Books
x dismiss this message

Did you know you can edit this page?

see page history

Description edit see section history

Set in rural Ohio several years after the Civil War, this profoundly affecting chronicle of slavery and its aftermath is Toni Morrison's greatest novel, a dazzling achievement, and the most spellbinding reading experience of the decade. "A brutally powerful, mesmerizing story . . . read it and... read more

Characters edit see section history

  • Sethe: The protagonist who escaped slavery.
  • Beloved: A young woman who stays with Sethe and Denver
  • Paul D: Paul D is one of the former slaves that Sethe knew back on Sweet Home Plantation. He is essentially a wanderer until he finds Sethe and settles down in order to attempt to make a life with her. Essentially, he is to be seen as a male whose concept of self-masculinity has been fractured by slavery.
  • Halle: A slave from Sweet Home Plantation, he is also Sethe's first lover and father of her children. He is Baby Suggs' son.
  • Baby Suggs: Sethe's mother in law as well as Halle's mother.
  • Mrs. Garner: The white female owner on the Sweet Home Plantation.
  • Amy Denver: The poor white midwife of Sethe's daughter Denver. Her daughter is named after Amy Denver because Sethe thought Denver was a pretty name. Amy helps Sethe when she tries to escape from slavery while pregnant.
  • Denver: Sethe's daughter.
  • Stamp Paid: The ferryman over the Ohio River; serves as a symbol of good.
  • Sixo: A former male slave from Sweet Home Plantation. Paul D regards Sixo as "a real man".
  • Howard: One of Sethe's sons who has run away.
  • Ella: A woman who can relate to Sethe
  • Lady Jones: A lady who educates poor children like Denver for 5 cents a week.
  • Jenny: Baby Suggs' name on her bill of sale which the Garners always call her.
  • Vashti: Stamp Paid's former wife with whom his master and master's son had sex.
  • Buglar: One of Sethe's sons who has run away.
  • Sawyer: Owns a restaurant where Sethe gets a job.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Buddy: Amy Denver's cruel master and mistress.
  • Janey: Servant at the Bodwins', where Denver gets a job.
Show all 19 characters
Popular Covers

Loading covers…

Choose your book’s cover

Quotes edit see section history

  • “The future was a matter of keeping the past at bay.”
  • “This here Sethe talked about safety with a handsaw.”
    Paul D
  • “Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”
  • “It never looked as terrible as it was and it made her wonder if hell was a pretty place too.”
  • “Risky, thought Paul D, very risky. For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love. The best thing, he knew, was to love just a little bit; everything, just a little bit, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you’d have a little love left over for the next one.”
    Paul D
  • “to get to a place where you could love anything you chose—not to need permission for desire—well now, that was freedom.”
  • “schoolteacher beat him anyway to show him that definitions belonged to the definers—not the defined.”
  • ““It’s gonna hurt, now,” said Amy. “Anything dead coming back to life hurts.””
  • “She told them that the only grace they could have was the grace they could imagine. That if they could not see it, they would not have it.”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • “It’s gonna hurt, now,” said Amy. “Anything dead coming back to life hurts.”
    Highlighted by 178 Kindle customers
  • Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.
    Highlighted by 176 Kindle customers
  • It never looked as terrible as it was and it made her wonder if hell was a pretty place too.
    Highlighted by 173 Kindle customers
  • She told them that the only grace they could have was the grace they could imagine. That if they could not see it, they would not have it.
    Highlighted by 171 Kindle customers
  • to get to a place where you could love anything you chose—not to need permission for desire—well now, that was freedom.
    Highlighted by 148 Kindle customers
  • Risky, thought Paul D, very risky. For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love. The best thing, he knew, was to love just a little bit; everything, just a little bit, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you’d have a little love left over for the next one.
    Highlighted by 146 Kindle customers
  • “She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.”
    Highlighted by 130 Kindle customers
  • But maybe a man was nothing but a man, which is what Baby Suggs always said. They encouraged you to put some of your weight in their hands and soon as you felt how light and lovely that was, they studied your scars and tribulations, after which they did what he had done: ran her children out and tore up the house.
    Highlighted by 129 Kindle customers
  • Clever, but schoolteacher beat him anyway to show him that definitions belonged to the definers—not the defined.
    Highlighted by 128 Kindle customers
  • That anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you. Dirty you so bad you couldn’t like yourself anymore. Dirty you so bad you forgot who you were and couldn’t think it up. And though she and others lived through and got over it, she could never let it happen to her own. The best thing she was, was her children. Whites might dirty her all right, but not her best thing, her beautiful, magical best thing—the part of her that was clean.
    Highlighted by 126 Kindle customers
Show all 19 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

124 WAS SPITEFUL.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Three numbered parts, each with multiple unlabelled chapter segments

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in World Book Night Titles 2011. (authoritative list)
This book is in True Crime: Fictionalized Versions. (community list)
This is book 26 of 100 in ALA's Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009. (authoritative list)
This book is in Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century. (publisher edition list)
This book is in Most Surprising Banned Books. (community list)
This is book 17 of 213 in Best English-Language Fiction of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)
This is book 301 of 1286 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
This is book 45 of 91 in The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time, 2004. (authoritative list)
This is book 36 of 97 in Waterstone's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)
This book is in TIME Magazine Top 100 English-Language Novels. (community list)
This is book 1 of 20 in New York Times Best American Fiction 1981-2006. (authoritative list)
This is book 1988 of 85 in Pulitzer Prize Winners - Fiction. (authoritative list)
This is book 20 of 93 in Newsweek's Top 100 Books: The Meta-List. (authoritative list)
This book is in Random Synapses: 100 Book Reading Challenge (2011). (community list)
This is book 12 of 100 in 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction. (authoritative list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This is book 45 of 100 in ALA's Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 1990-1999. (authoritative list)
This is book 31 of 98 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: Reader's List. (authoritative list)
This book is in The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Toni Morrison (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1987
ISBN: 0-394-53597-9
Page Count: 275

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3563.08749B4 1987
  • Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

References to slavery, sex, and brutality, as well as infanticide.

Movie Connections edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Sula
  • The Bluest Eye
  • A Mercy

Books That Cite This Book edit see section history

   
  • This Book Is Overdue!

We’re hiding the errata, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.