SALE ON NOW! PROMOTIONS

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

A Lesson Before Dying

A Novel

Ernest J. Gaines

$35.95   $32.43

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

QTY:

English
Vintage Books
28 September 1997
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • A deep and compassionate novel about a young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to visit a Black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting.

""An instant classic."" —Chicago Tribune

A “majestic, moving novel...an instant classic, a book that will be read, discussed and taught beyond the rest of our lives"" (Chicago Tribune), from the critically acclaimed author of A Gathering of Old Men and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.

""A Lesson Before Dying reconfirms Ernest J. Gaines's position as an important American writer."" —Boston Globe

""Enormously moving.... Gaines unerringly evokes the place and time about which he writes."" —Los Angeles Times

“A quietly moving novel [that] takes us back to a place we've been before to impart a lesson for living.” —San Francisco Chronicle
By:  
Imprint:   Vintage Books
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 203mm,  Width: 132mm,  Spine: 14mm
Weight:   193g
ISBN:   9780375702709
ISBN 10:   0375702709
Series:   Vintage Contemporaries
Pages:   272
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

ERNEST GAINES was born on a plantation in Pointe Coupée Parish near New Roads, Louisiana, which is the Bayonne of all his fictional works. He is writer-in-residence emeritus at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In 1993 Gaines received the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for his lifetime achievements. In 1996 he was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, one of France’s highest decorations. He and his wife, Dianne, live in Oscar, Louisiana.

Reviews for A Lesson Before Dying: A Novel

-This majestic, moving novel is an instant classic, a book that will be read, discussed and taught beyond the rest of our lives.- --Chicago Tribune -A Lesson Before Dying reconfirms Ernest J. Gaines's position as an important American writer.- -- Boston Globe -Enormously moving. . . . Gaines unerringly evokes the place and time about which he writes.- --Los Angeles Times -A quietly moving novel [that] takes us back to a place we've been before to impart a lesson for living.- --San Francisco Chronicle


  • Winner of National Book Critics Circle Award (Fiction) 1993
  • Winner of National Book Critics Circle Awards.
  • Winner of YALSA Best Books for Young Adults.

See Inside

See Also