Although you can read this book in just a few short hours, the relatively few words found in "Of Mice and Men" carry tremendous weight. From the first paragraph Steinbeck manages to paint a vivid picture of the environment, taking great care to simultaneously describe both the beauty of nature and the agony of the story's characters.

I'd long considered Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" to be the greatest American 20th century novel, and after reading "Of Mice and Men" last evening it's clear this story has assumed the #1 spot in my personal list of greatest novellas.

John Steinbeck's powerful Depression-era novel weaves together timeless themes of work, kindness, cruelty, loneliness and longing. George Milton and Lennie Small are poor migrant workers in California during the Great Depression. George is intelligent and looks after Lennie, a mentally-challenged man of brute size and strength, but whose lack of sense causes trouble. Sharing a bare cabin with other migrant workers, George and Lennie have little more than their dreams of owning a rabbit farm - an unlikely goal for migrants. Their companions include an aging ranch hand (Candy) minus a hand from a work accident, and a black man (Crooks) with a bad back forced to sleep alone and seek solace in books. All try to avoid trouble, particularly from the boss's hot-headed son Curly and his flirtatious young wife. Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to lead to the inevitable (if slightly contrived) ending, when Lennie becomes violent and George administers final justice. The result is a powerful Greek-style tragedy.

John Steinbeck (1902-1968) wrote from his hobo experiences, and claimed that Lennie was based on a real-life migrant he once worked with. Published in 1937, OF MICE AND MEN was quickly performed on stage and in the movies. Not suprisingly, this story has faced censorship for its raw language, treatment of mental retardation, sex and violence, etc.

steinbeck is awesome for pulling this through.....he was able to pack so much information in this short book.....that is some REAL talent right there!

I love this book. This was my first Steinbeck novel, and I thought it was great

Before I begin my criticisms, I will mention that my focus of this review is not on my personal preferences regarding characterizations, settings, themes, authors, etc. I understand that I cannot expect all authors to write a story that I personally enjoy and can relate to. Even if the subject matter of Of Mice and Men had interested me, I still would have given the novel a one star rating because of my criticism that I will explain in this review.

I am giving this novel a one star rating because it has a lot of vulgar dialogue. There is an average of about 4 profanities per page.

Secondly, even if I were to set aside my moral views of this novel, I still would choose to give this novel a one star rating. In my opinion, the plot structure is not all that good. The climax and resolution could have followed directly after the first 1/3 of the novel. There are too many conversations that seem to fill up space with unnecessary dialogue which describes the backgrounds of characters and personalities that do not play a significant role (if even a role at all) in the outcome of the story.

Furthermore, Of Mice and Men has too many characters for its very simple plot. In my opinion, the advantage to having a lot of characters is to create intricate subplots which play a significant role in the outcome of the story

I do not insist on reading action-packed stories. In fact, I sometimes prefer stories that are mainly comprised of dialogue. However, I do always want to see that there is a CLEAR DIRECTION in the conversations that progressively leads to the climax. In my opinion, the dialogue in Of Mice and Men did not meet these criteria. In fact, mid-way through the novel, I really felt as though the story was approaching a dead-end, and I think that John Steinbeck probably felt the same way. Therefore, he made the climax take a sharp turn off course just so the plot would not slam into a wall.

Due to the offensive content and weak plot structure, I do not recommend Of Mice and Men.

"I'm finding Steinbeck to be just a really reliable author. I've enjoyed everything that I've read of his. This short novel was engaging and meaningful - I especially enjoyed the richness of the characters and the themes of companionship, dreams, and dissapointment."

The book, Of Mice and Men, has to be one of the good books I've read in a long time. The good parts about it are at the start, you get to meet the characters on how they act and the way they get along. Of course, there are some bad parts in books. One of them is when one of the bunk mates picks a fight with Lennie, because he is taller than him!
Of Mice and Men, Lennie Small and George Milton take a bus, after getting chased by a mob, to a new job. After a couple hours and a lot of walking, they get to the job only to get the job, get in a fight for no reason, and work for good money. About the characters, George and Lennie, George is a quick-witted man that became friends with Lennie back when they were younger. Lennie was told to go with George to get a job by his aunt Clara. They both have a dream of a ranch, where their friends can stay, and people they don't know can leave. Lennie dreams of tending the rabbits. After a while, George and Lennie meet Candy, a nice old man that said he would help in the dream ranch. The dream ranch may work out; they have most of the money, but somewhere along the way someone messes it up, and it falls back to the way it was. Do you think they get the dream ranch? Read the book to find out what all happens.

Of Mice and Men is a novel based on the lives of two men, Lennie and George, who travel together. Lennie is a mentally unstable grown man, who acts like a child but has amazing strength-which inadvertantly gets him into trouble. After a misinterperated mishap in Weed, Lennie and George escape to avoid being lynched. They are left a long distance from their work after the driver of the bus on which they were travelling tells them that the distance is not far. Here is where we learn about Lennie's dream of living in their own house... which, at this point, is only a made up story to keep Lennie busy. The next morning, they travel to a working ranch, where they meet Slim, who is not the boss but seems to have the upper hand among the men, Candy, an old worker, Crooks, who works and is forced to live in the stables, and is mistreated because of the color of his skin, and Curley, a pugnacious character who also happens to be the boss's son. After a while, George begins to believe that the dream of owning a house could be possible, seeing how Candy offers to help to avoid being canned. Also, George confides in lim, telling him the story of himself and Lennie. As the story progresses, another mishap causes anger among the men, and forces George to make an important decision...

This is again one of those great American classics that deserve to be read by reluctant high schoolers. Sorry. I may have only given this three stars, but that does not mean by any means that this is a lousy book. This is a harsh look at the challenges to the Great American Dream, told through the eyes of a few ordinary people. Steinbeck's writing is sparse, but as usual he tells a fantastic, soul-stirring story that is, yes, tragic. But the symbolism and the meaning of it plus everything else makes this a worthy classic.

This books is on most reading lists, and it is easy to understand why. Beyond merely a 'classic,' the book stands next to 1984 as literature that remains good reading long after it was written. The language is modern, the symbolism deep, and the story short but compelling.

I've read Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, a book I did not enjoy very much. If you have enjoyed one of his previous books, regardless of the experience, I suggest picking up this book. If you haven't read his other works, I strongly suggest picking this one up first.

If you like to read good literature, this is a fine choice.

How did Steinbeck put all that story in such a short novel? Pure talent. The sentences are powerful, the story memorable. It is set in the farmland of the Salinas valley during the mid 30's which adds other dimensions to it.

You can also listen to it Of Mice and Men (Classics on Cassette)

And watch it Of Mice & Men

Luke T. review of Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, March 17, 2008. This is a story about two completely different men who are as close as brothers. George is a small, wiry man who travels around from state to state working on different ranches, earning up some money. Once the work is done at one ranch, he moves onto another. Most of this story takes place on a ranch just a few miles south of Soledad, California. Lennie is the mentally challenged gentle giant who George looks after. George is a caring man, and promised Lennie's Aunt Clara that he would look after Lennie; so Lennie tags along with George and works very hard. While the two are working at this ranch near Soledad, disaster strikes. One day, Lennie was sitting in the barn playing with a new puppy he got, when the boss's son's wife came into the barn and started talking to Lennie. Lennie was in love with soft things, and when this girl mentioned how soft her hair was Lennie wanted to grab it, and he did. This sent the girl into a panic, and when she jerked away she broke her neck. Lennie got scared and ran away, but the girl's husband went after him. Lennie was killed because of his mistake. This book has a tragic ending, but it is a great story that shows how important friendship really is.

This was required school reading. It was probably the shortest book we had to read, but it was also my most favorite. The plot is simple, but the message is profound. It always somewhat depresses me just thinking about it. A must read for young and old alike.

This may be the most rambly review here, but what I can say that I enjoyed this story. The title is borrowed from Robert Burns' most famous poem "To A Mouse", and has been alluded to so often in modern culture that it has completely become its own cliche. However, the novel uses this title for a good reason as it tells a story of two people, Lennie and George, who like the poem find that their hopes and dreams will never be realized due to their unforeseen but inevitable future reality. It is very much ahead of its time in depicting laborers at the absolute end of their rope, basically blowing through jobs so much so that they are stuck forever in neutral. If you think about it each character has his own crutch that stunts any growth and which makes each day feel the same, reminding me of Brick's literal crutch later depicted in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". For example George's crutch is Lenny, a man he so understands and yet so abhors that he goes into each job knowing Lenny's Tourette's like tics and tendencies to clutch things too hard will likely lead to early termination or worse, yet still knows that having Lenny around definitely beats being a nomad alone. Old Man Candy's crutch is old age, as he is someone whom is so disfigured and far gone that even the ownership of his dog is relinquished from him. After you think long and hard about each character, you understand why Steinbeck makes frequent references to animals, because symbolically that IS what all the main characters are to a large extent.

The depth of the characters are all fantastic for such a short story, which is amazing when you consider that there are only six chapters and six jumps of scenery/time. In many ways I think that is why a short story like this is more marketable as a book to teach in school than "Grapes of Wrath" which tells a more sweeping epic about a famous epoch in history. "Of Mice and Men" is easy to imagine, easy to understand contextually, and most importantly deep enough to require speculation about the true underpinnings of the dialogue and the behavior displayed. The dream that Lennie and George had of living of the land was to them almost like a daily vitamin that would get them through it. It would help Lenny believe in a better life, and it would help George feel better about himself for at least offering Lenny moments of peace dreaming about rabbits. I guess I'm different in that I feel that George made up this story and never believes in it ever, ever, EVER coming to fruition until old Candy eavesdrops and offers monetary backing to the dream. George almost uses the story to manipulate Lennie to stay with him and trust him, and in that way I see more ambivalence in his character than most.

Of course it is a tragedy, as Lennie relapses thrice (Curley's hand, Slim's pup, and Curley's wife) into what I can only describe as aggressive acts of non-malice. It seems that things that he likes he cares dearly for, he clutches too hard and in order to quiet down their pain from George he increases his vice grips to disfigure what he touches. After his last fatal encounter with Curly's sad wife, Lennie knows he did something wrong again and hides in the spot George tells him to, and has hallucinatory dreams condemning himself for negligence. Luckily he finds George and they both have a deja vu type moment of blissful ignorance before George does what is expected of him, which is to kill him for killing Curley's wife.

I guess Steinbeck's main point is to tell us to loook closer before making judgments on a person's character. If given a more isolated point of view, Lennie's character is vulgar and reprehensible. However, his behavior is a result not of personality but of psychological and mental retardation. Much like Candy's dog, who is innocently shot, Lennie is innocently shot because during the time period was a lot less acceptability to the mentally unstable. There simply wasn't enough of an objective back in the '30s to look deeper the inner thinkings of the retarded and regard acts of aggression as more than simple malice. George understands this, which is partly why he is morose all the time in defending Lennie. I also believe that Steinbeck makes sure to give George and Lennie a backstory to prove that George's intentions were mainly good, and that at the end George was giving Lennie as much mercy as possible without turning himself in as a murderer's accomplice. Very interesting for as little pages as it was.

This book is another Steinbeck classic. I suppose to people who don't have experience with hard work and difficult times this book makes no sense. But it made a lot of sense to me. It is good dramatic history. I suppose some would consider Lenny a bit much - but I have personally met a million Lennys in my life, he presents no problem with me.
A good story on many levels - friendship, compassion, the real world, selfishness and greed, making a living in a tough world and society. I'm sure it will ring a bell with all the poor and struggling - but not to the fat, always had it easy crowd. Good book - buy it.

Despite the length of this novel, it contains a powerful plot that will leave any reader heart-broken. The author describes the settings in such detail you can almost smell the alfalfa. As far as the plot goes, he leaves room for your imagination to fill in the blanks and gives the plot life through drama and issues that any worker would face during the early 1900s. Of mice and men, it is a must-read for any reading level.
The setting is based in the early 1900s, where Lennie and George, the two main characters, work for a new employer on a swamp. The author creates great detail not only through words, but also through the actions of other characters. For example, the author never once mentions Lennie's mental disability. Instead, he uses actions and dialogue to show that he is. John Steinbeck is a magnificent author, and he has my regards.

In this short novel, Steinbeck chose two main characters. They are two wandering labourers, George Milton and Lennie Small. The former is the more intelligent one, a small and strong man with sharp features. The latter is rather a simpleton with a huge body and a shapeless face and he moves his feet like a bear moves its paws.
They both dream of saving enough money to buy their own modest farm but because Lennie is both clumsy and strong he always manages to get involved in some mischief wherever he can find some work. So George has to keep a constant vigil on Lennie - particularly when there are women around - in order to avoid disaster.
Steinbeck's remarkable achievement is to show in a short novel the pathetic way of life of two simple minded men and that of peasants in general in rural America in the 1930s. The dialogues are a delight to read because the author renders the characters' accent so accurately.

Horton Foote's adaptation of John Steinbeck's tragic tale about two migrant farmworkers in Depression-era California. Lennie, a sweet-natured, mentally-retarded man who doesn't realize his own crushing strength, and George, his companion and protector, befriend an aging farmhand on the ranch where they work as wheat harvesters. The three men resolve to buy a farm together and escape their down-trodden existence as itinerant laborers. But their dream is shattered when the child-like Lennie accidentally strangles the flirtatious wife of the ranch owner's son and George and Lennie are forced to run for their lives.

Of Mice and Men is one of those stories that resonates with you long after you finish. On one hand it's a tragedy on the other it's so beautifully written. A good one to read again every once in a while.

*WARNING: Don't read this review if you haven't read the book and don't want to know the ending

The book has three surprise events in the ending. The first is Lennie's killing of Curley's wife. This is shocking because Curley's father owns the farm, so Lennie could get into serious trouble. The second is when Lennie is hiding in the brush waiting for George, and he sees and hears Aunt Clara's ghost talking and later a rabbit talking. The third is not when George shoots Lennie, but when George walks away with Slim, as if the two are best pals now. This makes it seem that George did not take his friendship with Lennie very seriously, because instead of mourning his death alone, he hangs on to Slim, as if Lennie is easily replaceable and that Slim has taken Lennie's place now. I thought the ending makes George seem like a shady character, not bad enough to be called the villain, but still not good enough to be called hero of the book.

You won't get any complaint from me that this book is skillfully written, in it's vivid descriptions of settings, detailed descriptions of characters, and realistic dialogue.

However, I believe this book has a bad message, and the bad message is about how it's ok to put the weak, infirm and dependent to death. It started with the discussion of Candy's aged dog. The book gave the impression that the dog's age made him no good to even himself, the "quality of life" argument that has been advanced to support euthanizing the elderly, weak and infirm.

After discussing Candy's dog, the argument proceded to Candy himself, where he longs to be euthanized when he can no longer work.

Finally, we come to George's murder of the retarded Lennie, which is completely justified by Slim, the voice of the one sympathetic character in the book. I believe that George was looking for an opportunity to divest himself of Lennie, and that opportunity presented itself when Lennie killed Curley's wife. It was also mentioned that if Lennie was institutionalized, it would be worse than death. I realized there are conflicting opinions about the moral nature of George, but I don't believe he was a good character.

As I was writing this review, I recalled Proverbs 31:8-9 "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." Of Mice And Men describes a world where the advocates for euthanizing the weak and infirm prevail.

Steinbeck writes beautiful prose in this very short book. The story unravels rather quickly and the strong connection one feels with the characters is created from the very first pages. The story is about two friends that travel together looking for work on farms in California. Lennie is a very large man with a feeble mind and George is Lennie's keeper who dreams with Lennie about eventually having a small piece of land where they can have animals and live from it. The book is written using the slang of the 20's and Steinbeck uses incredible imagery throughout the book. The quick story is bound to touch your heart and linger in your mind days after the last page has been read. Enjoy!

What makes a big book? Not physical length. Knowing this novel's reputation as one of Steinbeck's masterpieces, I was astounded to lay hands on its mere hundred pages. Not scale of setting, either. The entire novella takes place in and around the bunkhouse of a California farm, and contains fewer than a dozen characters; it is so compact that it might almost have been made for film, television, or the stage (and it did in fact succeed in all these media). The people, furthermore, are by no means important or powerful; Steinbeck tells of ordinary itinerant laborers, bindle stiffs, living precariously from job to job. In this, the book is similar to THE GRAPES OF WRATH, but deliberately avoids its epic scope, preferring to show a few characters in intimate detail rather than to suggest the displacement of multitudes.

Yet I have no hesitation in calling the book big. Without any effort or overt symbolism, Steinbeck shows something simultaneously particular and vast. His characters are individuals, very real yet bound to one another and to us through their common humanity. The novel speaks to a particular time -- the American West in the late thirties -- and yet seems timeless. It takes a specific corner of California ("A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green") and makes it a kind of oasis of simplicity, as in the marvelous opening scene where the principal characters choose to spend a night sleeping under the stars rather than arriving too soon at the farm.

And nothing could be bigger than the heart of Lennie, the simple-minded giant who comes to the farm with his friend and protector George, but whose confused feelings and ignorance of his own strength get him into trouble. The bond between him and George is not fully explained, but it is palpably filled with a kind of love. Lennie's inability to articulate his feelings is shared by all the other characters to some extent; this is a world in which men keep themselves to themselves and move on alone. But their very inarticulateness gives their underlying emotions an almost primal power. Truly, this is a big book.

If you read some of Steinbeck's work, you will soon discover that he has some wonderful short stories, i.e.: his writing is much more extensive than a few good novels. The present work is somewhere in between a short story and a novel: it is a novella about 120 pages in length.

John Steinbeck (1902 - 1968) was among the best known American writers of the 20th century. His 1939 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, "Grapes of Wrath," has over ten million copies in print. Steinbeck was born in rural California, went to Stanford, and spent most of his life in California. He has been associated with the plight of farm workers and others. His books have been very popular and many were made into movies and stage productions. He won an Academy Award nomination for best story in 1944.

I have read a number of his novels and am still surprised with the quality of his short stories, which are exceptional. In general, his stories are very detailed and descriptive, and it is clear that he had a natural flair or gift for writing. The present work is good and rates among the best, but do not stop with the present work since he has many more.

The story dates from 1937 and is about two migrant farm workers, George and Lennie, who have the goal of working together to save to buy there own small farm. The title is taken from Robert Burns's famous poem, To a Mouse: "The best-laid plans of mice and men go oft awry (or astray)."

The short story describes a few days in their lives as they work on a farm and it describes what can "go astray" in their plans. Will their hard work be for naught or will they reach their dreams? The story is made complicated by Lennie's slight mental disability. Many of the other characters are equally flawed, but in different ways, and when brought together the result is an interesting story.

This is a quick short read and an excellent introduction to Steinbeck.

All the teachers still make you read this and I am glad they make it affordable.

There is not a wasted word in Of Mice and Men. An unforgettable and brillaint work by John Steinbeck. It is clear why this is a classic. Every emotion on the spectrum is represented somewhere in this concise and gripping story of the enduring and heartfelt friendship/guardianship between Lennie and George. I loved it, and to think this was first published in 1937, it feels like much more modern writing. Reflecting on novelists since, it is clear that Steinbeck was ahead of his time and an early pioneer of captivating American writing. Splendid and tragic.

I will not spend a lot of time in detail here, but I have always loved this story although the ending is hearth wrenching. That just goes to show you how real it is, realistic, dramatic and gripping tale set in an America that was not so long ago. If you are a younger person wanting to expand the fictional horizons of your library this would be a good book to start with. I first saw the TV movie of it when I was in Junior High and never forgot it. Years later I bought this Centennial Edition and now have probably read it four times. It is just one of those stories that has so much power with the power of love, but also carries a world of pain. Don't read my review any more just go read this novel if you have not already!

OF MICE AND MEN is one of those sadly rare, short, truly beautiful stories that stay with you forever, the sort of story that you can tell from the beginning -- if its reputation hasn't preceded it, that is -- will be terribly sad. The sort of story that depicts a cruel, unfair, appalling world in the most sensitive and loving way possible.

In short, a classic.

The story is of George, a small, sharp man, and his friend/protege Lennie, a huge, muscular gentle giant with dull wits, who wants nothing more than peace and quiet and little animals. His grandest dream is to someday own a farm with George, where they can have animals -- and Lennie can tend the rabbits. George and Lennie stick together, even after the unthinkable happens and Lennie's strength betrays them both. And when it does, George has to make the most difficult choice he has ever made, one that will haunt him forever -- a choice where there really is no "right" answer.

This is a read-in-one-sitting kind of book, but don't let that fool you into thinking it's light reading. It's powerful, immensely so. It shows, all at once, the hopelessness of human hatred, the helplessness of those caught in it, and the strength that can come through even despite these things. The ending may leave you crying, but it will not leave you depressed, even though all the things that happened are tragic, even though there is no escape now from the spiral of monotony and pointlessness that rules the lives of the workers. Somehow, the author pulls it off.

And for that, it is a classic.

Rating: Masterpiece

this novel is just great and emotional. The ending is what makes the book great, its undescrible, because you can feel somehow that the whole story is real life. it is a tragedy.

What confuses me more than why I was forced to read this book in school was how anyone could call it a masterpiece or a classic for that matter. I'll admit the relationship between Lennie( mentally retarded) and George was sweet. Although as the book so uneventfully progressed, things turned terrible between Lennie accidentally killing Curley's wife and George shooting Lennie. As in both The Pearl and Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck seems to love writing about innocent people getting shot. Steinbeck is a pessimist to say the least and I will never read his works again.

I have mentioned previously in review of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath that he had an ear for the language and circumstances of the drifter, the loner, those who live on the edge in seemingly fabulous California. This is not the California of the Chamber of Commerce hype but it is part of the history of the West Coast nevertheless. Of Mice and Men is in that same vein although there is probably a little more pathos to the characterizations of Lenny and George than Steinbeck gives to those in Grapes. But the dreams are the same. And why shouldn't they be. It may very well be that the best laid plans of mice and men go awry but, damn, we don't have to like it and what it does to the human spirit. And neither does Steinbeck. Read this book, read all of Steinbeck's books.

I first read this book at a young age, curled up on the couch. I found it on the shelf of my mother's bedroom. My mother was suprised to see I had taken it upon myself to read such a book at the age of 10. I wanted to read an adult book, and the slim package of this book seemed undaunting, and unintimidating. I think it opened me up to a world of literature at a young age that has made me love books for a lifetime.
Steinbecks masterpiece is a book you could never forget. It will make you cry, and and laugh.
As the two men in the book are faced with challenges, and the ultimate challenge you sympathize with each character, their struggles, and the consequences they each face.
It's a good book for a young adult, but anyone who has never read this must.

If you ever wondered what the ultimate devotion of a true friend is like, then Of Mice and Men is the book for you. In this novel John Steinbeck explores the interesting lives of two men, Lennie and George. Lennie is a man with a big body and an even bigger heart. Lennie is the kind of gentle giant who loves anything soft. George is the opposite of Lennie. George is a small dark man with sharp features. The two men travel to California in search of work. When they arrive at a ranch they find more then just work. They make new friends, new enemies and get into trouble. Lennie has a learning disability and is a little slow, and George said he would always watch out for Lennie. In their time at the ranch they meet a few different characters, one of which is a woman who happens to be married to the bosses' son Curly. Curly is a small jealous man who picks fights for random reasons. Curly's wife is a flirtatious woman who loves the attention she receives from the men on the farm. One event that shows Georges strength and the lack of his ability to make good judgments, was when Curly stormed into the bunkhouse accusing Lennie of having and affair with his wife. When Curly throws a punch Lennie catches his fist and easily crushes it. This event only added to Lennie and Georges problems. George and Lennie are working to save money so they can live a life they always dreamed of. After a series of unfortunate events the plot takes a sorrowful turn. This is a very entertaining book that has a little bit of everything: comedy, drama, action, suspense and tragedy. This book shows what a true friend would do for another friend. I would recommend this book to people of all ages. We can all learn from Lennie and George

I read it in the 9th grade which was about two or three years ago. I loved it. I thought it very well written. I love George and Lennie. I love George's hate/love relationship with Lennie, and how he takes care of him and look out for him even though Lennie gets him into a lot of trouble. I loved the ending and how Lennie was thinking of the farm that George and him have dreamed about. I cried at the end of the story it was so amazing yet terribly sad. You really connect with how the characters feel at or by the end of the novel.

thank you for your time,
Loran

The story "Of Mice And Men" was an awsome book because it was very funny and interesting. One of the funniest parts of the book was when lennie asked for catchup with his beans. I thought the ending was not very good but other than that it was great.