by PBS
In 2017, Americanah was selected as the inaugural text for One Book, One New York, in which the entire city was encouraged to read the novel, in effect constituting the world’s biggest book club. The novel also won the National Book Critics Circle Award. A film adaptation, starring David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong’o, is in development.
A year after Americanah, Adichie published We Should All Be Feminists (2014), a book-length essay based on another well-regarded talk. In this short work of nonfiction, she offers an updated, inclusive definition of feminism, arguing that the problems of gender are everybody’s problems. The message is being heard: Beyoncé sampled lines in her 2013 song “***Flawless,” and the government of Sweden mandated that every 16-year-old high-school student receive a copy to foster discussions about gender equality. In 2017, she published Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, written as a letter in response to a friend who wanted advice about raising a feminist after giving birth to a daughter. With wryness and warmth, Adichie’s suggestions range from avoiding the exultation of marriage as an accomplishment to warning against promoting likability above all else to encouraging a passion for books. In her fiction and nonfiction, Adichie seeks to further gender equality and espouse human dignity, with the understanding that every experience is unique.
The first edition cover of And Then There Were None, published in 1939.
British writer Agatha Christie, pictured here in 1926. She is known to be the second bestselling writer of all time (behind Shakespeare).
The cover of the Daily Sketch announces Christie’s safe return after she’d disappeared mysteriously for 11 days following the publication of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Pictured are Mrs Christie, her daughter Rosalind, and her husband, Colonel Archibald Christie.
6
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
Agatha Christie · 1939
One of the bestselling mysteries of all time, And Then There Were None (1939) begins with the arrival of eight strangers on a small island off the coast of England. Each has been invited in an extremely personal way calibrated to fit to their circumstances, with some coming to work and others to socialize. A framed copy of the nursery rhyme “Ten Little Indians” hangs in each guest room. That night, as everyone gets to know one another, a recording starts playing, detailing the ways in which each visitor has been involved in a murder. While some protest their innocence, others reveal their complicity right away. Regardless, none will escape a final reckoning.
Born in 1890 in England, Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller had little formal education until her teens, when she was sent to finishing school. Her childhood no doubt fueled her imagination, raised as she was to believe that her mother was psychic. Her first marriage, to Archie Christie, ended unhappily in 1928, but a second marriage to Sir Max Mallowan was cheerier and lasted until Christie’s death in 1976. Christie traveled extensively throughout her life, drawing on her visits to places like Cairo and Istanbul in her fiction; she also developed a love of surfing in Hawaii and South Africa.
In 1926—shortly after the publication of her sixth novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd—while still married to Archie, Christie disappeared. Fifteen thousand volunteers turned out to help search, and the story made the front page of the New York Times. She was discovered, using the last name of Archie’s mistress, at an English spa hotel, with no memory of how she’d arrived. The enormous popularity of Gone Girl, about another married woman who disappears, led to speculation that the strange case of Christie served as the basis of the 2012 novel. Despite rumors of amnesia, depression, and a nefarious plot to frame her cheating husband, Christie never spoke publicly of those lost days.
She just kept writing. In addition to stand-alone mysteries such as And Then There Were None, Christie wrote a beloved series of novels featuring Hercule Poirot, a genteel Belgian detective who rivals Sherlock Holmes in criminal deduction, as well as others starring the elderly amateur sleuth Jane Marple and husband-and-wife team Tommy and Tuppence. Her literary output astounds—some 65 detective novels, plus plays, nonfiction books, short stories, and romances, over the course of her career. She liked to think up plots while soaking in the tub. Her novels have been turned into radio plays, miniseries, feature-length films, and video games. All told, she has sold some two billion copies, earning Christie a designation in the Guinness Book of World Records as the bestselling fiction writer of all time.
Taking as its central concerns guilt and justice, And Then There Were None drives readers to consider whether punishment ever truly fits the crime. The eight guests, butler, and maid really have done some awful deeds, and the extent to which they feel remorse is revealed as they’re picked off, one by one, according to the nursery rhyme: one man sips a poisoned drink (“One choked his little self and then there were nine”), someone else is given a lethal injection while sleeping (“One overslept himself and then there were eight”), and so on. The book was originally titled Ten Little Niggers, as the rhyme was then known in Britain, but was retitled by sensitive editors.
In addition to being deeply creepy, as the guests realize the murderer must be a member of their group, And Then There Were None pushes the boundaries of the mystery novel as a genre: no detective arrives on the scene, so readers are thrust into the same situation as the characters, with no expert to rely on and nothing but their own wits to lead them to the book’s shocking solution.
Talk the Talk
IMPORTANT LITERARY TERMS
LITERARY TERMS give us a way of talking consistently and coherently about novels, plays, poems, short stories, and other written works. Using this vocabulary, we can make connections and uncover patterns within a text itself as well as across multiple texts.
ALLEGORY: A type of writing in which the characters and setting stand in for something else, such as abstract concepts or social institutions. Allegories tend to make their references very clear and are typically more concerned with making political, religious, or philosophical points than with providing realistic depictions of people and actions.
ALLUSION: A figure of speech that makes reference, either directly or indirectly, to another work, event, myth, person, or so on. An allusion suggests similarities between the main subject and what’s being alluded to.
BILDUNGSROMAN: A work, usually a novel, that portrays the coming-of-age of its protagonist. A bildungsroman tends to follow the protagonist from childhood through young adulthood, with a focus on his or her psychological, moral, or spiritual development.
CANON: The body of music, art, literature, and other significant creative endeavors that scholars point to as the most influential in the development of a culture. In recent years, the Western canon has expanded to include works of art by previously underrepresented populations.
CLIMAX: The most intense or exciting part, or culmination, of a literary work. Generally, the climax marks a point of no return, in which the characters, plot, or setting have been irrevocably changed.
DICTION: The word choice or rhetorical style used by the author—or by the characters, whose diction may be entirely different from that of the narrator.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: Words and phrases used in a nonliteral sense to achieve a particular effect. Literary devices such as metaphor, simile, hyperbole, understatement, and pun are all examples of figurative language.
FOIL: A character who stands in sharp contrast to another character, usually the protagonist. The foil helps underscore or highlight some aspect of the protagonist, often a particular characteristic or personality trait.
FORESHADOWING: The literary technique of hinting at or implying future events in the plot. Foreshadowing can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including through description, actions, and dialogue.
GENRE: A type of literary work. Romance, mysteries, Westerns, horror, and thrillers are all examples of literary genres, each with its own set of concerns and conventions. Great writers often expand the boundaries of the genres they work within.
IMAGERY: Fi
gurative language that appeals in some way to our senses. Imagery frequently signifies an important idea, action, or motivation in the text.
IN MEDIA RES: Latin for “in the middle of things.” This term is used to describe a literary work that begins in the middle of the story, often at a key moment in the action or plot.
IRONY: A strong contrast between surface significance (of a word or phrase, or of an action or situation) and underlying or “real” significance. In everyday speech, people often use the words irony or ironic to refer to mere coincidences or unexpected and undesired outcomes, but in literary analysis irony tends to be reserved for incongruities that reveal important ideas or perspectives.
NARRATOR: The person who tells the story. Sometimes the narrator is the main character of the literary work, often giving us “first person point of view.” Often, however, the narrator is not part of the story, nor is the narrator the same as the author; instead, the narrator may be the voice the author assumes in order to convey the story, and this voice may or may not share characteristics with the author as an individual.
PLOT: The action or events of the story. The plot is everything that happens, and can usually be described as having a beginning, a middle, and an end.
PROTAGONIST: The main character or hero of a story. Sometimes the protagonist is also the narrator, or the person telling the story. While most novels have only one protagonist, some focus on two or more characters equally.
SATIRE: A literary genre that seeks to ridicule or expose the folly of a particular aspect of society, a government, or an institution. Satires often employ irony.
SYMBOL: An element, such as a physical object or location or phenomenon, that has a meaning beyond its literal significance. Some elements are understood as symbols only by readers, while others may be symbolic to characters as well. Allegory is symbolism taken to an extreme.
THEME: An important idea or value expressed in a literary work. A novel’s themes are conveyed by a variety of features, including the plot, direct or indirect remarks by the narrator, and symbolism.
TONE: The attitude a character, narrator, or writer takes. Tone is conveyed through diction, dialogue, rhetorical style, figurative language, and description.
The first edition cover of Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908.
A portrait of the author, Lucy Maud Montgomery, taken in 1908 (Courtesy L. M. Montgomery Collection, Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph Library). She published her first poem in 1890 and went on to write 20 novels and over 500 short stories before she died in 1942.
L. M. Montgomery’s birthplace, on Prince Edward Island, Canada.
7
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES
L. M. Montgomery · 1908
Like so many memorable novels, Anne of Green Gables (1908) presents a seemingly simple scenario: In this case, what if a kindhearted couple requested a boy from the orphanage but got sent a girl instead? And what if this girl were spirited and spunky, with big dreams and a huge heart? Exploring answers to these questions required a novel and then some—a series of 11 books, as a matter of fact.
After a childhood spent shuttling around foster homes and orphanages, Anne Shirley is sent to live with Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, a brother and sister. Getting on in years, the Cuthberts need someone young and spry to help run Green Gables, a stately house and farm in the fictional town of Avonlea, on Canada’s Prince Edward Island. A skinny chatterbox with bright-red hair, Anne at first irritates Marilla but charms Matthew, so she stays. She goes to school and makes friends with whom she has silly adventures. Her imagination and bold spirit sometimes get her in trouble, but these qualities also enable her to find happiness. Though she fantasizes about being a writer, she earns a teaching degree, and eventually must decide between pursuing her ambitions and helping her family.
In subsequent books, Anne grows up, becomes a teacher, founds the Avonlea Village Improvement Society, gets engaged to her childhood best friend, transforms into a wife, mother, and (eventually) grandmother, and meets lots of new people. The series arcs over Anne’s life, from her arrival at the Cuthberts’ at age 11 to her late 70s. As she gets older, the themes get more intense, and the books mature along with their plucky protagonist.
Born on Prince Edward Island in 1874, Lucy Maud Montgomery was raised by her maternal grandparents. Her mother died when Lucy was an infant, and her father, heartbroken and grief-stricken, left his daughter to be raised by his wife’s parents. It was a lonely childhood, and she, like Anne, coped by dwelling in her imagination. She published her first poem in 1890, then went on to write 20 novels and over 500 short stories before she died in 1942. Many interpret Montgomery’s final piece of writing, found on her bedside table, as a suicide note; in the document she asks for God’s forgiveness, and describes a feeling of losing her mind.
Montgomery cut out a photo of a beautiful woman and hung it on her wall as inspiration for her romantic, dreamy character Anne Shirley. The author was unaware that the woman in question was Evelyn Nesbit, a gorgeous chorus girl who gained notoriety after her rich husband murdered the man who raped her years before, the famous architect Stanford White. In the books, Anne looks nothing like the voluptuous model, a testament to Montgomery’s imagination and romantic spirit.
So popular are the novels in Japan that the city of Hokkaido boasts a precise replica of Green Gables. Fans know her as Akage no An (literally “Red-Haired Anne”); superfans join the Buttercups, the country’s largest and oldest fan club, and make pilgrimages to Prince Edward Island. Anne of Green Gables was published in Japan in 1952, and many people attribute Anne’s popularity to the changes taking place in the country at the time: World War II not only left a lot of orphans, but fundamentally altered the society’s concept of femininity.
Mark Twain called Anne “the dearest and most moving and delightful child since the immortal Alice.” Even as Anne shows great spirit in the face of hardship, and even as she serves as a kind of protofeminist, willing to ask questions and probe conventions, she’s really fun, the kind of girl who would have been a hit at a slumber party or perfect to take on a road trip, someone you’d be glad to call a bosom friend.
The Vintage International cover of Another Country, published in 1962.
James Baldwin, photographed in 1955 by Carl Van Vechten.
The windows and a commemorative plaque at 81 Horatio Street in Greenwich Village, New York City. Baldwin lived here in the 1950s and 1960s.
8
ANOTHER COUNTRY
James Baldwin · 1962
You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason.… You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity and in as many ways as possible that you were a worthless human being.”
These stirring, still-relevant words were published in 1962. Back then James Baldwin sought to offer his nephew some guidance about the deeply prejudiced American society in which he lived, and his work continues to rouse and to motivate those who read it.
Born in New York City in 1924, James Baldwin fell in love with books as a child, when he would roam libraries rather than risk being abused at home by his stepfather. He was encouraged in his literary efforts by Countee Cullen, a writer who gained fame during the Harlem Renaissance; another early mentor was Richard Wright, whose incendiary Native Son (1940) broadened Baldwin’s sense of the possibilities of African American literature. Disgusted by the racism he witnessed on a daily basis, and worried about its effect on his writing, in 1948 Baldwin left New York for Paris, an environment he thought might be more tolerant of his race and sexuality. He had just $40 to his name. With Wright’s help he began publishing, and would live in France off and on for most of his life.
By the time Baldwin started working on Another Country in earnest, he had already published two novels, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) and Giovanni’s Room (1956), and two books of essays, Notes of a Native Son (1955) and Nobody Knows My
Name: More Notes of a Native Son (1961). He was close friends with key members of, and very involved in, the civil rights movement. (The award-winning 2016 documentary I Am Not Your Negro, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, is based on Baldwin’s relationships with three pillars of the movement: Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X.) Still, Another Country almost wasn’t published. The novel took Baldwin more than a decade to write, and he lugged the manuscript on his travels around the world. He completed it at a friend’s apartment in Istanbul in 1961; published the following year, it became a bestseller.
Another Country (1962) explores the interplay of romantic love, sexuality, race, and friendship among a loosely connected group of men and women in 1950s-era Greenwich Village. The suicide of Rufus Scott, a black jazz musician in a destructive relationship with a white woman from the South, brings together Ida, Rufus’s sister; Vivaldo, his bisexual friend; Eric, an actor recently returned from France and the first man with whom Rufus had sex; and others who struggle to determine what drove Rufus to his death. While the characters sometimes seem to stand for segments of society—the white liberal, the pansexual, the tormented black man—Baldwin gave his characters experiences and traits that were then unusual in literature, including homosexuality and bisexuality. And the brotherly and passionate love that links them rings true.