Their Eyes Were Watching God

When first published in 1937, this novel about a proud, independent black woman was generally dismissed by male reviewers. It was out of print for almost thirty years, but since its reissue in paperback edition by the University of Illinois Press in 1978 it has become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the cannon of African-American literature.

Their Eyes Were Watching God tells, with haunting sympathy and piercing immediacy, the story of Janie Crawford’s evolving selfhood through three marriages. Fair -skinned, long-haired, dreamy as a child, Janie grows up expecting better treatment than she gets until she meets Tea Cake, a younger man who engages her heart and spirit in equal measure, and gives her the chance to enjoy life without being one man’s mule or another man’s adornment.