune.”
South Atlantic Quarterly
63 (Summer 1964), 385-92.

A Note on the Text
    The Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics edition of
In Dubious Battle
reproduces the original text of the novel, published in 1936 by Covici-Friede, Inc.

In Dubious Battle
    Innumerable force of Spirits armed,
    That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring,
    His utmost power with adverse power opposed
    In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven
    And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?
    All is not lost
—
the unconquerable will,
    And study of revenge, immortal hate,
    And courage never to submit or yield:
    And what is else not to be overcome?
    P ARADISE L OST

1
    AT last it was evening. The lights in the street outside came on, and the Neon restaurant sign on the corner jerked on and off, exploding its hard red light in the air. Into Jim Nolan’s room the sign threw a soft red light. For two hours Jim had been sitting in a small, hard rocking-chair, his feet up on the white bedspread. Now that it was quite dark, he brought his feet down to the floor and slapped the sleeping legs. For a moment he sat quietly while waves of itching rolled up and down his calves; then he stood up and reached for the unshaded light. The furnished room lighted up—the big white bed with its chalk-white spread, the golden-oak bureau, the clean red carpet worn through to a brown warp.
    Jim stepped to the washstand in the corner and washed his hands and combed water through his hair with his fingers. Looking into the mirror fastened across the corner of the room above the washstand, he peered into his own small grey eyes for a moment. From an inside pocket he took a comb fitted with a pocket clip and combed his straight brown hair, and parted it neatly on the side. He wore a dark suit and a grey flannel shirt, open at the throat. With a towel he dried the soap and dropped the thin bar into a paper bag that stood open on the bed. A Gillette razor was in the bag, four pairs of new socks and another grey flannel shirt. He glanced about the room and then twisted the mouth of the bag closed. For amoment more he looked casually into the mirror, then turned off the light and went out the door.
    He walked down narrow, uncarpeted stairs and knocked at a door beside the front entrance. It opened a little. A woman looked at him and then opened the door wider—a large blonde woman with a dark mole beside her mouth.
    She smiled at him. “
Mis
-ter Nolan,” she said.
    “I’m going away,” said Jim.
    “But you’ll be back, you’ll want me to hold your