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The Color Purple (The Color Purple Collection) Kindle Edition

by Alice Walker (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 26,137 ratings
Teachers' pick
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The Pulitzer Prize– and National Book Award–winning novel is now a new, boldly reimagined film from producers Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino.

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

Celie has grown up poor in rural Georgia, despised by the society around her and abused by her own family. She strives to protect her sister, Nettie, from a similar fate, and while Nettie escapes to a new life as a missionary in Africa, Celie is left behind without her best friend and confidante, married off to an older suitor, and sentenced to a life alone with a harsh and brutal husband.

In an attempt to transcend a life that often seems too much to bear, Celie begins writing letters directly to God. The letters, spanning 20 years, record a journey of self-discovery and empowerment guided by the light of a few strong women. She meets Shug Avery, her husband’s mistress and a jazz singer with a zest for life, and her stepson’s wife, Sofia, who challenges her to fight for independence. And though the many letters from Celie’s sister are hidden by her husband, Nettie’s unwavering support will prove to be the most breathtaking of all.

The Color Purple has sold more than five million copies, inspired an Academy Award-nominated film starring Oprah Winfrey and directed by Steven Spielberg, and been adapted into a Tony-winning Broadway musical. Lauded as a literary masterpiece, this is the groundbreaking novel that placed Walker “in the company of Faulkner” (The Nation), and remains a wrenching—yet intensely uplifting—experience for new generations of readers.

This ebook features a new introduction written by the author on the 25th anniversary of publication, and an illustrated biography of Alice Walker including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

The Color Purple is the 1st book in the Color Purple Collection, which also includes The Temple of My Familiar and Possessing the Secret of Joy.
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  1. Book 1 of 3
    The Color Purple
  2. Print length
    302 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Open Road Media
  6. Publication date
    October 11, 2023
  7. File size
    6957 KB
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
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  10. Enhanced typesetting
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  11. See all details
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  1. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.
    Highlighted by 6,895 Kindle readers
  2. But I don’t know how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive.
    Highlighted by 4,564 Kindle readers
  3. I’m pore, I’m black, I may be ugly and can’t cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I’m here.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Reading The Color Purple was the first time I had seen Southern, Black women’s literature as world literature. In writing us into the world—bravely, unapologetically, and honestly—Alice Walker has given us a gift we will never be able to repay.”
—Tayari Jones

 “The Color Purple was what church should have been, what honest familial reckoning could have been, and it is still the only art object in the world by which all three generations of Black artists in my family judge American art.” 
—Kiese Laymon

 “A novel of permanent importance.”
—Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek

“Indelibly affecting … Alice Walker is a lavishly gifted writer.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“A story of revelation . . . One of the great books of our time.”
—Essence Magazine

  “A work to stand beside literature of any time and place.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Places Walker in the company of Faulkner.”
—The Nation

 “Remarkable expressiveness, color, and poignancy . . . not only a memorable and infinitely touching character but a whole submerged world is vividly called into being.”
—The New York Review of Books

 “Richly evocative . . . a vibrant fugue of devotion and search for love.”
—Los Angeles Herald Examiner

“A national treasure . . . A rare and lovely book.”
—The Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A saga filled with joy and pain, humor and bitterness, and an array of characters who live, breathe, and illuminate the world.”
—Publishers Weekly

“My go-to comfort novel is The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. Even though it touches on difficult subject matter like child abuse and forced marriage, this story believes that human kindness, courage and love can defeat any challenge. Its big, beautiful happy ending is heartfelt and hard-won. Every single time I read this book, I walk away as a slightly better person than I was when I picked it up.” 
—Tayari Jones, The New York Times

From the Back Cover

Now a Broadway musical

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

Winner of the National Book Award

Published to unprecedented acclaim, The Color Purple established Alice Walker as a major voice in modern fiction. This is the story of two sisters one a missionary in Africa and the other a child wife living in the South who sustain their loyalty to and trust in each other across time, distance, and silence. Beautifully imagined and deeply compassionate, this classic novel of American literature is rich with passion, pain, inspiration, and an indomitable love of life.

 Intense emotional impact . . . Indelibly affecting . . . Alice Walker is a lavishly gifted writer. New York Times Book Review

 Places Walker in the company of Faulkner. The Nation

Superb . . . A work to stand beside literature of any time and place. San Francisco Chronicle

A novel of permanent importance. Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek

ALICE WALKER is an internationally celebrated writer, poet, and activist whose books include seven novels, four collections of short stories, four children s books, and volumes of essays and poetry. Her books have been translated into more than two dozen languages. Born in Eatonton, Georgia, Walker now lives in northern California.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CKYDSLG5
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (October 11, 2023)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 11, 2023
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 6957 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 302 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 26,137 ratings

About the authors

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  1. Alice Walker

    Alice Walker

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    Alice Walker (b. 1944), one of the United States’ preeminent writers, is an award-winning author of novels, stories, essays, and poetry. In 1983, Walker became the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction with her novel The Color Purple, which also won the National Book Award. Her other books include The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Meridian, The Temple of My Familiar, and Possessing the Secret of Joy. In her public life, Walker has worked to address problems of injustice, inequality, and poverty as an activist, teacher, and public intellectual.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Christopher A. Hubert

    Christopher A. Hubert

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    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
26,137 global ratings
The Color Purple by Alice Walker 4/5 ⭐️
4 Stars
The Color Purple by Alice Walker 4/5 ⭐️
The Color Purpleby Alice Walker4/5 ⭐️The Color Purple was a reread for me, but I felt like I was reading it for the first time. I read this book in the late 90’s. I am definitely not the same person I was back then so this book took on a whole new meaning. The Color Purple follows the experiences of Black American women in the early 1900s. The story is told through the letter format which I highly enjoyed. The letters felt personal and brought a depth of emotion to the story. Parts of this book are hard to read as it depicts the hardships and injustice of these Black American women. I enjoyed the first half of the book better than the second half.
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Top reviews from the United States

Julie A. Gunderson
5.0 out of 5 stars Very moving book
Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2024
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This is a must-read for everyone of any color to understand the importance of race relations. To work toward bringing people together in love.
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H. Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow - This is epic, biblical, powerful, and finally beautiful with strong characters who realistically transform
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2017
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The book discussion group met in March 2017 to enthusiastically discuss this. Wow, we loved this book. Most of us had seen the movie at some point in the past (and a few of us had seen the Oprah-produced Broadway musical), but it turns out this is a favorite book of a few members of the group and everybody liked it lot. We rarely get this kind of universal praise for a book, so you know that if you didn't read it for group, you should still definitely put it on your list of books to read.

Most of us agreed that the language is tough and off-putting for the first few letters, but you both get used to the odd spellings and grammar and also the writing gets better at Celie writes more. After eight or ten letters, it all seems pretty normal.

The violence and cruelty is also tough and off-putting in the first part of the book but again, it gets less violent and you get used to it (what a horrifying thought!) as the novel continues.

The words that readers used to describe the events and language in the novel are "epic," "biblical," "powerful," and finally "beautiful."

The story seems huge and the family tree is complicated with parents, step-parents, unacknowledged parents, forced marriages, lovers and mistresses, as well as two dead unnamed mothers. But the major characters are clearly defined and change during the novel and, unlike many novels, the changes are clearly explained and well motivated by events in the novel.

Celie is so desperate to be loved that she loves everyone else without thinking of herself. The men are largely evil (this is probably a valid criticism of the novel) who are forced to learn and change by the strong and far more admirable women who shape them.

We enjoyed discussing butch and femme women (as well as the stupidly masculine men as compared to the loving and generous men), the open lesbianism, and the alternate Christian theology presented largely by the openly sexual Shug.

I thought that the African letters from Nettie were a bit dry and anthropological compared to Celie's personal and emotive letters. And a few of the readers thought that the ending was perhaps too happy with everyone turning out to be a better, more evolved character.

But these are quibbles compared to the well-drawn characters, the wide scope, the emotional fulfillment, and the positive changes that most of the characters undergo.
38 people found this helpful
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AmandaReadsSoMuch
4.0 out of 5 stars Devastating but beautiful
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2024
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This book has such devastating and beautiful content. I took a while to get into it, but once Nettie entered the "conversation", the book flew by and I really appreciated the time and place and how strong the female characters were. By the end of the book, even Mr. ____ had grown and changed from true villain into someone that could be rooted for. The growth of the various characters and the way the women supported each other in such terrible circumstances are all reasons I can understand why this book has won awards. This made for a fantastic book club discussion.
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Dr. Gkw Koh
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2024
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Powerful story of growth and triumph in the face of abuse, poverty and prejudice.
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D.K. Sanz
5.0 out of 5 stars A treasure
Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2024
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For me, this book falls into the category of human behavior, struggles, and experiences that I want to read about. It’s fiction but reflects the times, namely how appallingly white people treated black people, especially women, in the first half of the twentieth century. The dialogue is consistent and seems so authentic, staying true to the well-developed and endlessly endearing characters. I had so much love for Celie, Shug, Nettie, and Sofia—for their kind hearts and earned wisdom. Their courage, grace, and determination to survive and fight back had me cheering them on from beginning to end. I laughed and cried with them.

There are so many great quotes from the book, but one of the many that made me laugh hard was Sofia responding to white men calling her “Aunt.” As Celie explained, Sofia ast one guy “which colored man his mama sister marry?”

The Colored Purple is a gem of a book to be treasured throughout time and so well deserving of the Pulitzer Prize awarded to its author. I highly recommend it.
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Mrs. Ceejay
5.0 out of 5 stars Great sisterly story
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2024
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Such a riveting story about ladies bonding during good and bad times.
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Carlos H. Davila Jr.
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful novel
Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2024
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I’ve seen the movie many times to include the broadway play and the movie musical.
The book by Alice Walker is great to read and follows the flow of the movie.
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Pence & Rodriguez
4.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece!!!
Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2024
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So glad at 59, I read this book. I have always loved THE COLOR PURPLE, the movie, the musical, the revival of the musical, the new movie (well not as much as the other 3), Whoopi Goldberg,

I wanted to go back to the source material - Alice Walker herself.

Told through a series of letters, I was never more engaged in a person’s life, in the heartbreaks, the love, the family, the friends who become family.

So thank you Celie for leading such a FULL LIFE that I was reminded of what it feels like to openly sob at the end of a book as you see your family. You are a life well lived - vulnerable, strong, unapologetic. “What if we be just friends?” has so much more meaning now.

Worthy of Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and every other prize.
I now also appreciate how brilliant the screenplay was to pull the most important words fo the book and get those moments on screen. I will say Marsha Norman’s book for the musical seems to have used the movie for a LOT of inspiration. I am surprised Spielberg wasn’t given credit in her adaption.

We are in Costa Rica celebrating my boyfriends’ 60th birthday and this was the perfect book to close with.

“But I don’t think us feel old at all. And is so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt. AMEN.”
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Top reviews from other countries

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Elizabeth Barter
5.0 out of 5 stars Redemption and Forgiveness
Reviewed in Canada on March 6, 2024
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Some of found our way to "The Color Purple" via the 1980's movie . (I am among them). I think the first time I actually read the book,I got as far as the entrance of "Shug", then the book needed to go back to the library.
I didn't think much about it until recently until I heard about the musical. This confession done with , let's move forward to the novel.
The Color Purple ,to me, is a novel of redemption
and forgiveness, it's also about how we see God and the relationship we have with our faith.
Through Miss Celie, we see life in all it ugliness and beauty. She takes us on a hell of a ride.
From a battered 14 year old child , who is a baby ,having babies to an unappreciated wife . She goes through the wars,and eventually finds love . It's an arc, we've seen before , ( i.e ' The Book of Job, The story of Ruth, ...etc),the difference with Miss Celie, is that as she begins to rise and rediscover her humanity, her enemy Mister finds his too.
Job is run through the mill, miraculously,his faith survives. Miss Celie loses hers again and again, but then it sparks, walking with Shug. Bit by bit ,she finds herself beginning again. As her life changes,so does Mister's.
They have been at odds with the same unforgiving old testament God,it s not until
Shug comes into their lives and leaves them in their later years, that Miss Celie and Mister(Albert), understand how much they've
Suffered and what they 've endured.
This does not mean I m excusing Mister for being a serial batterer or a rotten spouse. I just saying that as Celie rises and regains her humanity, so is Mister(Albert). It should be noted his redemption isn't initiated until Celie nearly kills him; but it is observed by this reader, that said incident fast tracks to a road of changing his point of view .
I never saw that in the 2 movies that were based on this novel. His Redemption is equally as important as Celie 's. Like " The Kitchen God", Mister changes, thus Celie ' s faith and humanity is returned to her , when she forgives him.
This is why " The Color Purple" remains an award winning and significant novel. It's also why I will recommend it, to other readers.
Forgiveness is powerful, it frees us and let's us soar. Thank you for " The Color Purple."
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Giomar Velasco
5.0 out of 5 stars Una ventana al pasado y a las mujeres como hilo conductor.
Reviewed in Mexico on July 30, 2022
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¡No lo puedes soltar!
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Diamela
5.0 out of 5 stars Me encanta
Reviewed in Spain on May 7, 2024
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Me gusta mucho el libro. Llegó en buen estado.
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Diamela
5.0 out of 5 stars Me encanta
Reviewed in Spain on May 7, 2024
Me gusta mucho el libro. Llegó en buen estado.
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trine
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing rich facetted book
Reviewed in Germany on January 26, 2023
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So many things to think about, so many peculiar thoughts and open questions. So much honesty about human ugliness and disdain... and at the same time the story and writing explore true, real love across all conventions and social expectations. I love this book. Thank you to the author.
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Taiza Nascimento
5.0 out of 5 stars Entrou para os favoritos da vida
Reviewed in Brazil on September 16, 2020
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Nossa! A história é triste, é pesada, é real, mas termina bem, como para algumas pessoas. Leitura rápida, fluida, que prende e instiga. Personagens que te envolvem e te instigam. Representam cada um um pouquinho de qualquer pessoa, são reais, são bons e maus, com defeitos e qualidades. Fala de tantos temas, de tantos problemas, de uma forma ingênua, porém direta e sem máscaras. MARAVILHOSO!
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