Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Kindle
$11.99

Available instantly

Audiobook
$0.99
with membership

Hardcover
$49.29

Paperback
$10.89

$10.89 with 40 percent savings

List Price: $18.00

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Tuesday, April 15 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or Prime members get FREE delivery Friday, April 11. Order within 16 hrs 1 min.

In Stock

$$10.89 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

30-day refund/replacement

Payment

Secure transaction

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$8.71

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

Gently used with light wear on the cover and corners. May have some writing or highlighting. Dust jacket or extras might be missing. May be ex-library copy. Ships direct from Amazon! Gently used with light wear on the cover and corners. May have some writing or highlighting. Dust jacket or extras might be missing. May be ex-library copy. Ships direct from Amazon! See less

FREE delivery Tuesday, April 15 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or Prime members get FREE delivery Saturday, April 12. Order within 20 hrs 51 mins.

Only 4 left in stock - order soon.

$$10.89 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Sold by Dream Books Co. and Fulfilled by Amazon.

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (73) from $6.95 & FREE Shipping

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Name: Amazon.com: Wise Blood: A Novel (FSG Classics): 9780374530631: O'Connor, Flannery: Books
Price: 10.89 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.1 (1792 reviews)

Flannery O'Connor

Follow

Wise Blood: A Novel (FSG Classics) Paperback – March 6, 2007

by Flannery O'Connor (Author)

1,792 ratings

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$10.89","priceAmount":10.89,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"10","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"89","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"5hyG07MAWbsN5It25CAAOOZQHNWsKY2W641TlGWLylzLF3xFP5RvVRZTwRUc2LmI3xOvV1DCbsotayqxbX1ZlIz10%2FEW8FQb7P64VPBKQ%2FOvbAsdMLsO7amHiUwlFdBtfo7b83Sh1M0%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$8.71","priceAmount":8.71,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"8","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"71","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"5hyG07MAWbsN5It25CAAOOZQHNWsKY2WhrqezCo%2BFaW6z6xwsowSKVGjMVfkcsmOw0R47K%2FsubQIQVO5Ao6OgdCJQHWmnzDC24RqZFMEVSg4xIrHLgRb%2FjZbIVqz5SSQOpEYKN4yJRMBpXTJWaBqfEalD1OP06IGBbYqHOPpbvhpcdk4Kjz1iw%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

The American short story master Flannery O'Connor's haunting first novel of faith, false prophets, and redemptive wisdom.

Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor's astonishing and haunting first novel, is a classic of twentieth-century literature. It is the story of Hazel Motes, a twenty-two-year-old caught in an unending struggle against his inborn, desperate fate. He falls under the spell of a "blind" street preacher named Asa Hawks and his degenerate fifteen-year-old daughter, Sabbath Lily. In an ironic, malicious gesture of his own non-faith, and to prove himself a greater cynic than Hawks, Motes founds the Church Without Christ, but is still thwarted in his efforts to lose God. He meets Enoch Emery, a young man with "wise blood," who leads him to a mummified holy child and whose crazy maneuvers are a manifestation of Motes's existential struggles.

This tale of redemption, retribution, false prophets, blindness, blindings, and wisdom gives us one of the most riveting characters in American fiction.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This is a tale in which pathos tips into pathology and violence, answered by a penance of self-mutilation and suffering. Yet the prose is absolutely brilliant, sentence by sentence, simile by simile, and so relentlessly inventive it feels comic.” ―Marilynne Robinson, New York Times Book Review

“No other major American writer of our century has constructed a fictional world so energetically and forthrightly charged by religious investigation.” ―Brad Leithauser, The New Yorker

“I was more impressed by Wise Blood than any novel I have read for a long time. Her picture of the world is literally terrifying. Kafka is almost the only one of our contemporaries who has achieved such effects. I have tremendous admiration for the work of this young writer.” ―Caroline Gordon

About the Author

Flannery O'Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1925. When she died at the age of thirty-nine, America lost one of its most gifted writers at the height of her powers. O’Connor wrote two novels, Wise Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear It Away (1960), and two story collections, A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955) and Everything That Rises Must Converge (1964). Her Complete Stories, published posthumously in 1972, won the National Book Award that year, and in a 2009 online poll it was voted as the best book to have won the award in the contest’s 60-year history. Her essays were published in Mystery and Manners (1969) and her letters in The Habit of Being (1979). In 1988 the Library of America published her Collected Works; she was the first postwar writer to be so honored. O’Connor was educated at the Georgia State College for Women, studied writing at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and wrote much of Wise Blood at the Yaddo artists’ colony in upstate New York. She lived most of her adult life on her family’s ancestral farm, Andalusia, outside Milledgeville, Georgia.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition (March 6, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0374530637
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374530631
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 920L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.45 x 0.65 x 8.15 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #45,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #170 in Southern Fiction
- #391 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #3,644 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
1,792 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Flannery O'Connor

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Flannery O'Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1925, the only child of Catholic parents. In 1945 she enrolled at the Georgia State College for Women. After earning her degree she continued her studies on the University of Iowa's writing program, and her first published story, 'The Geranium', was written while she was still a student. Her writing is best-known for its explorations of religious themes and southern racial issues, and for combining the comic with the tragic. After university, she moved to New York where she continued to write. In 1952 she learned that she was dying of lupus, a disease which had afflicted her father. For the rest of her life, she and her mother lived on the family dairy farm, Andalusia, outside Millidgeville, Georgia. For pleasure she raised peacocks, pheasants, swans, geese, chickens and Muscovy ducks. She was a good amateur painter. She died in the summer of 1964.

Photo by Cmacauley [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

1,792 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Review this product

Write a customer review

Customers say

Customers praise the book's classic American Southern Gothic writing style and find it a fantastic read with thought-provoking content. The characters are rich, though some find them close to destitute, and the plot lacks an overarching structure, making it hard to care about. The book has universal appeal, with one customer noting it sparked a colorful discussion in their book club.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Select to learn more

Readability Writing style Appeal Pacing Character development Plot

59 customers mention "Readability"50 positive9 negative

Customers find the book to be a fantastic read and one of the greatest novels.

"...We read 13 books in 13 weeks, many of them among the best books ever written, with Don pointing out the things that made these books these books..." Read more

"...This is probably one of the greatest novels I have ever read. Coming to grips with Flannery O'Connor will enrich your life. Don't wait...." Read more

"...I enjoyed reading this story of a young man who rejected God,but struggled with his conviction...." Read more

"This was a strangely interesting read, but I fail to see how it's a classic...." Read more

52 customers mention "Writing style"46 positive6 negative

Customers appreciate the writing style of the book, particularly its classic American Southern Gothic approach and wit. One customer notes the author's beautiful character and landscape descriptions.

"Was interesting, humorous and slightly unsettling." Read more

"...It's still laugh out loud funny in several passages, despite being consistently and austerely bleak throughout...." Read more

"...It is a comic novel about a Christian malgré lui [in spite of himself], and as such, very serious, for all comic novels that are any good must be..." Read more

"...The writing is absolutely amazing, deep and polished. O'Connor did not write quickly. She wrote, re-wrote, crafted, and re-crafted...." Read more

8 customers mention "Appeal"8 positive0 negative

Customers find the book appealing, with one noting its ability to create unforgettable characters and another mentioning how it sparked a colorful discussion in their book club.

"...One of O’Connor’s great strengths is her ability to create unforgettable, if unsavory, morally flawed characters, who move through their unvarnished..." Read more

"...Enoch Emory is a fascinating and sympathetic character. It is crushing what rejection by one's father can (but not necessarily will) to do a soul...." Read more

"This book is like a never ending acid trip. I loved to wildness and the dream like foggy-ness of it...." Read more

"...Truly one of her era’s best authors: sincere, direct, with a charm that is at once disarming and confrontational...." Read more

64 customers mention "Pacing"37 positive27 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book, finding it thought-provoking and troubling, though some find it disturbing.

"...Her use of symbol, the grotesque, and even violence, as ways to talk about and analyze Grace and God's actions in our lives (usually soteriological)..." Read more

"Was interesting, humorous and slightly unsettling." Read more

"Wise Blood is interesting with so many quirky characters. Well written in a style that is so particular to stories about the South...." Read more

"...Symbolism abounds, and I suppose that you can say upon finishing this book you cried until you laughed." Read more

23 customers mention "Character development"13 positive10 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the character development in the book, with some finding them rich while others note they are often close to destitute.

"...Enoch Emory is a fascinating and sympathetic character. It is crushing what rejection by one's father can (but not necessarily will) to do a soul...." Read more

"...is her ability to create unforgettable, if unsavory, morally flawed characters, who move through their unvarnished lives in often ill advised ways,..." Read more

"Wise Blood is interesting with so many quirky characters. Well written in a style that is so particular to stories about the South...." Read more

"...The writing is nothing special, the characters are comically rudimentary, and there is no plot...." Read more

11 customers mention "Plot"0 positive11 negative

Customers criticize the book's plot, noting its lack of an overarching narrative and difficulty in caring about the story. One customer mentions it feels like several separate short stories, while another finds it hard to follow.

"...special, the characters are comically rudimentary, and there is no plot. Though it's portrayed as a tale of redemption, no one in it is redeemed...." Read more

"...Reading this it stills feels like several separate short stories...." Read more

"...allure to him but instead it just seemed disconnected and without an overarching plot." Read more

"...While I am enjoying her style of writing. the story is getting a bit ponderous at the half way point. We've circled the tree already; move along...." Read more

Reviews with images

See all photos

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.

Mike
Good book.
Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2025
Verified Purchase

Was interesting, humorous and slightly unsettling.

Read more

Helpful

Report
Robert H. Stine Jr.
Catholic Southern Gothic
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2011
Verified Purchase
"Wise Blood," by Flannery O'Conner, was required reading in the best college course I took - "The American Novel Since 1945", taught by the most accomplished teacher I had in college, Don Noble. We read 13 books in 13 weeks, many of them among the best books ever written, with Don pointing out the things that made these books these books pertinent and special. Don's unofficial description of the course was "A Survival Guide," as he thought these books were especially instructive.

So how does "Wise Blood" stand up after all these years? It's still laugh out loud funny in several passages, despite being consistently and austerely bleak throughout. On the down side, the major characters seem to be smitten with Asperger Syndrome and obsessive compulsive disorder, while the secondary characters all seem to be scheming rednecks. But O'Conner consistently hits the nail on the head in her observations of human behavior. Also, her portrayal of grace and faith as unpleasant, inescapable afflictions hit home, and are of a piece with verses from Jeremiah and Isaiah.

Read more

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report
Wildberry
Grace changes us, and the change is painful
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2023
Verified Purchase
Regarding Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood, one Amazon reviewer wrote, “Like Being Inside a Fun House That Wasn't Fun.” That comment made me want to revisit this author. Other reviewers have described Wise Blood as “‘low comedy and high seriousness’ with disturbing religious themes.” In the Author’s Notes to the 1962 edition, she wrote, “The book was written with zest and, if possible, it should be read that way. It is a comic novel about a Christian malgré lui [in spite of himself], and as such, very serious, for all comic novels that are any good must be about matters of life and death.” She continues, “Does one’s integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do? I think that usually it does, for free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man. Freedom cannot be conceived simply. It is a mystery and one which a novel, even a comic novel, can only be asked to deepen.”

I’ve always considered myself a fan of O’Connor’s work, but it’s been a very long time since I’ve immersed myself in one of her books. I discovered Wise Blood, O’Connor’s first novel published in 1952, was on Boxall’s 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, along with Everything That Rises Must Converge. The Violent Bear It Away was removed from the list in 2008. I got the Kindle, opened it up, and tried to keep an open mind about what lay ahead, knowing some have found the book appalling.

The book opens with a young discharged WWII veteran riding a train home to Tennessee, only to find the home abandoned, he continues his travels to the fictional city of Taulkinham, Tennessee, believed to be in the western part of the state known for fields and hills, vs the mountains in the east. He determined, like his grandfather before him, to become a preacher, “had known since 12 years old he would be a preacher,” but it turns out he’s now the anti-Jesus kind, as he later explains, “If you believed in Jesus, you wouldn’t be so good.” Some suggest the horrors of war which included an injury may inform his worldview about organized religion and the inhumanity of civil society. He is plagued by bad dreams involving death, which might suggest PTSD, and describes an almost mistrust of faith, “Later he saw Jesus move from tree to tree in the back of his mind, a wild ragged figure motioning him to turn around and come off into the dark where he was not sure of his footing, where he might be walking on the water and not know it and then suddenly know it and drown.”

The supporting cast of characters as well as the protagonist, seem the type of “grotesques” usually lurking in Southern Gothic fiction, and one was described: “Enoch kept wetting his lips. They were pale except for his fever blister, which was purple.” These characters are usually close to destitute, the underbelly of society, struggling just to survive, and those who interact with them, often profiting at their expense. Sometimes uneducated with few marketable skills, they are like peasants from a Peter Bruegel painting transported from their raw and earthy town lives into the future. It is an unblinking look with society’s jaundiced eye at those not normally populating palatable fiction.

Bridgett Marshall describes the mood of such books, “Some of these characteristics include exploring madness, decay and despair, continuing pressures of the past upon the present, particularly with the lost ideals of a dispossessed Southern aristocracy and continued racial hostilities.” It’s fair to say a young man returning from the ravages of war would struggle with lost ideals, a crisis of faith, and “the many wills conflicting in one man,” which may include the vestiges of racism.

One of O’Connor’s great strengths is her ability to create unforgettable, if unsavory, morally flawed characters, who move through their unvarnished lives in often ill advised ways, forcing us to contemplate the human condition, often far from ideal. I ended up with 40 highlights from the book, powerful passages and images, and a respect for O’Conner’s ability to articulate humanity’s struggles.

In The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor, editor Sally Fitzgerald notes, “However grotesque the setting, she tried to portray her characters as open to the touch of divine grace. This ruled out a sentimental understanding of the stories' violence, as of her own illness. She wrote: ‘Grace changes us and the change is painful.’" O’Connor was a devout Catholic, and raises this in her Author’s Notes: “That belief in Christ is to some a matter of life and death has been a stumbling block for readers who would prefer to think it a matter of no great consequence.”

O’Connor’s characters teach us much about our own sense of compassion, the power of forgiveness, and redemption by a higher authority who reaches out to those who understand mistakes they’ve made, like the King in Edward Rowland’s “A Fool’s Prayer.” Rowland writes, "Earth bears no balsam for mistakes; Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool That did his will; but Thou, O Lord, Be merciful to me, a fool! The room was hushed; in silence rose The King, and sought his gardens cool, And walked apart, and murmured low, ‘Be merciful to me, a fool!’" O’Connor’s struggling characters’ lives often appear as Shakespeare’s depiction of life’s drama, “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” But if we pay attention to the artists’ words and the stories they weave, the significance is ours to learn.

Read more

20 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report
Jon Hughes
What A Strang Book!
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2024
Verified Purchase
This was my introduction to Flannery O'Connor and even though I enjoyed reading it, what a strange story...good but, very strange! I plan to dig deeper into her work because I hear her short stories are a lil' more user friendly (so to speak).

Read more

Jon Hughes

What A Strang Book!

Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2024
This was my introduction to Flannery O'Connor and even though I enjoyed reading it, what a strange story...good but, very strange! I plan to dig deeper into her work because I hear her short stories are a lil' more user friendly (so to speak).

Images in this review

Helpful

Report
bookscdsdvdsandcoolstuff
Amazing book
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2013
Verified Purchase
Flannery O'Connor was, first and foremost, a Catholic. She made this plain in how she lived her life, and in her letters her deep commitment to the faith of her fathers becomes very evident. It is impossible to correctly understand her work from any other paradigm.

In one letter she writes that she feels most people who read Wise Blood see her as a "hillbilly nihilist." Rather, she would hope, they would see her as a "hillbilly Thomist." Her references to the work of Jacques Maritain (combined with the fact that she read the Summa as a youngster) give proof to her mindset.

With this backdrop in mind, reading O'Connor's work becomes an exercise in the best sort of exegesis. Her use of symbol, the grotesque, and even violence, as ways to talk about and analyze Grace and God's actions in our lives (usually soteriological) are profound.

Wise Blood is no exception. Her brilliance is on full display here. Haze's commitment to nihilism as a philosophy, and the rejection of Christ that is at its core, is clear. Utilizing this rejection (and employing symbol and imagery) O'Connor shows Haze's denial of Christ, and Christ's constant outpouring of love and grace in pursuit of Haze. Ultimately, Haze is saved, although given O'Connor's brilliant writing, it is hardly sappy or obvious.

The characters are rich, interesting, and yes, grotesque. These characters are classic O'Connor, and one does not struggle to find empathy for them, even in their brokenness. We find a "blind preacher" who is not blind, who had resolved to blind himself as a witness to Christ's passion and justification of his sins, but lost his nerve and his faith. Enoch Emory is a fascinating and sympathetic character. It is crushing what rejection by one's father can (but not necessarily will) to do a soul. Yet there is hope for him still.

This is a book that I finished a week ago, but has been "with me" constantly since. The writing is absolutely amazing, deep and polished. O'Connor did not write quickly. She wrote, re-wrote, crafted, and re-crafted. Every word that is there is there for a reason, and one must read carefully to get at it all.

O'Connor, in all her Scholastic brilliance, is on full display here. This is probably one of the greatest novels I have ever read. Coming to grips with Flannery O'Connor will enrich your life. Don't wait. Read this author now.

Read more

27 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

ひげバス
欠陥エディション
Reviewed in Japan on January 24, 2025
Verified Purchase

作品としての価値は置いておいて、このエディションは最悪。表紙の題名が間違っていることに気づかず、買ってしまったのが運の尽き。前書きと本文は全ての単語がハイパーテキストになっており、大変に読みづらい。

Read more
Report
Translate review to English
MJN Air
This is a brilliant novel written by a Catholic writer who thoroughly understood ...
Reviewed in Canada on August 11, 2015
Verified Purchase
This is a brilliant novel written by a Catholic writer who thoroughly understood her craft! I was glad when it arrived on time and in such good shape.

Read more
Report
G Godmon
A short and absorbing story.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 27, 2021
Verified Purchase
Dark and disturbing, but really powerful. This is a great book, and an author I will be happy to return to, though she didn't write many books before her early death. Kind of reminds me of Cormic McCarthy, in that the writing is stripped back and not a word is wasted. There is no judgement on the characters actions, those actions are just described. Loved it.

Read more
Report
Psychefolkfreak58
Great book about South
Reviewed in Australia on November 11, 2024
Verified Purchase
Very interesting book about South in (1950s?)
Fascinating characters and quirky relationships.

Read more
Report
plantagenet
uninteresting to me
Reviewed in France on September 4, 2018
Verified Purchase
a story about a returning soldier aiming at creating his own church (a church of christ without the christ). it all sounded absurd and non-sensical to me. note that john houston has made a film in the late 1970s. i watched the film on you tube; it is very faithful to the book; the prospective reader may consider seeing the film before purchasing the book.
i am not saying it is a bad book; but it was totally uninteresting to me

Read more
Report

See more reviews

Amazon Prime includes:

Follow the author

Wise Blood: A Novel (FSG Classics) Paperback – March 6, 2007

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently bought together

More items to explore

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Flannery O'Connor

Customer reviews

Review this product

Customers say

Select to learn more

Images in this review

Reviews with images

What A Strang Book!

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book.

4.0 out of 5 stars Catholic Southern Gothic

5.0 out of 5 stars Grace changes us, and the change is painful

3.0 out of 5 stars What A Strang Book!

What A Strang Book!

Images in this review

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book

Top reviews from other countries

1.0 out of 5 stars 欠陥エディション

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a brilliant novel written by a Catholic writer who thoroughly understood ...

5.0 out of 5 stars A short and absorbing story.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book about South

1.0 out of 5 stars uninteresting to me

Good book.

Catholic Southern Gothic

Grace changes us, and the change is painful

What A Strang Book!

Amazing book

欠陥エディション

This is a brilliant novel written by a Catholic writer who thoroughly understood ...

A short and absorbing story.

Great book about South

uninteresting to me