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Description edit
The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it--from garden... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
This is the story of the Price family who heads to the African Congo in the 1950's as Baptist missionaries. It is told from the point of view of the four Price daughters and occasionally, their mother as well.
Characters/People edit
- Nathan Price: The controlling patriarch of the Price family, Nathan is a preacher trying to spread his religion to the Congolese in Africa.
- Orleanna Price: The mother of the Price family, who feels an enormous amount of guilt for what happens to the family. Her daughters describe her as easily frightened, but possessing an inner power that displays itself in stressful situations. She is described as blond and blue eyed and was once seen as very beautiful. There are many references to her Georgian accent.
- Rachel Price: The oldest daughter, superficial, self-centered, and materialistic.
- Leah Price Ngemba: One of the twins, staunchly loyal to her father upon their arrival in Congo. Intelligent and practical; feels guilty for her twin sister Adah's affliction.
- Adah Price: One of the twins, hemiplegic from birth, she is disabled on her right side; voluntarily mute throughout her childhood; highly intelligent, observant and cynical
- Ruth May Price: The youngest Price daughter; symbol of innocence and potential.
- Anatole Ngemba: The village teacher, an orphan, fluent in English, interpreter for Nathan's sermons, and a staunch supporter of Congo's independence.
- Nelson: An orphaned village boy, Anatole's student, who works for the Prices
- Mama Bekwa Tataba: A village women employed by the Price family. Formally worked for the Fowles.
- Joseph Mobutu: The leader of the Congo.
- Patrice Lumumba: The elected (and later assassinated) leader of the "free" Congo.
- Mama Mwanza: Village woman with no legs who helps the Price family on occasion.
- Mr. Eeben Axelroot: Corrupt South African mercenary pilot
- Brother Fowles: New Yorker, the Prices' predecessor on the mission, married a local woman
- Frank Underdown: Belgian mission chiefs who welcome and send supplies to the Prices.
- Patricia Friel: story of a missionary and his family in Africa. Strong characters. Fascinating story of culture clash, friendship and instability/revolution in Africa. Also well researched fiction based on real events and happenings.
- Pascal: Leah's childhood friend
- Tata Kuvudundu: The spiritual leader of the village
- Methuselah: A parrot left by Brother Fowles, excellent at imitating human speech.
- Martin-Lothaire: One of Leah's sons.
- Tata Boanda: Add a description of this character.
- Susanna
- Mama Lo
- Aunt Elisabet: The aunt of Anatole
- Moise Tshombe
- Gabriel
- Gbenye
- Lucien
- Taniel
- Christiane
- Soeur Liselin
- Pauline
- Robine
- Elévée
- Mr. Khrushchev
- Holden Remile
- Mama Nguza
- Soeur Thérèse
- Nganga Kuvudundu: The shaman of the village. He upholds the village traditions and presents difficulties to the Price family as Nathan tries to win over the villagers. He is noted for having six toes on one of his feet.
- Aunt Tess
- Remy Fairley
- Eisenhower
- Grandfather Wharton
- Mondele
- Tata Nguza
- Tata Undo
- Agostinho Neto
- Tata Ndu
- Toorlexa Nebee: Backwards spelling of Eeben Axelroot, the pilot that delivers the Price family their supplies.
- Janna Underdown: The sheepish wife of Frank. She feels sorry for the Price family when the plot's events begin to unfold, but rarely speaks her mind. She is noted for looking plain and wearing jewelry. She is described as rather oblivious to inequality, living in a luxurious house and being affronted with her house boy, particularly when she discovers he was trying to steal a kilo of sugar.
- Miss Leep
- Mrs. Daniel Attaché-to-the-Ambassador DuPrée
- Patrice Lumumba: The newly elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo. He is viewed and commented on from afar, but is described as being very charming, with a goatee and a passionate oration.
- Béene
- Baudouin
- Tata Mwanza
- Bwanga
- Celine Fowles
- Mrs. Fowles
- Henry Morton Stanley
- Dr. Holden Remile
- Nkondo
- Mama Boanda
Quotes edit
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“Each one of us arrived with some extra responsibility biting into us under our garments: a claw hammer, a Baptist hymnal, each object of value replacing the weight freed up by some frivolous thing we'd found the strength to leave behind. Our journey was to be a great enterprise of balance. My father, of course, was bringing the Word of God - which fortunately weighs nothing at all.”
Leah Price -
“It struck me what a wide world of difference there was between our sort of games - "Mother May I?," "Hide and Seek" -- and his: "Find Food," "Recognize Poisonwood," "Build a House." And here was a boy no older than eight or nine. He had a younger sister who carried the family's baby everywhere she went and hacked weeds with her mother in the manioc field. I could see that the whole idea and business of Childhood was nothing guaranteed. It seemed to me, in fact, like something more or less invented by white people and stuck onto the front end of grown-up life like a frill on a dress.”
Leah Price -
“Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you are good, bad things can still happen. And if you are bad, you can still be lucky.”
Anatole -
“When I finish reading a book from front to back, I read it back to front. It is a different book, back to front, and you can learn new things from it. It from things new learn can you and front to back book different a is it? You can agree or not, as you like. This is another way to read it, although I am told a normal brain will not grasp it: Ti morf sgniht wen nrael nac uoy dna tnorf ot kcab koob tnereffid a si ti.”
Adah Price -
“She flew forward and back and I watched her shadow in the white dust under the swing. Each time she reached the top of her arc beneath the sun, her shadow legs were transformed into the thin, curved legs of an antelope, with small rounded hooves at the bottom instead of feet. I was transfixed and horrified by the image of my sister with antelope legs. I knew it was only shadow and the angle of the sun, but it's still frightening when things you love appear suddenly changed from what you have always known.”
Leah Price -
“My little beast, my eyes, my favorite stolen egg. Listen. To live is to be marked. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know. In perfect stillness, frankly, I've only found sorrow.”
Orleanna Price -
“I always thought I could fly away home. Now I've pulled the ace out of the hole, taken a good look, and found it's worthless to me, devalued over time. An old pink Congolese bill.”
Leah Price -
“Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet.”
Adah Price -
“We are the balance of our damage and our transgressions.”
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes.
Highlighted by 277 Kindle customers -
It is true I do not speak as well as I can think. But that is true of most people, as nearly as I can tell.
Highlighted by 264 Kindle customers -
God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves.
Highlighted by 259 Kindle customers -
I could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentence.
Highlighted by 247 Kindle customers -
The death of something living is the price of our own survival, and we pay it again and again. We have no choice. It is the one solemn promise every life on earth is born and bound to keep.
Highlighted by 224 Kindle customers -
“Sending a girl to college is like pouring water in your shoes,” he still loves to say, as often as possible. “It’s hard to say which is worse, seeing it run out and waste the water, or seeing it hold in and wreck the shoes.”
Highlighted by 214 Kindle customers -
Misunderstanding is my cornerstone. It’s everyone’s, come to think of it. Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization.
Highlighted by 210 Kindle customers -
“I am telling you what I’m telling you. Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you are good, bad things can still happen. And if you are bad, you can still be lucky.”
Highlighted by 209 Kindle customers -
My little beast, my eyes, my favorite stolen egg. Listen. To live is to be marked. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know. In perfect stillness, frankly, I’ve only found sorrow.
Highlighted by 180 Kindle customers -
Until that moment I’d thought I could have it both ways: to be one of them, and also my husband’s wife. What conceit! I was his instrument, his animal. Nothing more. How we wives and mothers do perish at the hands of our own righteousness. I was just one more of those women who clamp their mouths shut and wave the flag as their nation rolls off to conquer another in war. Guilty or innocent, they have everything to lose. They are what there is to lose. A wife is the earth itself, changing hands, bearing scars.
Highlighted by 151 Kindle customers
First Sentence edit
Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened.
Table of Contents edit
Book One - Genesis
Book Two - The Revelation
Book Three - The Judges
Book Four - Bel and the Serpent
Book Five - Exodus
Book Six - Song of the Three Children
Book Seven - The Eyes in the Trees
Series & Lists edit
This is book 109 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 114 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)
This book is in Book Lover's Cook Book, The. (authoritative list)
This is book 136 of 1286 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
This is book 101 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 38 of 70 in Oprah's Book Club. (authoritative list)
This is book 122 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 62 of 145 in Whitcoulls Top 100 (2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 44 of 121 in Whitcoulls Top 100 (2012). (authoritative list)
This is book 125 of 200 in BBC 'Big Read' Top 200 Novels, 2003. (authoritative list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Barbara Kingsolver (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1998
ISBN: 0060786507
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1998
ISBN: 0060786507
Page Count: 576
Awards edit
- Orange Prize for Fiction (Finalist, 1999, Shortlist)
- Pen/Faulkner Award (Finalist, 1999: Fiction)
- Pulitzer Prize (Finalist, 1999: Fiction)
- Exclusive Books Boeke Prize (2000)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PS3561.I496P65 1998
- Dewey: 813.54-dc21
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