Harper Lee's classic novel of a lawyer in the Deep South defending a black man charged with the rape of a white girl.
One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has earned many distinctions since its original publication in 1960. It won the Pulitzer Prize, has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and been made into an enormously popular movie. Most recently, librarians across the country gave the book the highest of honors by voting it the best novel of the twentieth century.
Review
I first read this book when I was about thirteen, and I'm twenty two now, so it's been a while since I picked it up. I loved it the first time I read it, and I've seen it as a play as well, and it's one of my all time favorites books, so I've been meaning to reread it for quite some time.
Recently, I started working on my final essay for University before I graduatate with a Bachelor of Arts Honors Degree. As part of this final essay, I had to pick one book from the course set texts, and one book which wasn't assigned reading, but was from the twentieth century. My mind immedietly went to this book, because, like I've mentioned, it's one of my all time favorites.
Going into this, I was worried that maybe it wouldn't be as good as I remembered. I'm older now, and I've read a lot, and I mean a lot, more books, so I have more to judge it against. I shouldn't have worried. This book is a classic for a reason. It stands the test of time, it stands up against other works, and it only gets better with each read.
There were things that I picked up on reading it again now as an adult, which I hadn't really paid attention to before. The writing style, the voice of the narrative, the flow and pacing. Things I never thought about while I was reading as a kid, are all parts of my normal appraisal of books now, and To Kill a Mockingbird was fantastic in all of those areas.
Harper Lee creates a narrative which is perfect for this book. Scout's innocence is the perfect canvas to build upon, to really show things how they were from a interesting and unbiased point of view.
The characters in this novel are fantastic, all of them, and I loved the way they were used.
There's so much in this novel about the things which shape us into adults, and I loved that about this book.
This is, and probably always will be, one of all time favorite books.
If you haven't read it yet, you really should, because this book is phenomenal!
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