The Long Valley is a collection of short fiction by John Steinbeck. Most of the stories appeared originally in literary periodicals, and were first collected by Viking Press in 1938.
Ranked among Steinbeck's "finest and best-known" fiction, these are among the most frequently anthologized of Steinbeck's stories, widely read by university undergraduates and high school students. Author and social critic Andre Gide declared that several stories in The Long Valley "equaled or surpassed" those of Russian author Anton Chekhov.
"The Murder" and "The Promise" were selected for the O. Henry Prize anthology for short fiction in 1934 and 1938, respectively.
“The Murder” was the first of Steinbeck's works to win a national award: the 1934 O. Henry prize for short fiction.
Jim Moore, a California rancher, marries a Yugoslavian immigrant girl, Jelka Sepic. At the wedding, Jelka's father offers intoxicated advice to Jim, warning him that his daughter requires regular beating to keep her loyal and tractable. Jim rejects the advice. He is disappointed, however, that no genuine intimacy develops in the relationship, though Jelka is dutiful and performs, bovine-like, her domestic tasks. Jim increasingly finds her demeanor and behavior foreign and strange. Before long, Jim begins to make weekly visits to a bordello in Monterey, whose denizens offer him familiar banter and comradery. Jelka makes no objection to these presumed overnight business trips.
On one of his nocturnal adventures, Jim encounters a fellow rancher who informs him that one of his calves has been butchered by rustlers. Jim verifies the report himself, then returns home after midnight. He discovers Jelka's male cousin sleeping in bed with her. Jim reflects on the incestuous couping, then quietly retrieves his rifle and, without first waking the pair, shoots the intruder in the head. After reporting the incident to the local sheriff, Jim is released and no charges are brought against him, as is customary in that district.
Taking his bullwhip, he leads Jelka to the barn and flogs her mercilessly, to which she submits. The next morning Jelka contentedly prepares breakfast for Jim, apparently satisfied with her husband.
