East of Eden is a 1952 family saga novel by American author and Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck. Exploring themes of depravity, beneficence, love , the struggle for acceptance, greatness, capacity for self-destruction, guilt and freedom. Featuring the lives of two families, the Trasks and the Hamilton, and their interwoven stories. The Hamilton family in the novel is said to be based on the real-life family of Samuel Hamilton, Steinbeck’s maternal grandfather.

Steinbeck carefully establishes the setting with the description of the Salinas Valley in Central California. The story between the beginning of the twentieth century and the end of the World War 1. Set in Connecticut and Massachusetts, go as far back as the American Civil War and serve as a back history of Adam Trask his brother Charles, their father Cyrus and Cathy Ames.

Adam Trask newly-wed with newly inherited wealth from his late father arrives in California and settles with his pregnant wife Cathy Ames in the Salinas Valley. Cathy had tried without Adam’s knowledge, tried to abort the pregnancy with a knitting needle. In their new home she warns Adam that she had not wanted to move to California and plans to leave as soon as she can. Adam dismisses her saying “Nonsese!”

Cathy eventually gives birth to twin boys, shoots Adam in the shoulder after convincing him to unlock the bedroom door, and flees.  Adam survives and falls into deep depression. His Chinese-American servant Lee and his neighbour, the inventive Irish immigrant Samuel Hamilton, rouse Adam out of it enough for him to name his sons Aron and Caleb, after biblical characters.

Lee becomes a good friend and adopted family member and has long philosophical talks with Adam and Samuel particularly about the story of Cain and Abel. Maintaining that it has been imperfectly translated in English-language Bibles.

Meanwhile Cathy becomes a prostitute at the most respectable brothel in the city of Salinas. She renames herself “Kate Albey”, ingratiates herself with the madam, murders her, and inherits the business. She makes her new brother notorious as a den of sexual sadism and a source of blackmail on the rich and powerful of Salinas Valley. Adam’s sons, Caleb and Aaron echoing Cain and Abel grow up oblivious of their mother’s situation. They are opposites Aron is virtutous and dutiful. Cal wild and rebellious. At an early age, Aron meets a girl, Abra Bacon from a well-to-do family, and the two fall in love. Although there are rumours around town that Cal and Aron’s Mother is not dead but is actually still in Salinas, the boys do not yet know that she is Kate.

Inspired by Samuel’s inventiveness, Adam starts an ill-fated business venture and loses almost all the family fortune. The boys, particularly Aron, are horrified that their father is now the town’s laughing stock and are mocked by their peers for his failure.

As the boys reach the end of their school days, Cal decides to pursue a career in farming, and Aron goes to college to become an Episcopal priest. Cal, restless and tortured by guilt about his very human failings, shuns everyone around him and takes to wondering around town late at night. During one of these ramblings, he discovers that his mother is alive and the madam of a brothel. He goes to see her, and she spitefully tells him they are just alike. Cal replies that she is simply afraid and leaves. Cal goes into business with Samuel’s son Will, who is now a successful automobile dealer. Cal’s plan to earn his father’s approval and his money back by capitalising on World War 1 and selling beans grown in the Salinas Valley to nations in Europe for a considerable profit. He succeeds beyond his wildest expectations and wraps up a gift of $15, 000 in cash which he plans to give to Adam at Thanksgiving.

Adam returns from Stanford University for the holiday. There is tension in the air because Adam has not yet told their father that he intends to drop out of college. Rather than let Aron steal the moment, Cal gives Adam the money at dinner, expecting his father to be proud of him. But Adam refuses to accept it, however, and tells Cal to give it back to the poor farmers he exploited.

In a fit of rage and jealousy, Cal takes Aron to see their mother, knowing well it will be a shock to him. Sure enough, Adam immediately sees Kate for who she is and recoils from her in shame. Wracked with self-hatred, Kate signs her estate over to Aron and dies by suicide. Aron, his idealistic worldview shattered, enlists in the Army to fight the World War 1. He is killed in action in the last year of the war, and Adam suffers a stroke upon hearing the news from Lee. Cal, who began a relationship with Aron’s girlfriend Abra after Aron went to war, tries to convince her to run away with him. She instead pursues him to return home.

Lee pleads with the bedridden and dying Adam to forgive his only remaining son, Adam responds by non-verbally indicating that he forgives Cal and then says “timshell” giving Cal the choice to break the cycle and conquer sin.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck, Penguin Modern Classics, £15.99.