Literary Fiction · WarmA woman among the Gullah people of the South Carolina Low Country
Scarlet Sister Mary
A Gullah woman torn between the church and a life of pleasure
Scarlet Sister Mary is set among the Gullah people of the South Carolina Low Country, at a date the book never firmly establishes but which appears to be around the start of the twentieth century. Mary, an orphan raised on an abandoned plantation, is torn between wanting to be a respected church member and wanting a life of sin and pleasure.
More about this book
Who
Mary, the title character; Auntie Maum Hannah; and her crippled son, Budda Ben.
World
The Gullah community of the South Carolina Low Country.
What makes it different
It won the 1929 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel. The public library in Gaffney, South Carolina, banned it as obscene, while the local Gaffney Ledger serially published the complete text.
Feel
Earthy and vivid.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Behind the book
The Gaffney, South Carolina, public library banned the book as obscene, but the local Gaffney Ledger serially published the complete text.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Scarlet Sister MaryWikipedia