The Color Purple
American novelist, born 1944. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983 and the National Book Award for Fiction in 1983.
The Color Purple is a 1982 novel by Alice Walker. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983 and the National Book Award for Fiction in 1983.
On 5 of the 17 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- Alice Walker
- First published
- 1982
- Length
- 288 pages (UK paperback)
- Awards
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, 1983
- National Book Award for Fiction winner, 1983
- Genre
- Literary fiction, Black American, Told in letters, Feminist
Is The Color Purple worth reading?
5 of the 17 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them the National Book Award for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| 100 novels that shaped our world (BBC Arts, 2019) | Listed | See the list |
| National Book Award for Fiction (winners and finalists) (National Book Foundation, 1983) | Winner | See the list |
| Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (winners and finalists) (Columbia University, 1983) | Winner | See the list |
| The 100 best novels of all time (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 65 | See the list |
| The Great American Read (PBS, 2018) | Listed | See the list |
Best edition of The Color Purple
The edition we link to is the W&N paperback (2017), 288 pages.
- Publisher
- W&N (paperback, 2017)
- Pages
- 288
- ISBN
- 9781474607254
How critics, prizes and readers rate The Color Purple
Prize juries rate it most highly: it earned 100% of the points available on prize lists, against 19% on critics' lists and 15% on readers' and booksellers' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like The Color Purple
If you liked The Color Purple, try Gilead, Cloud Atlas or Memoirs of Hadrian.
