Zora Neale Hurston : Novels and Stories : Jonah's Gourd Vine / Their Eyes Were Watching God / Moses, Man of the Mountain / Seraph on the Suwanee / Selected Stories (Library of America) (Hardcover)

~ Zora Neale Hurston (Author), Cheryl Wall (Editor) "GOD was grumbling his thunder and playing the zig-zag lightning thru his fingers..." (more)
Key Phrases: Tea Cake, Miss Arvay, Jim Meserve (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This two-volume set brings together for the first time all of Hurston's best works: four novels, two books of folklore, and the first complete edition of her famous autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road.
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From Booklist

Hurston flowered under the warming sun of the Harlem Renaissance, the black arts' explosion centered in Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s. After years of neglect, she died a forgotten figure, but her reputation blossomed anew in the late 1970s. Hurston's permanent place in the canon of U.S. literature is now assured, for her second novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), is considered a classic and is taught in the college classroom. The estimable Library of America series draws together between the covers of one volume all four of her novels and a goodly selection of her short stories. That she was mother to the likes of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison is tangible. It's obvious they learned from Hurston's use of black folklore as the mat{‚}eriel of her fiction and admire her richly soaring language, which is derived from black dialect. Her novels and stories--the latter a form she didn't use as effectively--relate the loves and woes of black and white people from in and around the southern communities she knew so well; one novel, Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939), has a biblical setting, and it's still an enrapturing interpretation of a story told many times before. Libraries without a complete set of Hurston's fiction will find this volume a necessary and easy purchase to fill that unfortunate gap. Brad Hooper

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1054 pages
• Publisher: Library of America (February 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940450836
• ISBN-13: 978-0940450837
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #187,027 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspired, February 19, 2006

By	jkibler (Maybinton, South Carolina) - See all my reviews

If Ms Hurston finally gets the readers she deserves, she will take her place among America's finest writers of the 20th Century. She is a joy to read and repays second and third perusals. The oral narrative quality of her writing places her squarely in the company of the best of her Southern contemporaries. She shares their great gifts. By all means, don't deny yourself the pleasure of reading her work.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BUY THIS BOOK!, August 2, 2008

By	N. Walker "nantarctica" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

HURSTON IS WONDERFUL! STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING RIGHT NOW AND BUY THIS BOOK! YOU WILL NEVER REGRET IT!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superlative Author, August 17, 2009

By	Art "Wise Owl" (Florida) - See all my reviews

Zora Neale Hurston is, without a doubt, one of the giants of literature of the last century. Capturing the heart and soul of the deep South--both "colored" and "white"--her works breathe life into the characters she portrays, leaving readers with the "slice of life" they are seeking from an outstanding writer of the period. Now, for the first time, this volume serves the reader the whole pie.

Whether Hurston studied the practice of Voodoo in the Caribbean, the folkways of African-Americans in the Old South, or the interrelationships of the races in the society of her time (especially in the trial of Ruby McCollum, which she covered for the Pittsburgh Courier), she tackled her subject with a degree of enthusiasm that is seldom matched.