On the Road, Jack Kerouac
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
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On the Road

Author: Jack Kerouac

Narrator: David Carradine

Abridged: 2 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 09/17/2008


Synopsis

The classic novel of freedom and the search for authenticity that defined a generation

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned hero of the snowy West." As "Sal Paradise" and "Dean Moriarty," the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting importance. Kerouac’s classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be “Beat” and has inspired every generation since its initial publication more than fifty years ago. This Penguin Classics edition contains an introduction by Ann Charters.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 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.

About The Author

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), the central figure of the Beat Generation, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922 and died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1969. Among his many novels are On the RoadThe Dharma BumsBig Sur, and Visions of Cody.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ian

A View from the Couch OTR has received some negative reviews lately, so I thought I would try to explain my rating. This novel deserves to lounge around in a five star hotel rather than languish in a lone star saloon. Disclaimer Please forgive my review. It is early morning and I have just woken up with......more

Goodreads review by Mark

I think this book, which launched Kerouac's career and gave him insta-fame, has to be seen as a product of its time. I found it a chore to read, a long dull boast about a series of road trips. It's populated by vacuous largely despicable alcoholics with zero impulse control and an unshakeable belief......more

Goodreads review by Jahn

I've been thinking about this book a lot lately, so I figured that I'd go back and write something about it. When I first read this book, I loved it as a piece of art, but its effect on me was different than I expected. So many people hail Kerouac as the artist who made them quit their jobs and go t......more


Quotes

"An authentic work of art . . . the most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as 'beat,' and whose principal avatar he is."
--Gilbert Millstein, The New York Times 

"On the Road has the kind of drive that blasts through to a large public. . . . What makes the novel really important, what gives it that drive is a genuine new, engaging and exciting prose style. . . . What keeps the book going is the power and beauty of the writing."
--Kenneth Rexroth, San Francisco Chronicle

"One of the finest novels of recent years. . . a highly euphoric and intensely readable story about a group of wandering young hedonists who cross the country in endless search of kicks."
--Leonard Feather, Downbeat