A Lesson Before Dying (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Ernest J. Gaines
- First Published: 1993
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 1948
- Setting: Southern Louisiana
- Principal Characters: Grant Wiggins, Jefferson, Miss Emma, Tante Lou, Reverend Ambrose, Vivian
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: African Americans, Civil rights, Teaching or teachers, Prisons, Racism, Blacks, Murder or homicide, South or Southerners, 1940’s, World War II, Capital punishment, Cajuns, Human behavior, Pigs
- Locales: Louisiana
Readers had been waiting ten years for a new novel by Ernest J. Gaines, author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971); his impressive A Gathering of Old Men appeared in 1983. Interest in A Lesson Before Dying, when it appeared early in 1993, was therefore bound to be high. From the first the critical response indicated that Gaines’s new novel confirmed his high standing among African American novelists of his generation. Most critics found in Gaines’s new novel the features they had admired in his earlier work; a few suggested that A Lesson Before...
[The entire page is 2421 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
