TITLES TAKEN FROM THE BIBLE ABSALOM‚ ABSALOM! BY WILLIAM FAOULKNER

Steinbeck apparently considered this 1952 novel to be his magnum opus, the one which all other novels before it had merely been practice for. The title is suitably grand. Taken from Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, it refers to line 4:16, after Cain has slain his brother Abel. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.