The converging tales within To Kill a Mockingbird can briefly be summed up as: the story of six-year-old Scout Finch and her brother Jem,who are obsessed with sighting the reclusive Boo Radley; and the story of their father Atticus,a noble lawyer who defends a black man in a rape case brought against him by a young white woman. However this summary cannot possibly touch on the impact of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel,which just a year after its publication had already been translated into 10 languages,and a year after that inspired an Oscar-winning film. Published in 1960,until 2015,when an earlier draft of the book was released,it was Harper Lee's only title. Mockingbird has since been placed above the Bible on the list of books every adult should read before they die and,having never gone out of print,staunchly remains a feature on high school reading lists. Its themes cover racial injustice,gender,the loss of innocence and class and the complexity of social codes. In 2007 George W. Bush,on his presentation to Lee of the Presidential Medal of Freedom,described it as the book that "has influenced the character (of America) for the better. It has been a gift to the entire world. A model of good writing and humane sensibility,(which will) be read and studied forever."
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: CornerstoneISBN: 9780099549482Number of pages: 320Weight: 171 gDimensions: 178 x 110 x 19 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Lee explores with exuberant humourthe irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s.Someone rare has written this very fine novel,a writer with the liveliest sense of life and the warmest,most authentic humour. A touching book; and so funny,so likeable.There is humour as well as tragedy in this book,besides its faint note of hope for human nature; and it is delightfully writtenNo one ever forgets this bookOne of the best novels I remember...uniquely unsentimental
Harper Lee
The author of one of the defining novels of the 20th century,Harper Lee is also one of literature's great enigmas. Her masterpiece,To Kill a Mockingbird,was published in 1960 and its nuanced yet robust denunciation of small town racism has entered American cultural life as few other novels have done.
Visit the Harper Lee author page
Kommentar