The Color Purple is a powerful and at times empowering narrative, for which Alice Walker won the Pulitzer prize, becoming the first Black woman to do so. Despite attracting controversy from some quarters, the book has enjoyed, and continues to enjoy, significant popular success, its audience being broadened by its adaptation to both the stage and film.
The controversy surrounding the novel can in part be explained by the novel’s inescapable emotional intensity. Written in the epistolary style, it directly and unflinchingly addresses issues such as; rape; emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; self love; as well as criticising conventional and organised Christianity.
Recently, in 2015 an interviewer suggested to Walker that: “Celie and Shug’s relationship was a polarising aspect of the novel”; with Walker replying “To whom? Now that we have same sex marriage, I can’t imagine what my critics are doing.” However, at the time of publication, it was perceived by some to be a controversial aspect of the novel and it is perhaps unsurprising that when it was adapted to film in 1985, the lesbian relationship was largely glazed over.
Originally published in New York in 1982, the first UK edition appeared in the following year in paperback format, with the present hardback edition published later in 1986. Jacket with short closed tear to head of rear joint, else a near fine copy.