Giant by Edna Ferber

Giant by Edna Ferber

"A powerful story...truly as big as its subject." -- Los Angeles Times

The basis for the classic film starring James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson, Giant is Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edna Ferber's sweeping generational tale of power, love, cattle barons, and oil tycoons, set in Texas during the first half of the twentieth century.

When larger-than-life cattle rancher Jordan "Bick" Benedict arrives at the family home of sharp-witted but genteel Virginia socialite Leslie Lynnton to purchase a racehorse, the two are instantly drawn to each other. But for Leslie, falling in love with a Texan was a lot simpler than falling in love with Texas. Upon their arrival at Bick's ranch, Leslie is confronted not only with the oppressive heat and vastness of Texas but also by the disturbing inequity between runaway riches and the poverty and racism suffered by the Mexican workers on the ranch. Leslie and Bick's loving union endures against all odds, but a reckoning is coming and a price will have to be paid.

A sensational and enthralling saga, Ferber masterfully captures the essence of Texas with all its wealth and excess, cruelty and prejudice, pride and violence.

Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer, and dramatist who lived from 1885 to 1968. So Huge (1924), Show Boat (1926; made into the famed 1927 musical), Cimarron (1929; made into the Academy Award-winning 1931 film), Giant (1952; made into the 1956 Hollywood film), and Ice Palace (1958; made into the 1960 film) were among her novels. Ferber's works tended to have strong female protagonists, as well as a large and varied cast of supporting characters. Ferber illustrated her idea that humans are individuals and that the not-so-pretty people had the best character by highlighting at least one outstanding secondary character who faced persecution ethnically or for other reasons.