Most critical assessments of Steinbeck's “The Chrysanthemums” consider it the zenith of the author's achievement in short fiction. Still widely anthologized, “The Chrysanthemums” is generally considered a very multifaceted work and has been examined from many critical perspectives including Biblical, Freudian, Jungian, sociological, and feminist.
First published in Harper's Magazine in October 1937, the story later appeared as the first story in Steinbeck's collection entitled The Long Valley in 1938. Steinbeck himself considered the story quite a complex vehicle and wrote to his friend George Albee in 1933 that he designed it “to strike without the reader's “knowledge” so that s/he will realize “that something profound has happened to him, although he does not know what
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Citation: Meyer, Michael J.. "“The Chrysanthemums”". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 December 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=25295, accessed 25 November 2024.]
