On The Road (penguin Great Books Of The 20th Century) [Paperback]

The legendary novel of freedom and the search for authenticity that defined a generation, now in a striking new Pengiun Classics Deluxe Edition 

Inspired by Jack Kerouac's adventures with Neal Cassady,On the Roadtells the story of two friends whose cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and true experience. Written with a mixture of sad-eyed naiveté and wild ambition and imbued with Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz,On the Roadis the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope, a book that changed American literature and changed anyone who has ever picked it up.   

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

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 

On the Roadis perhaps the supreme American romance . . . a mystical and poignant reminder of lost youth, and those sublime years when everyone feels immortal. —The Guardian, The 100 Best Novels

[On the Road] changed my life like it changed everyone else's . . . It speeds by like a freight train . . . You grabbed ahold of the train, hopped on and went along with him, hanging on for dear life. &mdlc(