Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel

Zora Neale Hurston

Mar 2009 · Sold by Harper Collins

About this ebook

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

“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.” —Zadie Smith

One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist—Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.

Ratings and reviews

🔴REVIEW🔴 THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD By: Zora Neale Hurston I want to say something and I pray y'all don't hate me after. I think I am done reading classic black novels. The only person I can really take in fully is Maya Angelou. Zora Neale Hurston catches the spirit of African-Americans at that time and masterfully relays it to readers with a skillful mix of formal English. Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of those books that you feel you ought to love because it occupies such an iconic position in 20th century literature. I can’t say I found it an easy read. 4 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Its ok. I have to read it for school and when I started reading I couldnt really understand them. To me it kind of sounded like a 4th grader trying to be hip.

I first read it in high school, and while I knew it was significant, I could not grasp the weight of this book. Years later, after being with a Logan and a Joe Starks, I have found my own Tea Cake and tasted my own independence in doing so. I can finally understand the depth of this book and constantly reread it. She does a great job at describing things and this novel is always one I'd recommend.

About the author

Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist. She wrote four novels (Jonah’s Gourd Vine, 1934; Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1937; Moses, Man of the Mountains, 1939; and Seraph on the Suwanee, 1948); two books of folklore (Mules and Men, 1935, and Every Tongue Got to Confess, 2001); a work of anthropological research, (Tell My Horse, 1938); an autobiography (Dust Tracks on a Road, 1942); an international bestselling nonfiction work (Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” 2018); and over fifty short stories, essays, and plays. She attended Howard University, Barnard College, and Columbia University and was a graduate of Barnard College in 1928. She was born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama, and grew up in Eatonville, Florida.