Is there an audiobook of Of Mice and Men?

Yes. Of Mice and Men has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Gary Sinise.

How long is the Of Mice and Men audiobook?

The Of Mice and Men audiobook runs 3 hr 11 min.

Is Of Mice and Men on Kindle Unlimited?

No. Of Mice and Men was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 18, 2026.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck book cover for the Book of the Day classics book review

Our score

4.5/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to Of Mice and Men free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

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EDITION PUBLISHEDSeptember 1993

Genres

Fiction Classics Historical Fiction

Themes

Friendship and dependency under hardshipLoneliness and isolation on the margins of societyThe fragility of even modest dreamsMercy that looks nothing like mercy

Of Mice and Men

Name: Of Mice and Men
Price: 9.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men follows two migrant ranch hands chasing a small, shared dream of land in Depression-era California, and its short length hides one of American fiction's most devastating endings.

The Review

Our take

This book will wreck you in under a hundred pages, and it does it without a single wasted scene. George and Lennie arrive at a ranch in the Salinas Valley with nothing but bindles on their backs and a story they tell each other like a bedtime ritual: someday they'll have their own acre, their own rabbits, a place where nobody can fire them or push them around. It's a small dream, almost embarrassingly modest, and that's exactly why it lands. Steinbeck isn't interested in grand ambition. He's interested in how little it actually takes to count as hope when you have nothing else.

George's care for Lennie is the engine of the whole book, and it's messier than simple tenderness. He's exhausted by Lennie, snaps at him, resents the way one man's size and strength come bundled with a mind that can't track consequences. And yet he stays, herds him away from trouble, tells the dream again and again like a man trying to convince himself as much as his friend. Watching George negotiate that mix of love and burden, never quite settling into either, is the most devastating thread in a short book that has several devastating things going on at once.

The ranch itself becomes a kind of gallery of everyone the Depression left behind: Candy, old and one-handed, watching his usefulness expire alongside his dog's; Crooks, isolated in the barn because of his race, sharp-tongued and starving for company he pretends not to want; Curley's wife, unnamed the entire novel, restless and lonely in a way the men around her read only as trouble. Steinbeck gives each of them a scene where their loneliness breaks the surface, and none of those scenes feel like padding. They're there to widen the dream George and Lennie are chasing into something bigger: not just two men's wish for land, but everyone's wish for a place where they matter.

The prose itself is almost deceptively plain, short declarative sentences and careful, stage-directed description that Steinbeck himself built to work as both novel and play. That simplicity is the point. There's no ornament standing between the reader and what's happening, which is part of why the violence, when it comes, lands so hard. Some readers new to the book brace for a much longer road to get there; instead the tragedy arrives with startling speed once it starts, and the compression only sharpens it.

Why you should read

Readers who want a short, powerful classic
Fans of stories about friendship under hardship
Anyone interested in Depression-era migrant labor
Readers who appreciate spare, stage-ready prose

What to expect

A very short novel, readable in one or two sittings
Plain, declarative prose with minimal ornamentation
An ensemble of lonely, marginalized ranch hands
A devastating, fast-moving final act

What stays with me isn't the ending itself so much as the choice that precedes it, the one George has to make alone, carrying the full weight of everything the book has been building since the first page. It's an act of mercy that looks nothing like mercy from the outside, and Steinbeck refuses to soften it into something easier to sit with. Decades on, that refusal is still what makes the book impossible to put down as a simple period piece. It reads instead like a plain, unblinking account of what love costs when the world gives you no good options left to choose from.

Reviewed by Avery · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.5/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to Of Mice and Men free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of Of Mice and Men?: Yes. Of Mice and Men has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Gary Sinise.
Listen to Of Mice and Men free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the Of Mice and Men audiobook?: The Of Mice and Men audiobook runs 3 hr 11 min.
Is Of Mice and Men on Kindle Unlimited?: No. Of Mice and Men was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 18, 2026.
How much does Of Mice and Men cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $9.99, Paperback $14.00, Hardcover $14.00. Prices as of August 22, 2026 at 5:20 PM EDT and may change.

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Common questions

What is Of Mice and Men about?: This book will wreck you in under a hundred pages, and it does it without a single wasted scene. George and Lennie arrive at a ranch in the Salinas Valley with nothing but bindles on their backs and a story they tell each other like a bedtime ritual: someday they'll have their own acre, their own…
Is Of Mice and Men worth reading?: We scored Of Mice and Men 4.5 out of 5. John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men follows two migrant ranch hands chasing a small, shared dream of land in Depression-era California, and its short length hides one of American fiction's most devastating endings.