On the Road

Jack Kerouac author Ann Charters editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd

Should be back in stock very soon

This paperback is available in other editions too:

On the Road cover

'The most beautifully executed, the clearest and the most important utterance yet made by the generation Kerouac himself named years ago as 'beat.' - the New York Times

Sal Paradise, a young innocent, joins his hero Dean Moriarty, a traveller and mystic, the living epitome of Beat, on a breathless, exuberant ride back and forth across the United States. Their search for release or fulfilment through drink, sex, drugs and jazz becomes an exploration of personal freedom, a test of the limits of the American dream.On the Road swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, generosity, chill dawns and drugs, with Sal Paradise and his hero Dean Moriarty, traveller and mystic, the living epitome of Beat. Now recognized as a modern classic, its American Dream is nearer that of Walt Whitman than Scott Fitzgerald, and it goes racing towards the sunset with unforgettable exuberance, poignancy and autobiographical passion.

  • Runner-up for The BBC Big Read Top 100 2003
  • Short-listed for BBC Big Read Top 100 2003

ISBN: 9780141182674

Dimensions: 196mm x 129mm x 19mm

Weight: 237g

320 pages