A Death in the Family (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: James Agee
- First Published: 1957
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: Summer, 1915; May 15-20, 1916
- Setting: Knoxville, Tennessee
- Principal Characters: Rufus Follet, Jay, Mary, Catherine, Frank, Andrew, Hannah Lynch
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Family or family life, Mothers, Parents and children, South or Southerners, Marriage, Religion, 1910’s, Emotions, Death or dying, Funeral rites or ceremonies, Bereavement or grief, Boys, Mortality
- Locales: South (U.S.), Knoxville, TN
The Story:
The novel’s nostalgic evocation of an earlier, quiet time is set by “Knoxville: Summer 1915,” a poetic reminiscence Agee had written in 1936. It was selected by an editor to be a preface to the novel, which was not quite complete when James Agee died. The preface re-creates childhood memories of the peaceful summer evenings of Agee’s middle-class Knoxville home as the women finished their kitchen work and the men, collars open and in shirtsleeves, watched by their children and older relatives, turned out to water their lawns. Such evenings were filled with...
[The entire page is 1845 words long]
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