Cup of Gold John Steinbeck Read Online

  Tabular array of Contents

Title Folio

Copyright Page

Introduction

Chapter i

CHAPTER two

CHAPTER iii

Affiliate 4

CHAPTER 5

PENGUIN

CLASSICS

Loving cup OF GOLD

Born in Salinas, California, in 1902, JOHN STEINBECK grew up in a fertile agricultural valley near the Pacific Coast—and both valley and coast would serve as settings for some of his best fiction. In 1919 he went to Stanford University, where he intermittently enrolled in literature and writing courses until he left in 1925 without taking a degree. During the next few years he supported himself every bit a laborer and announcer in New York City and so as a caretaker for a Lake Tahoe estate, all the time working on his commencement novel, Cup of Gilt (1929). Afterward spousal relationship and a move to Pacific Grove, he began to publish California fictions, The Pastures of Heaven (1932), To a God Unknown (1933), and brusk stories of the working classes. Popular success and financial security came only with Tortilla Flat (1935), a novel about Monterey's paisanos. A ceaseless experimenter throughout his career, Steinbeck changed courses regularly. 3 powerful novels of the late 1930s focused on the California laboring class: In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and the book considered by many his finest, The Grapes of Wrath (1939). In the forties he became an amateur marine biologist, as depicted in Sea of Cortez (1941), and wrote about the state of war in Bombs Away (1942) and the controversial play-novelette The Moon Is Down (1942). Cannery Row (1945), The Wayward Motorcoach (1947), The Pearl (1947), A Russian Journal (1948), and Burning Bright (1950) preceded publication of the monumental Due east of Eden (1952), an ambitious saga of the Salinas Valley and his own family's history. Afterward books include Sweet Thursday (1954), The Curt Reign of Pippin IV (1957), Once At that place Was a War (1958), The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), Travels with Charley in Search of America (1962), America and Americans (1966), and the posthumously published Periodical of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969), Viva Zapata! (1975), The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976), and Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath (1989). The last decades of his life were spent in New York Urban center and Sag Harbor with his third wife, with whom he traveled widely. He died in 1968, having won a Nobel Prize in 1962.

SUSAN F. BEEGEL is editor of a scholarly periodical, The Hemingway Review, and offshoot professor of English at the University of Idaho. Coeditor of Steinbeck and the Environment: Interdisciplinary Approaches, she is the writer of ii additional books and more fifty articles on various aspects of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature and history. A inquiry associate of the Williams College-Mystic Seaport Plan, she has a special interest in maritime studies and literature of the sea.

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (The states) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.s.a.A.

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue Due east, Suite 700, Toronto,

Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a partition of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen's Greenish, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell,

Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Commonwealth of australia Grouping Pty Ltd)

Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Center, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, Republic of india

Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Due north Shore 0632,

New Zealand (a partitioning of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,

Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:

eighty Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Showtime published in the The states of America by Robert Chiliad. McBride & Co. 1929

Published by Covici, Friede, Inc. 1936

Published by The Viking Press, Inc. 1938

Published in Penguin Books 1976

This edition with an introduction by Susan F. Beegel published 2008

Copyright John Steinbeck, 1929

Copyright renewed John Steinbeck, 1957

Introduction copyright © Susan F. Beegel, 2008

All rights reserved

eISBN : 978-1-4406-3082-8

CIP data available

The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Net or via whatever other means

without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only

authorized electronic editions, and do non participate in or encourage electronic piracy

of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author'due south rights is appreciated.

http://u.s..penguingroup.com

Introduction

John Steinbeck's Cup of Gold is, in the words of one early on reviewer, a "rather weird" novel. Published in 1929, when Steinbeck was just twenty-seven years former, his first book rings with the ambivalent blades of dissonant elements. Cup of Golden is an historical novel, a fictive biography that follows the career of the actual Sir Henry Morgan (1635?-1688), England's infamous "King of the Buccaneers," with considerable allegiance. Even so the book is indebted not only to history, just to "male child's own" adventure stories as well as to dramas of the screen and stage— to the swashbuckling romance as well equally the roughshod reality of the pirate tradition. And Cup of Gold is also a literary fantasy wherein the wizard-bard Merlin tin instruct the historic Henry Morgan and the Grail quest of Arthurian legend tin can inform a story set largely in the seventeenth-century Caribbean.

The novel's experimental style reflects its dueling genres. Inspired by a medieval revival fashionable in the 1920s, Steinbeck juxtaposes modernist prose and naturalistic observation with archaic speech and highly wrought figurative language. Cup of Gilded combines a realistic method with allegory and parable. The book can be read as an ordinary man's tragic quest for fortune, fame, and love; an artist's failed quest to find his Muse; or Europe's bloody quest to realize an American Dream in the New World. Information technology tin can be a cautionary tale about the piratical ethics of American business and its corporate robber barons, or about the similarly piratical ideals of a new American imperialism. And finally, Cup of Gilt is an autobiographical novel, the story of young John Steinbeck's quest to discover his vocation. Perhaps the best mode to make sense of this dissonant symphony is to investigate each of its unusual elements.

STEINBECK AND THE HISTORIC HENRY MORGAN

The basic plot of Loving cup of Gold is reasonably faithful to the actual life of Sir Henry Morgan, arguably the virtually famous pirate in English history. The novel traces Morgan's rise to fame and fortune—his adolescence in the Welsh mountains, his divergence for the West Indies, his entrapment in indentured servitude, his slow acquisition of wealth and the means to buy a sailing vessel, and his eventual fulfillment of his dream "to become a-buccaneering and take a Spanish town." Morgan'southward barbarous but brilliant career climaxes with his capture of the "Cup of Gold"—Panama City with its fabled riches. His depredations near bring him to the gallows, but instead Morgan claws his style to a knighthood and the lieutenant-governorship of Jamaica, winning the hand in spousal relationship of the previous governor'due south daughter, his cousin Elizabeth. Cup of Gold ends with the bilious knight on his deathbed.

From Helm Claret to Pirates of the Caribbean, virtually every pirate story in our literature owes something to the life and legend of the genuine Sir Henry Morgan, and Cup of Gold is no exception. A admirer's son from Wales, the historic Morgan probably went out to the West Indies as a soldier in a military trek against the Spanish. Later helping England seize Jamaica from Espana, Mor

gan based himself in Port Royal. At that place he created his own flotilla of small vessels and a heterogeneous strength known equally the Brethren of the Coast—a sea-borne army of English language, French, and Dutch adventurers, professional person cattle hunters, vengeful Indians, escaped slaves, runaway sailors, convicts, and cutthroats. Responding to no say-so but the volition and charisma of their leader, the Brethren fought the Castilian solely for prizes and plunder, hence the motto Steinbeck records, "No prey, no pay." Aground, they were known for rape, loot, and pillage. They took hostages, tortured victims to learn where their valuables were subconscious, and held entire towns for bribe, burning them downwards if the gilt and silver were non forthcoming. Between 1655 and 1671, Morgan and his men would sack eighteen cities, four towns, and thirty-five villages of New Kingdom of spain. Morgan's capture of Portobello confronting heavy odds was perchance the nearly successful amphibious assault of his century, and his sacking of the fabled treasure city of Panama the most notorious.

These activities were a militant form of venture commercialism authorized, for the most office, by the British crown. Defective a navy large enough to defend her developing interests and challenge Castilian supremacy in the New Earth, England instead relied on privateering—a legalized form of piracy—to harass the enemy. Men such as Morgan, able to fund their own expeditions and raise their own crews, were given letters of marque to legitimize their depredations and were allowed to go on their booty, frequently divided with respectable investors who purchased shares in their voyages. To the English language, Morgan was, in Steinbeck's words, "a hero and a patriotic man." To the Castilian, however, this ruler of "a wild race of pirates" was "only a successful robber"—if not an infamous terrorist.

The historic Henry Morgan, like Steinbeck's protagonist, married his cousin Mary Elizabeth, girl of Colonel Edward Morgan, lieutenant-governor of Jamaica and Henry's uncle. As in Loving cup of Aureate, the marriage took identify shortly later the expiry of the bride's begetter, only fact differs from fiction in one important way—the actual hymeneals happened well earlier the sack of Panama. Morgan was already a successful and wealthy buccaneer, just the spousal relationship was not contingent upon his triumph, and seems to accept been made for love, as Mary Elizabeth had no dowry. This historic union echoes in every pirate yarn featuring a love thing betwixt a buccaneer-hero and the governor'south daughter/ niece/ward, whether Helm Peter Blood and Arabella Bishop, or Volition Turner and Elizabeth Swann. By transmuting the actual Morgan union into a loveless marriage of convenience, Cup of Gilded departs from both the romance and reality of the pirate tradition, and establishes its own ironic, antichivalric tone.

Problems arose for the historic Morgan when—as in the case of Panama—he continued his marauding without country sanction during a brief period when England and Espana were at peace. For this, he was arrested and taken to London to be tried equally a pirate; but when England's relationship with Espana took a turn for the worse, he was released, knighted, and made lieutenant-governor of Jamaica. There Morgan eventually died of the combined effects of tropical fever, dropsy, and alcoholism in 1688, leaving behind thousands of acres of sugar plantations and Mary Elizabeth, named in his will as "my very well and entirely beloved wife."

Cup of Gold's subtitle is "A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History," and the novel parallels the life so closely that some early readers skipped over the describing word "occasional" and mistook the fictional work for biography. Steinbeck'south brief intercalary chapters on the history of piracy in the Caribbean, his discourses on other pirates of the age such as Pierre le Grand, 50'Ollonais, and Edward Mansvelt, further blurred the boundaries of fact and fiction for muddled readers. The St. Louis Star referred to "Mr. Steinbeck" as Morgan'due south "biographer," and proclaimed "[H]ere is presented Morgan'due south complete life (including his loves) dealing with every phase, whether existent or legendary." Berton Braley, who published a doggerel epic titled Morgan Sails the Caribbean (1937), best-selling Cup of Gold equally a source, treating the novel as nonfiction.

For most of the "facts" of Sir Henry Morgan'due south life, Steinbeck relied not on main inquiry in English and Spanish archives, just on a single source, Alexander O. Exquemelin's The Buccaneers of America. Originally published in Dutch as De Americaensche Zee-Rovers (1678), Exquemelin's work was first translated into English in 1684. While little is known about Exquemelin himself, he apparently went out to the Caribbean island of Tortuga with the French W India Company, and "through necessity" became a buccaneer, serving under Morgan at Panama. Exquemelin's firsthand account of life amongst the buccaneers was a bestseller in its time and has been in print almost continuously since the seventeenth century. It is a archetype sea narrative and the urtext of virtually pirate stories in our linguistic communication.

Equally Darlene Eddy has observed, Steinbeck drew many of Cup of Golden's striking images and realistic details from Buccaneers of America. Dafydd'southward business relationship of the Indian thorn torture, Merlin'south musing on the futility of keeping fireflies, Morgan'southward run into with a drunken pirate captain who orders him to drinkable or dice, famished buccaneers coming out of the jungle at Panama and gorging on fresh meat, daydreaming of the blood running down their beards—these are a few of the images Steinbeck took from Exquemelin. More important, Buccaneers of America contributed to Cup of Gold's portrait of the grim labor atmospheric condition that drove diverse men into joining Morgan'due south gang of desperados, and to the novel's graphic depiction of their cruelty, greed, and immoderacy when unleashed on the cities of New Spain.

Buccaneers of America, however, is also replete with questionable (and damning) statements well-nigh Morgan himself. Steinbeck virtually certainly knew that in 1684 the historic Sir Henry had successfully sued Exquemelin's English publishers for libel. Yet the novelist chose to retain aspects of Exquemelin'south account that contribute more than to pirate legend and compelling fiction than to accurate history or biography. For example, Buccaneers of America claims that Morgan began every bit an indentured servant in the West Indies, although most historians believe that he originally went to the Caribbean every bit an officer in an English military expedition against the Spanish in Hispaniola.

Steinbeck kept the legend of Morgan's indentured servitude however, using information technology to transform Loving cup of Gilt into a blackness inversion of a Horatio Alger story, as Morgan cheats his generous owner and exploits his swain slaves to make his style from rags to riches. Steinbeck too retained Exquemelin'southward merits that Morgan tricked his men out of their off-white share in the booty from Panama. Historians have doubted this likewise, believing that the take from Panama was simply less than expected because the metropolis's real riches, silver ingots from Bolivian mines, had been shipped out earlier the set on. Hither once more Steinbeck uses Exquemelin's disenchantment with Morgan to expose the American success story as a climb upward "a ladder to a college, more valuable crime."

Exquemelin also had some libelous things to say about the celebrated Morgan'southward treatment of women captives during the sack of Panama:The rovers had a way of dealing with those women who held out. . . . [O]nce a adult female was in their easily they would work their will upon her, or beat her, starve her, or similarly torment her. Morgan . . . was no better than the residual. Whenever a beautiful prisoner was brought in, he at once sought to dishonour her.

Buccaneers of America goes on to sketch the bare kernel of a story about Morgan and "a woman then steadfast her name deserves to live." Ironically, Exquemelin does not name this "young and very beautiful wife of a rich merchant," but says that "no lovelier adult female could be found in all Europe." Lusting later on her, Morgan at first tries her virtue with kindness— with private quarters, a slave, fine meals, visits from friends, and gifts of jewels. The lady, "as celibate as she was well-bred," persists in refusing him and tells Morgan that he will "have to let her soul become complimentary" before he can "work his will on her body." Enraged, he has her stripped, imprisoned, and starved, only she continues to refuse, saying she will never give in so long as she lives. Eventually, Morgan accepts defeat, returning the lady to her husband in commutation for a substantial ransom. Stein

brook transformed Exquemelin's libelous little story into a major plotline in Loving cup of Gold—Morgan's longing for and rejection past the convict beauty La Santa Roja.

STEINBECK AND THE ROMANCE OF PIRACY

Steinbeck was not simply writing a biography of Sir Henry Morgan, or an historical novel based entirely on period materials such as Exquemelin's narrative. He was also keenly aware of the romantic representations of piracy in children's literature and popular culture. A careerist from the beginning, immature Steinbeck was every bit interested in winning a large popular audition equally he was in critical acclamation and academic plaudits. While working on Cup of Gilded, he gave this advice about writing in a letter to his friend Webster Street: "E'er crowd the limit. And besides if you take time, try your hand on a melo drahmar, something wild and mysterious and unexpected [...]." A story, Steinbeck felt, should be "as racy as you think the populace will stand up." He certainly understood and hoped to exploit the broad appeal of pirate stories. Cup of Gold seems to project a fantasy of its own -to-be reception when "a multifarious population" crowds the beach at Port Royal "to come across the Captain Morgan who had plundered Panama":Dandy ladies, dressed in the silken stuffs of Cathay, were in that location because, afterwards all, Henry Morgan came of a good family—the nephew of the poor beloved Lieutenant-Governor who was killed. Sailors were in that location because he was a sailor; picayune boys because he was a pirate; young girls because he was a hero; business men because he was rich; gangs of slaves because they had a vacation.

Seeking such a reception, Steinbeck turned first to a novel that had held great importance for him as a male child—Robert Louis Stevenson'southward children's classic, Treasure Island, showtime published in 1881. The years of Steinbeck's boyhood were the heyday of Treasure Isle's popularity. In 1911, the year he turned nine, Simon & Schuster issued a deluxe edition with the immortal illustrations of N. C. Wyeth, whose portrait of peg-legged Long John Silvery with a parrot on his shoulder now defines the popular idea of a pirate. In Cannery Row, Steinbeck remembered "with pleasure and some glory" that Robert Louis Stevenson had lived in Monterey, where Steinbeck's parents owned a summer cottage in Pacific Grove. "Treasure Island," he wrote, "certainly has the topography and the littoral plan of Indicate Lobos"—an opinion he may have formed equally a male child playing at pirates and reenacting scenes from a favorite novel in the same terrain.

cohnoncer1949.blogspot.com

Source: https://readfrom.net/john-steinbeck/283694-cup_of_gold.html

Share this post