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)

Book Description

When she died in obscurity in 1960, all her books were out of print. Now, Zora Neale Hurston is recognized as one of the most important and influential modern American writers. This volume, with its companion, "Zora Neale Hurston: Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings," brings together for the first time all of Hurston's best works in one authoritative set. It features the acclaimed 1937 novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God," a lyrical masterpiece about a woman's struggle for love and independence. "Jonah's Gourd Vine," based on the story of Hurston's parents, details the rise and fall of a preacher torn between spirit and flesh. "Moses, Man of the Mountain" is a high-spirited retelling of the Exodus story in black vernacular. "Seraph on the Suwanee" portrays the passionate clash between a poor southern "cracker" and her willful husband. A selection of short stories further displays Hurston's unique fusion of folk traditions and literary modernism--comic, ironic, and soaringly poetic.

Customer Reviews:

Inspired.......2006-02-20

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.

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Black folklore from Ground Zero
Zora's works
An interesting read
African American Folklore with the classic Hurston Flavor

The Complete Stories
Zora Neale Hurston
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060921714

Book Description

A landmark gathering of short fiction, spanning the career of Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, and "one of the greatest writers of our time."--Toni Morrison

Customer Reviews:

Black folklore from Ground Zero.......2007-08-21

Prior to Zora Neale Hurston, the rich well of black folklore was laargely written by white writers such as Joel Chandler Harris and Roark Bradford among others, with varying degrees of accuracy. Most literate and educated blacks were too ashamed of their folk cutlure to write about it until ZNH came on the scene.

This is a fine collection of some of her best short fiction. "John Redding Goes to Sea," written during her college days, accurately describes the life of an intelligent young black man feeling trapped by the illiteracy around him. "The EatonVille Anthology" is a rich collection of anecdotes about her hometown of Eatonville, Fla. "Drenched in Light" is about a free-spirited young black girl and her exasperated mother. "The Bone of Contention" is an old handed-down folklore that inspired her aborted play with Langston Hughes MULE BONE.

I could go on and on, but collections like this are of vital importance since Black folklore and stroytelling is in danger of being a dying art form. Read and keep the flame alive.

Zora's works.......2007-08-06

You won't be able to put this book down as you get into her story-telling. A movie was made of "Their Eyes Were Watching God"--a captivating short novel. She's hilarious and serious at the same time. Some of her stories are autobiographical.

An interesting read.......2002-02-20

The stories in this book cover just about everything from tales of alligator men to torrid love affairs. They provide a lot of insight into African American culture and history, and are even written in dialect. The forward included in this edition really helped me understand what I was reading when I started the book. Some of the stories are a little confusing though, because they are printed in two different versions in this book. There's a glossary of slang which is also really helpful. I'd reccomend it for anyone who's a fan of folklore or African American history or literature.

African American Folklore with the classic Hurston Flavor.......2000-07-19

These legends, folk tales, poems, and short stories, spendidly told, created and rewritten by Hurston, beautifully illustrate the pathos, passion and pleasure of the African American existence.

The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1899-1967: The Classic Anthology

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A Nice Collection of Short Stories!
The Best of The Best
"The Best Short Stories by Black Writers" is a #1 classic!

The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1899-1967: The Classic Anthology
James Baldwin , Gwendolyn Brooks , Paul Laurence Dunbar , Ralph Ellison , Zora Neale Hurston , Alice Walker , Richard Wright , Frank Yerby , and Various Others
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0316380318

Customer Reviews:

A Nice Collection of Short Stories!.......2007-04-20

Langston Hughes provides an introduction into this selected anthology of short stories by prominent African American writers like Langston Hughes' himself with his classic short story, "Thank You, Mam." We also have a short story by poet Gwendolyn Brooks and dancer/choreographer Katherine Dunham. There are the traditional authors like Zora Neale Huston, James Baldwin, Charles Chesnutt, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Ralph Ellison, Ernest J. Gaines, Jean Toomer, and Richard Wright only to name a few. It's still a great anthology of assorted stories about African American life in America from the South to Chicago and New York.

The Best of The Best.......2002-12-15

This book is a collection of short stories that was put together by the great Harlem Renaissance writer, Langston Hughes. Some authors whose works are also featured in the book are Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alice Walker. These stories are fun to read and they speak about the current issues that Black America was facing during the time period. This book is for anyone who is trying to better understand black thought during the 20th century.

"The Best Short Stories by Black Writers" is a #1 classic!.......2000-06-10

This book is an excellent example of reality. In each short story, there is some kind of relivance of growing up in a nation filled with crime, love, kindenss, hardships, and friendships. The writers express themselves so wonderfully, vivid pictures of the events are played in my head. It keeps middle-school children very attentive, mainly because they can easily relate to the troubles of growing up today. Teens can feel a sense of comfort in this book because they know they are not alone. This book contains collections by some of the best authors in the world. It really makes the african-american culture shine to where all cultures will enjoy!

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One for the Ages
A Novel Reviewed by an author
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Good Read

Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0252017781

Amazon.com

At the height of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston was the preeminent black woman writer in the United States. She was a sometime-collaborator with Langston Hughes and a fierce rival of Richard Wright. Her stories appeared in major magazines, she consulted on Hollywood screenplays, and she penned four novels, an autobiography, countless essays, and two books on black mythology. Yet by the late 1950s, Hurston was living in obscurity, working as a maid in a Florida hotel. She died in 1960 in a Welfare home, was buried in an unmarked grave, and quickly faded from literary consciousness until 1975 when Alice Walker almost single-handedly revived interest in her work.

Of Hurston's fiction, Their Eyes Were Watching God is arguably the best-known and perhaps the most controversial. The novel follows the fortunes of Janie Crawford, a woman living in the black town of Eaton, Florida. Hurston sets up her characters and her locale in the first chapter, which, along with the last, acts as a framing device for the story of Janie's life. Unlike Wright and Ralph Ellison, Hurston does not write explicitly about black people in the context of a white world--a fact that earned her scathing criticism from the social realists--but she doesn't ignore the impact of black-white relations either:

It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.

One person the citizens of Eaton are inclined to judge is Janie Crawford, who has married three men and been tried for the murder of one of them. Janie feels no compulsion to justify herself to the town, but she does explain herself to her friend, Phoeby, with the implicit understanding that Phoeby can "tell 'em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat's just de same as me 'cause mah tongue is in mah friend's mouf."

Hurston's use of dialect enraged other African American writers such as Wright, who accused her of pandering to white readers by giving them the black stereotypes they expected. Decades later, however, outrage has been replaced by admiration for her depictions of black life, and especially the lives of black women. In Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston breathes humanity into both her men and women, and allows them to speak in their own voices. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

"Belongs in the category ... of enduring American literature." Saturday Review Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots.

Download Description

"E-BOOK EXTRA: Janie's Great Journey: A Reading Group Guide; PLUS: The Comphrehensive Edition: This special e-book is the only edition to include all three essays by Edwidge Danticat, Mary Helen Washington, and Henry Louis Gates.

Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person -- no mean feat for a Black woman in the '30s. Zora Neale Hurston's classic 1937 novel follows Janie's quest for identity -- a journey during which she learns what love is, experiences life's joys and sorrows, and comes home to herself in peace. "There is no book more important to me than this one." --Alice Walker "Their Eyes belongs in the same category with [the works of] William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway, that of enduring American literature." --Saturday Review

Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person -- no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots."

Customer Reviews:

One for the Ages.......2007-10-07

Zora Neale Hurston's novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" has been analyzed, criticized, and lionized over the brief span of its existence. Lately, praise has predominated though with continued carping on issues which she made clear she considered secondary to her purpose.

Hurston's mastery of language places this work in the top tier of Anglophone literature, and the broadness of her comprehension defies spatial, temporal, social, or political confines. Her novel is powerful because it is humane and universal in scope. The story enchants because the voice relating it is unfailingly compassionate.

This lyrical voice was owned by no one but Zora Neale Hurston herself. Throughout her professional life, she remained true to her vision regardless of praise or criticism.

Ultimately, Hurston's literary worth, and that of her detractors, critics, and rivals, will be judged by generations to come. I'm confident that her stature will endure and her insistence on self-definition will be vindicated.

A Novel Reviewed by an author.......2007-09-30

Three stars due to the consensus that it is a classic.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston September 2007 Amazon
Janie Crawford, an attractive, confident, middle-aged black woman, returns to Eatonville, Florida, after a long absence. The black townspeople gossip about her and speculate about where she has been and what has happened to her young husband, Tea Cake. They take her confidence as aloofness, but Janie's friend Pheoby Watson sticks up for her. Pheoby visits her to find out what has happened. Their conversation frames the story that Janie relates. Janie explains that her grandmother raised her after her mother ran off. Nanny loves her granddaughter and is dedicated to her, but her life as a slave and experience with her own daughter, Janie's mother, has warped her worldview. Her primary desire is to marry Janie as soon as possible to a husband who can provide security and social status for her. She finds a much older farmer named Logan Killicks and insists that Janie marry him. After moving in with Logan, Janie is miserable. He is pragmatic and unromantic and treats her like a pack mule. Janie flirts with and marries in secret another man. After two decades of marriage, Janie asserts herself, Jody insults her appearance and after a savage domestic quarrel, it's over for them. Jody dies from illness and Janie is free. She rebuffs various suitors who come to court but when a man twelve years her junior enters her life there is mutual attraction. Only with her third and last lover, a roustabout called Tea Cake, does Janie at last bloom, as does the large pear tree that stands beside her grandmother's tiny log cabin. "She saw a dust bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage!" They move to the everglades for the final tragic conclusion of the book. Rife with dialect, some may find the book time consuming. The title has nothing to do with the story, but it is a beautiful thought. The book has been made into a written-for-television movie starring Halle Berry.
Trish New, author of The Thrill of Hope, South State Street Journal, and Memory Flatlined.

Their Eyes Were Watching God.......2007-09-10

My son needed this book for school and we received in time for school. Great service!

Their Eyes Were Watching God.......2007-09-04

This book has been an extremely enjoyable read for me. It had a certain easy flow to it that made you want to keep reading it. This book didn't hook me right away, but I still gave it a chance. I am glad that I gave it a chance because it turned out to be one of my favorite books. If you enjoy hearing a good story, i recommend this book to you. Actually, I recommend this book to anybody and everybody! When i was asked to rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10, I replied by saying an eleven because i thought that this book was that good.

Good Read.......2007-08-21

This book is an easy read but it contains underling themes and plot structures that can be discussed in a class room setting. This is a good book and provides an interesting insight in young black woman's life who is trying to find her perfect mate.

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A witty, accessible retelling of "what Africa sees in Moses"
Brilliant examination of race, class, politics, conviction
Poetic & Topical
Great Discussion Group Book
not for students

MOSES MAN OF MOUNTAIN
Zora Neale Hurston
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0252011228

Book Description

In this 1939 novel based on the familiar story of the Exodus, Zora Neale Hurston blends the Moses of the Old Testament with the Moses of black folklore and song to create a compelling allegory of power, redemption, and faith. Narrated in a mixture of biblical rhetoric, black dialect, and colloquial English, Hurston traces Moses' life from the day he Is launched into the Nile river in a reed basket, to his development as a great magician, to his transformation into the heroic rebel leader, the Great Emancipator. From his dramatic confrontations with Pharaoh to his fragile negotiations with the wary Hebrews, this very human story is told with great humor, passion, and psychological insight--the hallmarks of Hurston as a writer and champion of black culture.

Customer Reviews:

A witty, accessible retelling of "what Africa sees in Moses".......2003-11-27

In the introduction to this 1939 novel, Hurston says that Africans (and, by extension African Americans) revere Moses "not because of his beard nor because he brought the laws down from Sinai" but "because he had the power to go up the mountain and bring them down. . . . [W]ho can talk with God face to face? Who has the power to command God to go to a peak of mountain and there demand of Him laws with which to govern a nation? . . . That calls for power, and that is what Africa sees in Moses."

Hurston incorporates the African tradition into her retelling of the Exodus story, along with that tradition's humor, colloquialisms, wit, irreverence, and apocryphal embellishments. The result is probably her most accessible work, an undemanding read that still reflects a mirror on such issues as politics, slavery, and feminism. The novel is remarkably faithful to the original, but Hurston's Old Testaments heroes and their adversaries are fleshed out as lethargic, selfish, dithering, conniving, as well as joyous, loving, and (above all) human. Moses's brother Aaron and sister Miriam, for example, are depicted as much a hindrance to the movement as a help.

Moses himself is presented warts and all. As expected, he's the savior who leads a slave nation from captivity to the freedom of a Promised Land, the wise prophet who brings law and government to an unruly and divided people. Still, Hurston's Moses observes that "the first law of Nature is that everybody likes to receive things, but nobody likes to feel grateful. And the very next law is that people talk about tenderness and mercy, but they love force. If you feed a thousand people you are a nice man with suspicious motives. If you kill a thousand you a hero." And Moses does kill--not only Egyptian soldiers hot in pursuit, but 3,000 of his own people: defenseless, drunken revelers paying homage to a golden calf (Exodus 32:28), an unforgiving and ruthless act that never fails to jar modern sensibilities.

It's often a marvel when an author can take a well-known story and make it seem fresh. Cecil B. DeMille 1956 movie has heightened modern-day familiarity to the point of farce (although Hurston's original audience was certainly aware of DeMille's first film version, released in 1923). Nevertheless, Hurston manages to make this timeworn story new again for modern readers.

Brilliant examination of race, class, politics, conviction.......2003-07-21

This is a brilliant novel. Hurston retells the story of Moses through the lens of black history and of her own day; the reader can see Hitler in Pharoah, the ghettos of Europe and America in Goshen. The Hebrews of Hurston's tale are European Jews under National Socialism and American Blacks under slavery. Moses becomes in this context a figure of contemporary hope. His being suggests that it's possible for someone to lead those in need of leadership out of trouble and to change the world. (By the way, if you get a chance, take a look at J Kristeva's book "Revolution in Poetic Language.")

Hurston's novel is particularly relevent in today's world of spin politics and soundbites. To read this book is to better understand the news you're stuck with being fed.

Poetic & Topical.......2000-01-25

A poetic, topical book that puts a contemporary twist on historical and spiritual (and political) issues pertaining to human rights and human potential. Highly recommended. Readers young and old should also pick up Hurston's "Tell My Horse: Voodoo And Life In Haiti And Jamaica."

Great Discussion Group Book.......1999-12-17

A good read. Hurston does an excellent job of depicting the parallel experiences of the captivity of the Israelites and the American Slave. In fact, one could argue that the experience of the Israelites is the American Slave experience. This is a great book for high school reading, it provides a variety of cause and effect themes that all young adults need to know; among them, if you oppress a people or person you breed fear, insecurity, and eventual self hatred in that human. I highly recommend Their Eyes Were Watching God another of Hurston's literary jewels. jewels.

not for students.......1999-09-27

I had to read this for school and although its a pretty good book, most high schoolers seriously wouldn't like it. it's informative but not really for pleasure reading

Zora Neale Hurston (Bloom's Modern Critical Views)

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Zora Neale Hurston (Bloom's Modern Critical Views)

Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0877546274

Book Description

Hurston is referred to as the central voice of the Harlem Renaissance. A wide array of critics take a look at her work in this volume. Examined texts include Their Eyes Were Watching God; Jonah's Gourd Vine; and Moses, Man of the Mountain.

Customer Reviews:

Good introduction to Hurston.......2000-11-15

The short stories contained in this book reflect the manifold talents of Zora Neale Hurston as a fiction writer. Hurston knew her subject matter inside and out, whether it be the poor African American communities of Florida or Harlem during the "Renaissance." She blends folklore and keen observations with her anthropological knowledge to create stories that seem like little pieces of real life. In stories like "Spunk," "Isis" and "Sweat," she heralds her brilliant novels such as "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and "Jonah's Gourd Vine." Hurston's mastery of biblical themes and styles is reflected in "Book of Harlem" and "Herod on Trial" (in the appendix), a skill she would later put to use in her masterpiece "Moses, Man of the Mountain." Also, in almost all of the stories, the dialogue is authentic and very fun to read.

spunkdefied.......2000-09-14

I really enjoyed reading this book. I also saw a performance in Cleveland, OH. The book is so jazzy you really can feel each characters emotions. I loved the "Gilded Six Bits" part. It's a toe-tappin',finger-snappin',belly-shakin',buttocks movin' kinda book! You will enjoy it!

Jump at De Sun: The Story of Zora Neale Hurston (Trailblazer Biographies)

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"My Opinion"

Jump at De Sun: The Story of Zora Neale Hurston (Trailblazer Biographies)
A. P. Porter
Manufacturer: Carolrhoda Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0876145462

Customer Reviews:

"My Opinion".......2003-03-04

This book is very good, if you are doing research on Zora Neale Hurston or Eatonville, Florida that is. I don't mean to say that it is not good for anything else, I'm just saying that, as a 16 yr. old Junior in H.S., this is a great book for doing research in.

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