The Color Purple
Published in 1976, The Color Purple is a sapphic fiction and historical fiction novel by Alice Walker. The story is set in Southern States and United States, in the 1930s. It features Celie, Nettie and Shug Avery. Readers will find themes of blacks, songs and music, African American women and sisters.
Open Library readers give it an average of 4.2 out of 5 from 90 ratings, and 1,664 more have it on their want-to-read list. It has been published in 108 editions across 13 languages.
It runs to roughly 262 pages — 4–5 hours of reading at an average pace.
About The Color Purple
The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000–2009 at number seventeenth because of the sometimes explicit content, particularly in terms of violence. In 2003, the book was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novels."
Awards & lists
- ✦National Book Award (1983)
Quick answers
Who wrote The Color Purple?
The Color Purple was written by Alice Walker and first published in 1976.
What genre is The Color Purple?
It is usually shelved as Lesbian & Sapphic Fiction and Historical Fiction.
How long is The Color Purple?
The median edition has 262 pages, about 4–5 hours of reading at 250 words per minute.
What books are similar to The Color Purple?
Readers who like it often enjoy The House Behind the Cedars, Say Jesus and come to me and Peau.
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