Zora Neale Hurston

African-American Classics presents great stories and poems from America"s earliest Black writers, illustrated by contemporary African-American artists. Featured are "Two Americans" by Florence Lewis Bentley, "The Goophered Grapevine" by Charles W. Chesnutt, "Becky" by Jean Toomer, two short plays by Zora Neale Hurston, and six more tales of humor and tragedy. Also featured are eleven poems, including Langston Hughes" "Danse Africaine" and "The Negro", plus Paul Laurence Dunbar"s "Sympathy" ("I know why the caged bird sings...")

"En av vår tids största författare." Toni MorrisonFörsta gången på svenska! En kväll kommer Janie Starks vandrande på Eatonvilles huvudgata. I takt med hennes steg briserar stadens nyfikenhet: Var har hon varit? Vart tog pengarna, kläderna och den unge mannen vägen? För sin närmsta vän Pheoby berättar hon om allt som tog henne dit: från de vitas bakgård till drömmarna och den dödliga dyn i Floridas träskmarker. Genom tre äktenskap, i ett rasistiskt och patriarkalt samhälle i början av 1900-talet, erövrar Janie både friheten och kärleken. Romanklassikern "De vände sina blickar mot Gud" (1937) har hyllats för sina karaktärsporträtt och sitt rika språk djupt rotat i muntlig berättartradition. Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) anses vara en av de viktigaste rösterna inom amerikansk litteratur, och en pionjär i att ge kvinnors och svarta människors erfarenheter en stark och självständig röst." Den här starka berättelsen om mänsklig frigörelse gavs ut redan 1937. Det är hög tid att den får en svensk översättning." Dagens Nyheter"Jag slukade boken. Tre timmar senare var jag klar och grät floder, av skäl som både hade och inte hade med det tragiska slutet att göra." Zadie Smith

Based on acclaimed author Zora Neale Hurston's personal experiences in Haiti and Jamaica—where she participated as an initiate rather than just an observer during her visits in the 1930s—Tell My Horse is a fascinating firsthand account of the mysteries of Voodoo. An invaluable resource and remarkable guide to Voodoo practices, rituals, and beliefs, it is a travelogue into a dark, mystical world that offers a vividly authentic picture of ceremonies, customs, and superstitions.

Though she died penniless and forgotten, Zora Neale Hurston is now recognized as a major figure in African American literature. Best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, she also published numerous short stories and essays, three other novels, and two books on black folklore. Even avid readers of Hurston’s prose, however, may be surprised to know that she was also a serious and ambitious playwright throughout her career. Although several of her plays were produced during her lifetime—and some to public acclaim—they have languished in obscurity for years. Even now, most critics and historians gloss over these texts, treating them as supplementary material for understanding her novels. Yet, Hurston’s dramatic works stand on their own merits and independently of her fiction. Now, eleven of these forgotten dramatic writings are being published together for the first time in this carefully edited and annotated volume. Filled with lively characters, vibrant images of rural and city life, biblical and folk tales, voodoo, and, most importantly, the blues, readers will discover a “real Negro theater” that embraces all the richness of black life.

'The Life of Herod The Great â?? like Hurston herself â?? is a masterpiece, a miracle, and a marvel. In other words, treasure for the whole world' Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

A never before published novel from beloved author Zora Neale Hurston, revealing the historical Herod the Great--not the villain the Bible makes him out to be but a religious and philosophical man who lived a life of valor and vision. In the 1950s, as a continuation of Moses, Man of the Mountain, Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel about one of the most infamous figures in the Bible, Herod the Great. In Hurston's retelling, Herod is not the wicked ruler of the New Testament who is charged with the "slaughter of the innocents," but a forerunner of Christ--a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea. From the peaks of triumph to the depths of human misery, the historical Herod "appears to have been singled out and especially endowed to attract the lightning of fate," Hurston writes. An intimate of both Marc Antony and Julius Caesar, the Judean king lived during the first century BCE, in a time of war and imperial expansion that was rife with political assassinations and bribery, as the old world gave way to the new. Portraying Herod within this vivid and dynamic world of antiquity, little known to modern readers, Hurston's unfinished manuscript brings this complex, compelling, and misunderstood leader fully into focus. Hurston shared her findings about Herod's rise, his reign, and his waning days in letters to friends and associates. Text from three of these letters concludes the manuscript in an intimate way. Scholar-Editor Deborah Plant's "Commentary: A Story Finally Told" assesses Hurston's pioneering work and underscores Hurston's perspective that the first century BCE has much to teach us and that the lens through which to view this dramatic and stirring era is the life and times of Herod the Great.

Zora Neale Hurston's beloved classic--a PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick--available in a special deluxe edition featuring gold sprayed edges, foil, embossed lettering, and a custom foil stamp on the cover." A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don't know how to live properly. . . . Hurston believed in the transformative power of storytelling, and she took risks with sentiment that few contemporary writers are prepared to make."--Zadie SmithOriginally published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God has become one of the most important and enduring works of modern American literature. Written with Zora Neale Hurston's singular wit and pathos, this Southern love story recounts Janie Crawford's "ripening from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her own destiny." A tale of awakening and independence featuring a strong female protagonist driven to fulfill her passions and ambitions, Their Eyes Were Watching God is a masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance and perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the American literary canon.

Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. When, at sixteen, Janie is caught kissing shiftless Johnny Taylor, her grandmother swiftly marries her off to an old man with sixty acres. Janie endures two stifling marriages before meeting the man of her dreams - who offers not diamonds, but a packet of flowering seeds. Rediscovered and championed by Alice Walker in the 1970s, Hurston's lyrical novel of self-discovery is now acclaimed as one of the greatest American classics of the twentieth century. INTRODUCED BY ZADIE SMITH'There is no novel I love more' ZADIE SMITH'This novel is a packet of surprises' GUARDIAN 'One of the greatest writers of our time' TONI MORRISON 'Zora Neale Hurston was a knockout' MAYA ANGELOU'There is no book more important to me than this one. It speaks to me as no novel, past or present, has ever done.' ALICE WALKER

'The Life of Herod The Great – like Hurston herself – is a masterpiece, a miracle, and a marvel. In other words, treasure for the whole world' Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage * In the 1950s Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel reconsidering the life of one of the most well-known biblical figures, Herod the Great. That novel was never published in Hurston's lifetime. Now for the first time, it is brought to glorious life with commentary from scholar Deborah G. Plant. Far from his villainous portrayal in the New Testament, Hurston casts Herod as a forerunner of Christ, a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea. An intimate of both Marc Antony and Julius Caesar, the Judean king lived in a time of war and imperial expansion that was rife with political assassinations and bribery, as the old world gave way to the new. By bringing this complex, compelling and oft misunderstood leader into shining focus, The Life of Herod the Great invites the reader to reassess history and the world as they know it. What was in Herod’s time is and will be again. Zora Neale Hurston’s never-before-published novel is a lantern of understanding that might be held up to the present or the future, and nothing short of a masterpiece. A never-before-published novel from beloved author Zora Neale Hurston, revealing the historical Herod the Great – not the demon the Bible makes him out to be but a religious and philosophical man who lived a life of adventure. * Praise for Zora Neale Hurston: 'Zora Neale was a knockout in her life' MAYA ANGELOU 'Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of the very greatest American novels of the 20th century. It is so lyrical it should be sentimental; it is so passionate it should be overwrought, but it is instead a rigorous, convincing and dazzling piece of prose, as emotionally satisfying as it is impressive. There is no novel I love more' ZADIE SMITH 'To the last page that fills the soul with tears, Hurston's novel delivers. To me, it is also a welcome reminder that books are democratic, subversive and life-changing' THE TIMES

'The Life of Herod The Great - like Hurston herself - is a masterpiece, a miracle, and a marvel. In other words, treasure for the whole world' Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

A never before published novel from beloved author Zora Neale Hurston, revealing the historical Herod the Great--not the villain the Bible makes him out to be but a religious and philosophical man who lived a life of valor and vision. In the 1950s, as a continuation of Moses, Man of the Mountain, Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel about one of the most infamous figures in the Bible, Herod the Great. In Hurston's retelling, Herod is not the wicked ruler of the New Testament who is charged with the "slaughter of the innocents," but a forerunner of Christ--a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea. From the peaks of triumph to the depths of human misery, the historical Herod "appears to have been singled out and especially endowed to attract the lightning of fate," Hurston writes. An intimate of both Marc Antony and Julius Caesar, the Judean king lived during the first century BCE, in a time of war and imperial expansion that was rife with political assassinations and bribery, as the old world gave way to the new. Portraying Herod within this vivid and dynamic world of antiquity, little known to modern readers, Hurston's unfinished manuscript brings this complex, compelling, and misunderstood leader fully into focus. Hurston shared her findings about Herod's rise, his reign, and his waning days in letters to friends and associates. Text from three of these letters concludes the manuscript in an intimate way. Scholar-Editor Deborah Plant's "Commentary: A Story Finally Told" assesses Hurston's pioneering work and underscores Hurston's perspective that the first century has much to teach us, and the lens through which to view this dramatic and stirring era is the life and times of Herod the Great.