On the Road: The Original Scroll: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Was really looking forward to reading this book. All the history behind it. I did like the fact that this original scroll version used the actual names of characters (Neil, Allen, Bill, etc.). But seriously...this is just a non-stop ramble on about several trips back and forth across the country. Plenty of sex, drugs, theft, etc. Maybe titillating to some but I was left with the sense that Kerouac and his associates were just drugged up bums on a hedonistic journey, stealing their way around the US. Not much value to appreciate. The writing style flows pretty well, but no plot. Just the ramblings of benzedrine-fueled hobo.

This book was painfully boring to read. I believed all the hype and bought it, wished I'd saved my money.Just can't understand what all the hoopla is about.

This book depicts a time of very serious change in our country. There was a total radicalization of the younger people in our society it should be taught about. I don't know for sure because I have not read an actual school bood in quite a while, but I would be willing to bet that our government is editing and redacting history books just as they do with our current "fake news" in order to control the past. Did you read 1984?

After reading the published edition years ago, I found the scroll version MUCH better and true to Kerouac's intent compared to the edited and butchered published edition which Jack disliked. With minimal punctuation and using actual names (unlike the published edition), the scroll edition is a true "diamond in the rough" and is like reading one long paragraph that takes 12 hours to read.A MUST for any fan of Kerouac!

This version is historical for a Kerouac fan or American literature scholar, but it's not even readable. It's 300+ pages without paragraphs-- try reading that. Not fun. This wild draft reads like rambling nonsense of a drunken madman. The edited final version is the one you want to go with.

I won't review the actual book here - it's a classic, the subject of many other books and college courses and I'm sure innumerable papers and critiques. All I'll discuss is what I thought of the format of the book as well as what I thought of this particular edition.I was a little worried about the idea of long, unbroken scroll. I'm not a marathon reader, in fact quite the contrary, I tend to read in short bursts due to time constraints and eye strain. When I read about the "original scroll" version of On The Road, I was concerned that I would be turned off by the long, unbroken stream of words. That turned out not to be a concern, partly because the story is episodic even if it isn't formatted that way, and partly because it was a fairly easy read that moved in only one direction - there was very little referential content in the book. Given the names and a brief dossier on about 5 characters or so, you could pick this book up and start reading at any random page.The book features several commentaries that place the book in historical, political and social context. This is actually crucial for the contemporary reader, because the book is like a time-capsule of a bygone era, and I doubt I would have understood it at all without some background. For a first time reader, these essays cheapen the experience somewhat, because you form an opinion of the book before you've read it. However, I suspect that, again for the modern eye, the prejudicial effect more likely works to offset the different culture in which the modern reader lives than it does to form the reader's impression of the book.This book purports to be the original scroll, and it appealed to me to read the book Kerouac wanted to publish vs. the edited and censored work he ended up conceding to. Again, to my eyes, there was nothing shocking or sensational about the original - the publishers at the time disagreed.My guess is that reading this edition is about as close as the modern reader can get to experiencing On The Road the way one of Kerouac's contemporaries would have. That is not to say that the experience is close at all - like seeing a technological advance from an earlier age, one wonders what all the fuss is about. For those wanting to read this famous work, and hoping to see it in the light of a bygone culture, this edition seems to serve that purpose well.

One of the most influential books of the last half of the twentieth century. An epic love poem and American Odyssey with the stature and spirit of Whiman’s ‘Leaves Of Grass.’ Written in the late forties it lays the path followed by many of my generation in the sixties. This edition of ‘The Original Scroll’ is the book Kerouac intended. A bold experiment that reshaped American literature and that will be remembered as one of its great achievements.

Purchased as a gift. This version of the classic novel is a beautiful addition to any bookshelf. The cover along with the classicly uncut page edges help make it a lovely gift or a great way to treat yourself.

This was a book that I didn't read at the time it came out- I was xx at the time. So all these long years after for some reason- listening to the radio and having a recent-adopter Kindle I went the electronic route and now read it on the tube (and other places), as if I was on a kind of mini-mini-road myself. I'm halfway through the book.Now that I am creakingly ancient, I do not have the same wanderlust I once had- ok there's an amazing waterfall in Argentina that my dentist is currently visiting with his wife. But I don't feel the urge to go halfway around the world to see it 'before I pop my clogs'. I think the message of the sometimes breathless and funny prose is that any journey is interior. We go out to get the data and return to process it and remodel the world (if we're the least bit reflective) in the light of experience.So maybe that is the real underlying message- you can leave for somewhere else but you'll always take your baggage with you... so you'd better sort your baggage out...... I'd better keep sorting my own baggage out! It's a good read.

Despite the intricacy and eloquence of the English language, I often struggle to put into words how much I truly adore this book. After first reading it at what is, upon reflection, the inappropriate age of 15, I can honestly say it changed the way I viewed life. Reading it again at the age of 18 , I fell in love with Kerouac’s masterpiece all over again so much so, that my favourite quote from the book soon became the first tattoo to be etched onto my skin.... To read my full review, please visit: [...]

Im only 100 or so pages in but I can tell you this book is phenomenal. Beautifully written with such a fast, sporadic pace and hectic tone; the miasma it implores is one of vibrant, brilliant, carefree adventure. Im coming 18 this summer and this book has set the bar for the fantastic summer that ive been longing for whilst studying for my A-levels. Buy this book. If your questioning whether to buy it or not, just do it. You wont regret it. Ive reccomended it to all my friends; those who have heard of it and pondered whether to read it have been told by me defiantly to buy it and read it. Few, from what I have gathered have already placed it in their amazon shopping baskets. The penquin essentials version that i have is fantastic. Its small enough to cram into your back pocket so you can just whip it out on the bus and fade away, and yet the size of the text isnt impossibly small that you need a magnifying glass to read, its perfect. The lack of an introduction benifited me as i normally detest having to flick past 50 pages in order to actually begin the book i bought, and thus feel an overwhelming guilt for skipping a quarter of the book. No none of that nuisance. Im definitely going to buy more of Kerouacs work and of course more of the beats; ive already read, "Junky" by Burroghs and it too is fantasic. The penquin essentials version also impressed me and I am definitely going to purchase more works from that range to; "Steppenwolf" by Hesse is looking to be the next step in my Essentials affair.

Perhaps for some this may glamorize the open road, but I believe Kerouac intended to convey the emptiness and almost destructive nature of the hobo lifestyle, particularly displayed in the story's ending. In this novel, Kerouac reveals the beat generation in all its confusion and sense of loss.

A dazzling account of life on the road as seen through the eyes of the early Beat Generation. It depicts a life which reflected the unsettledness of the time but which now seems remarkable innocent. It is well written and evocative . Kerouac has a real master of English prose . A must for any serious reader.

This is the original script so it has more rawness, more depth and I can get a better angle on Ginsberg and Cassidy. Kerouac likes to slap you between the eyes and ramble on in fifty line sentences. If you click on this it's probably because you already know his work.

This was one of those books that I always intended to read. It's not bad more about drunken exploits of guys in a handful of towns rather than a trip along route 66 that I thought this was. It's worth a read but it ain't Cannery Row or Catcher in the rye

A detailed literary exploration of America, see through the wind shield of classic American cars and the protagonists poetic view. Not the type of book I normally read but I'm glad I did. I love books that describe every detail and On the Road is over flowing with descriptive writing and vivid imagery. I recommend it highly esp for boys who don't like to read...

ravings of a qualuude head but entertaining nonetheless, not sure what all fuss is about

The book itself is brilliant - it has had cult status for decades- and I bought a copy because I felt it was the right time to introduce my grandson to Jack Kerouac. However, of all my other online purchases well before Christmas,this took longest toarrive and it nearly didn't make it into the Christmas stocking.

This was a gift. the recipient was very pleased with it. Good news.

Doesn't live up to the hype. Pretentious.

The book arrived in perfect condition (as one would hope for a new copy) and did not fail to disappoint. I was recommended the scroll over the altered version by a friend and found it to be much more enlightening about the author, Jack Kerouac, staying truer to his spirit and really emphasising the almost homoerotic undertones between him and Neal. A great read!

Fantastic to read the scroll text as it was written with the real names in.

everyone shoud read it