--- product_id: 2731926 title: "The Dharma Bums" brand: "jack kerouac" price: "€ 22.79" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.hr/products/2731926-the-dharma-bums store_origin: HR region: Croatia --- # The Dharma Bums **Brand:** jack kerouac **Price:** € 22.79 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Dharma Bums by jack kerouac - **How much does it cost?** € 22.79 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hr](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/2731926-the-dharma-bums) ## Best For - jack kerouac enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted jack kerouac brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Jack Kerouac’s classic novel about friendship, the search for meaning, and the allure of nature “In [ On the Road ] Kerouac’s heroes were sensation seekers; now they are seekers after truth . . . the novel often attains a beautiful dignity.”— Chicago Tribune First published in 1958, a year after On the Road put the Beat Generation on the map, The Dharma Bums stands as one of Jack Kerouac’s most powerful and influential novels. The story focuses on two ebullient young Americans—mountaineer, poet, and Zen Buddhist Japhy Ryder, and Ray Smith, a zestful, innocent writer—whose quest for Truth leads them on a heroic odyssey, from marathon parties and poetry jam sessions in San Francisco’s Bohemia to solitude and mountain climbing in the High Sierras. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Dimensions | 7.77 x 5.06 x 0.52 inches | | Edition | Reissue | | Isbn 10 | 0140042520 | | Isbn 13 | 978-0140042528 | | Item Weight | 2.31 pounds | | Language | English | | Print Length | 244 pages | | Publication Date | May 27, 1976 | | Publisher | Penguin Books | | Reading Age | 18 years and up | ## Images ![The Dharma Bums - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81py3WboOGL.jpg) ## Available Options This product comes in different **Format** options. ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Dharma Bums is a cultural walk-about America in the late 1950’s *by on Reviewed in the United States May 27, 2018* I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading The Dharma Bums. I didn’t remember much about Jack Kerouac’s writing having read On The Road, many back in the day years ago; the experience was stuck in my mind's dusty archives. I wasn’t the same person who read On The Road back then, I was here now in the present suspecting I might be a Dharma Bum of sorts myself.The Dharma Bums is a cultural walk-about America in the late 1950’s with the spread of suburbia, a growing middle class with an increasing addiction to television and sameness. It also includes vivid and beautiful representations of natural phenomenon from the desert to the high mountains. The characters that Ray Smith, the narrator of the story, meets in his travels range from intellectuals, artists, poets and beatnik friends, to hobos he meets as he hops fast freight trains up the California Coast or thumbs rides with truck drivers and others while he travels across the country a couple of times. He carries his home on his back and to some extent depends on the good will of those he meets on his path. He meditates in the desert, mountain meadows and the woods. He exchanges what he has learned with his fellow Dharma Bums and gains insight from them and his travels. At times Ray Smith and his Dharma buddies seem like modern-day bhikkhu (monks), each on the path of enlightenment in their own way.This is a trip that anyone can enjoy, from the first time Ray Smith, the main character, hops a freight train, headed North up the California coast. Even though it was written some time ago it feels contemporary and relevant today. One thing I knew as I began reading The Dharma Bums, was that Jack Kerouac knows how to tell a story. I also became happily aware that this book was an adventure entwined with the basis of Mindfulness including the “Four Noble Truths” and the “Eight-fold Path;” a Bodhisattva’s journey looking for nothing, knowing and not knowing. The two main characters Ray Smith and Japhy Ryder are on a quest for truth that finds them climbing mountains in the high sierras, partying with San Fransisco Bohemians, and others and writing their own poetry.“…Pray tell us, good buddy, and don’t make it muddy, who played this trick, on Harry and Dick, and why is so mean this Eternal Scene, just what’s the point, of this whole joint? I thought maybe I could find out at last from these Dharma Bums.” -- Jack Kerouac -- The Dharma BumsI’d be willing to bet that a lot of people these days may not know much about Jack Kerouac. I wonder if his work is read in high school or college English classes? It should be. Probably banned in Texas or Alabama, like Salinger's Catcher In The Rye. Kerouac was born in Lowell Massachusetts in 1922, went to public school and ended up with a scholarship to Columbia in New York City where he met Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs who turn up in The Dharma Bums. Kerouac died in St. Pete Florida in 1969 at the age of forty-seven.Those who do remember Jack Kerouac would probably think of the classic “On The Road” that was published in 1957 and made Kerouac one of the most appreciated writers of that time. “On The Road” came to personify what was called the “Beat Generation.” Other books followed including those in what Kerouac included in the “The Duluoz Legend Series” including The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans, Big Sur, other novels and poetry. But Kerouac’s writing is a lot more than “Beat Generation” tales.The Dharma Bums was published in 1958, after On the Road. Written in College Park, a neighborhood in Orlando, Florida. It is a subtle, non-preachy primer, in some ways, on certain concepts found in Buddhism, in particular Zen Buddhism. But written as a novel, in Kerouac’s rhythmic, descriptive and first person conversational storytelling style, these notions come up naturally. Words, sentences and paragraphs loose their individual functions as they create a new actuality, moving, nudging and seducing the reader into the strokes and colors of the author's word paintings.“But I had my own little bangtail ideas and they had nothing to do with the ‘lunatic’ part of this. I wanted to get me a full pack complete with everything necessary to sleep, shelter, eat, cook, in fact a regular kitchen and bedroom right on my back, and go off somewhere and find perfect solitude and look into the perfect emptiness of my mind and be completely neutral from any and all ideas. I intended to pray, too, as my only activity, pray for all living creatures; I saw it was the only decent activity left in the world. To be in some riverbottom somewhere, or in a desert, or in mountains, or in some hut in Mexico or shack in Adirondack, and rest and be kind, and do nothing else, practice what the Chinese call ‘do-nothing.” I didn’t want to have anything to do, really, either with Japhy’s ideas about society (I figured it would be better just to avoid it altogether, walk around it) or with any of Alvah’s ideas about grasping after life as much as you can because of its sweet sadness and because you would be dead some day.” -- Jack Kerouac The Dharma BumsRay Smith’s journey moves along spontaneously and as fast paced as Jack Kerouac’s prose. This timeless story is hard to put down with a bonus if you are interested in Dharma, mindfulness and Buddhist philosophy; you will find many moments in the book with which to relate. Beyond the philosophy you will find a artfully crafted novel that is engaging and classic, as a spiritual journey to find self or perhaps no self. Jack Kerouac, intentionally or not created his own Buddha book of "sutras" and left them with us. JRMartin ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Good Yarn *by on Reviewed in the United States February 18, 2024* A good tail of the "beat" era of Kerouac. All of the characters in the book are actual people, but with the names changed. What I found interesting was the Beat usage of Buddhism as a philosophy when they were all simply "drugstore Buddhists". Using the jargon and names of famous historical Buddhists to seem eclectic and different than the hum drum middle class, which they despised, but which they syphoned off of to exist. I like the realism and common language as well as a look into the libertine and misoginistic philosophy of the Beat, boys club. Good book. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Jack Kerouac's Greatest *by on Reviewed in the United States May 14, 2026* Growing up in Lowell, MA, I was always intrigued by fellow Lowellian Jack Kerouac and his writings, even though he was not thought of very well in the city he wrote about often. I've read a few of his books including his famous "On The Road". But I must say this "Dharma Blues" was far more interesting to me. Jack paints a greater picture in this book that seems to expand upon "On The Road". It was an excellent read. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.hr/products/2731926-the-dharma-bums](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/2731926-the-dharma-bums) --- *Product available on Desertcart Croatia* *Store origin: HR* *Last updated: 2026-06-19*