Alias Grace (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Margaret Atwood
- First Published: 1996
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction, Character study
- Subjects: Family or family life, Sex or sexuality, Murder or homicide, Psychology or psychologists, Nineteenth century, Mental illness, Quilts or quilting, Women, Working class, Human behavior
- Locales: Kingston, Canada
In her novel Alias Grace, Atwood explores the psychological mind-set of one of the most infamous Canadian women of the mid-nineteenth century. The author's fascination with the murderess began when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation asked her to write a play about Grace in 1974. The protagonist is the historical figure Grace Marks, an Irish immigrant who worked in Toronto in the 1840's. The setting is established as The Kingston Penitentiary at the start of the novel, where Grace is carrying out her life sentence for the murder of her wealthy employer, Thomas Kinnear, and his...
[The entire page is 690 words long]
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