Beloved Paperback - 1988
by Toni Morrison
About this book
Beloved (1987) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Toni Morrison. Morrison was inspired to write the story after finding a newspaper article about the legal case of Margaret Garner. Garner escaped slavery in Kentucky to the free State of Ohio when U.S. Marshals captured her. To spare her children from being returned to slavery, she killed her two-year-old daughter and attempted to kill her other children.
Morrison's novel is set after the Civil War in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but even after the Civil War, she cannot wrest herself from the terrible legacy of slavery. Living with her 18-year-old daughter Denver, she believes the ghost of her eldest daughter haunts her house. When Paul D, a visitor from Sethe's past life on the plantation, comes to visit, he forces the spirit out of the house and gets Sethe and her daughter Denver to go to a carnival. Upon returning, a strange young woman, who calls herself Beloved, is sitting on the house's stoop. Sethe believes that the woman is the daughter she killed to prevent her from being raised in slavery, and Sethe becomes lost in her fantasy of family and caring for the girl. Beloved illustrates the deeply personal and psychological trauma imposed by society's legal brutalities.
Beloved is the fourth novel published by Toni Morrison, and many consider it her finest. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988 and was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1987. In 1998 a movie starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover was released.
Reader reviews for Beloved
Review summary
Readers largely regard Toni Morrison’s Beloved as a searing, formally adventurous novel that fuses a ghost story with an unflinching account of slavery’s enduring trauma. The prose—poetic, image-rich, and often non-linear—was widely praised, though many admitted the shifting timelines and perspectives can be disorienting before the pieces cohere. The book’s emotional intensity left many drained yet admiring, with several calling it essential reading and noting it rewards patience, rereading, or guided study; Morrison’s own audiobook narration drew special praise. A minority were frustrated by the difficulty or felt detached from the characters, and a few found the ending underwhelming. Overall, the consensus leans toward “important and masterful,” if not conventionally enjoyable.
Readers say this book is:
hauntinglyricalnon-linearchallengingemotionally drainingpowerfuldevastatingconfusing at firstrewardingimportantIt isn't an easy read. It is often a beautiful read...but beauty and heartbreak are so close together. The lives of the characters have been so difficult, but Toni Morrison tells their stories with incredible depth and empathy. I've only read Beloved once, and I plan to do it again - this is one book that will keep giving on each read.
a reader
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From the publisher
First line
First edition identification
Details
- Title Beloved
- Author Toni Morrison
- Binding Paperback
- Edition [ Edition: Repri
- Pages 275
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Plume Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
- Publication date September 1, 1988
- Illustrated Yes
- ISBN 9780452264465 / 0452264464
- Weight 0.54 lbs (0.24 kg)
- Dimensions 8.09 x 5.33 x 0.65 in (20.55 x 13.54 x 1.65 cm)
- Reading level 870
- Category Fiction - Historical
- Library of Congress subjects Historical fiction, African American women
- Library of Congress Catalogue Number 88005185
- Dewey Decimal Code FIC
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Beloved
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Beloved
by Morrison, Toni
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- Used
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- 9780452264465 / 0452264464
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Beloved
by Morrison, Toni
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Beloved
by Morrison, Toni
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