Jack Kerouac's classic novel about friendship, the search for meaning, and the allure of nature. A witty, moving philosophical novel, Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums is a journey of self-discovery through the lens of Zen Buddhism. This edition of Penguin Modern Classics includes an introduction by Ann Douglas. Following the explosive energy of On the Road, the book that put the Beat Generation on the literary map and brought Jack Kerouac onto the bestseller list, The Dharma Bums describes Kerouac's spiritual quest of a group of friends for Dharma or truth. Ray Smith and his friend Japhy, along with Morley the yodeler, set off into the high Sierras to seek the lesson of solitude and experience the Zen lifestyle. However, in the wildly bohemian San Francisco, with its poetry jam sessions, marathon drinking sprees, and experiments in Yabyum, they find the...