Go Set a Watchman is a Harper Lee novel published on July 14, 2015 by HarperCollins, USA and William Heinemann, England. Though written before his first novel and the only other published, the Pulitzer Prize winner To Kill a Mockingbird - and originally promoted by his publisher as a sequel - is now more widely accepted as the first draft of his famous novel. The title comes from Isaiah 21: 6: "For thus saith the Lord unto me, Go, prepare a watchman, let him state what he sees." This alludes to Jean Louise Finch's view of his father, Atticus Finch, as Maycomb's "Maycomb's morals compass" and has the theme of disappointment, as he finds the level of bigotry in his home community.
The unexpected and controversial discovery of this book, several decades after it was written, along with the book's only author's status - an American classic - led to his publication being highly anticipated; Amazon declared that it was the "most ordered book" ever since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 2007, and the store set the opening all night from midnight to address the expected demand.
Go Set a Watchman tackled the racial tensions that occurred in the South in the 1950s and explored the complicated relationship between father and daughter. This includes the care of many characters that appear in To Kill a Mockingbird .
Video Go Set a Watchman
Plot
Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, 26, returns to his hometown of Maycomb, Alabama, from New York. While on this two-week annual visit home, she was greeted by her childhood sweetheart Henry "Hank" Clinton. Clinton worked for his father Atticus, who is a lawyer and former state legislator. Jack, Atticus's brother and a retired doctor is a Scout mentor. Their sister, Alexandria, runs the house and takes Calpurnia's place when she retires. Supreme Court Decision Brown v. Board of Education and the National Association for the Advancement of Color People (NAACP) was introduced as a source of controversy in the community.
Returning from a trip to Finch's Landing, Jean Louise and Henry passed by a black car traveling dangerously at high speed. Henry mentions that the blacks in the county now have money for cars but are negligent to get licenses and insurance. The next day was spent handling a small scandal that happened the night before, and there were several sequences during Jean Louise's youth, spent with "Dill" Harris, and her brother Jeremy "Jem" Finch, who had died of heart disease. who also killed his mother.
When Jean Louise found a pamphlet entitled "The Black Plague" among his father's papers, he followed him to a Citizen Council meeting where Atticus introduced a man who delivered a racist speech. Jean Louise looked in secret from the balcony and was horrified. She could not forgive him for betraying him and running away from the hall. After dreaming of his black family waiter, Calpurnia, whom he saw as a mother figure, Jean Louise had breakfast with her father. They soon learned that Calpurnia's grandson killed a drunk walker the night before as he drove in his car. Atticus agrees to take the case to stop the NAACP from getting involved. Jean Louise visited Calpurnia and was treated politely but coldly, causing her to leave, destroyed.
At lunch with Uncle Jack, Jean Louise asked Atticus why he was at the meeting. Jack said that Atticus did not suddenly become a racist, but tried to slow the federal government's intervention into state politics. His uncle lectured him about the complexity of history, race and politics in the South, in an attempt to get Jean Louise to the conclusion, which he fought for. He then had a flashback when he was a teenager and recalled the incident where Atticus planted seeds for an idea in Henry's brain, then let him come to the right conclusion.
When drinking coffee with Henry, Jean Louise tells him that he does not love her and will never marry him. He expressed his disgust at seeing him and his father at the council meeting. Henry explains that sometimes people have to do things they do not want to do. Henry then defends his own case by saying that the reason he is still part of the Citizen Council is because he wants to use his intelligence to make an impact on his home town of Maycomb and make money to raise a family. He shouts that he can never live with a hypocrite, only to notice that Atticus is standing behind them, smiling.
During discussions with his daughter, Atticus argued that blacks from the South were not ready for full civil rights, and the Supreme Court decision was unconstitutional and irresponsible. Although Jean Louise agrees that the South is not ready to be fully integrated, he says that the court is pushed to a corner by the NAACP and must act. He is confused and shattered by his father's position because they are contrary to everything he ever taught him. He returned to the family home angry and packed his belongings. When he was about to leave town, his uncle came home. She angrily complains to her, and her uncle slaps her face. He tells her to think of all the things that have happened over the last two days and how he processes them. When he says he can now stand them, he tells her it's okay because he is his own person. He said that at one point he had tied his conscience to his father, assuming that the answer would always be the answer. His uncle told him that Atticus let him destroy his idols so he could reduce them to the status of a human being.
Jean Louise returned to the office and made a date with Henry for the night. He reflects that Maycomb has taught him things he never knew and made him useless except as his oldest friend. He goes to apologize to Atticus, but he says how proud he is. He hopes that he will defend what he thinks is right. He reflects that he does not want his world to be distracted, but he tries to destroy the man who tries to preserve it for him. She tells him that she thinks he loves her very much. As he follows her to the car, he secretly welcomes him to the human race, seeing him only as a man for the first time.
Maps Go Set a Watchman
Development history
Although promoted by its publisher and originally described in media reports as a sequel to Lee's best-selling novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, Go Set a Watchman is actually the first draft of the novel that. The novel was completed in 1957 and purchased by Company J.B. Lippincott. Lee's editor, Tay Hohoff, though impressed with the elements of the story, said that "the spark of the true author flashed across each line", thinking it was not at all ready for publication. It was, as he described, "more anecdotal series than a fully comprehended novel". As Jonathan Mahler said in his article on Hohoff, he thinks the strongest aspect of Lee's novel is the flashback sequence featuring the young Scouts, and thus requests that Lee use that flashback as the basis for the new novel.. Lee agreed, and "over the next few years, Hohoff led Lee from one draft to the next until finally the book reached its final form and was titled To Kill a Mockingbird."
According to Mahler, "Ms. Hohoff also refers to the more detailed characterization of the development process, found in Lippincott's corporate history: 'After a few false starts, storylines, character interactions, and decreases in emphasis became clearer, and with every revision - there many small changes when the story gets stronger and in its own vision - the true stature of the novel becomes clear. '(In 1978, Lippincott was acquired by Harper & Row, who became HarperCollins, Watchman publisher. ) "Mahler states that" there seems to be a natural acceptance and acceptance between the author and the editor, he disagrees with suggestions, we talk about it, sometimes for hours, "Hohoff wrote. And sometimes he comes to the way I think, sometimes I go to him, sometimes discussions will open up a whole new line of controversy. '"
In the case of Atticus's initial characterization as segregationist, the element for his character being dropped in later drafts, there are various theories already offered. Mahler offers that it can be a Hohoff that inspires change. Raised "in a multigenerated Quaker house near Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Hohoff attends Quaker school, Brooklyn Friends.This attitude shows certain progressive values.But perhaps the clearest window in his state of mind when he trains Lee through rewriting of Mockingbird was a book he wrote himself at the time: the biography of John Lovejoy Elliott, a socialist and humanist activist at the beginning of the 20th century New York who had committed his life to help the lower class of the Book, to Man , published in 1959, one year before Mockingbird . "
Michiko Kakutani made a note about the change between the two versions: "Some plot points that have become the touchstones at Mockingbird are evident in Watchman earlier. , clearly living as a boy in Mockingbird , dying in Watchman , a trial of a black man accused of raping a young white woman... is simply a step aside in Watchman . (Interestingly, the trial results in a guilty verdict for the accused man, Tom Robinson, at Mockingbird , but leads to the release in Watchman . ) "He continued," Students writing will find an interesting Watchman for these reasons: How the thunderous story of a young woman's sadness over her father's fanatical discovery evolved into the classic arrival of an age story of two children and duda's dutiful father them? how sad narration that is on filled with characters that spread hate speeches (from mediocre to disgusting and strange attitudes - and probably meant o capturing the extreme prejudices that could exist in small towns in the South End in the 1950s) mutated into the novel of redemption associated with the civil rights movement, is praised, in the words of former civil rights activist and Congressman Andrew Young, to give us "a sense of humanism and propriety emerging"?
Kakutani also goes on to illustrate that not only the characterizations and points of different plots, the motivation behind the novel shifts as well, stating: "Somewhere along the way, the overall thrust behind the writing also seems to have changed. Watchman read as if driven by the alienation of a native princess - who, like Lee, moved from the small town of Alabama to New York City - may feel so coming home.It seems to want to document the worst in Maycomb in terms of racial and class prejudice, hostility and hypocrisy people and small minds.Sometimes, it is also alarming to point out that the civil rights movement is shaking things up, making people "used to trusting each other" now "watching every other eagle".
According to Kakutani, " Mockingbird , on the contrary, is a definite attempt to see both the bad and the good in the lives of small towns, hatred and humanity; it presents the ideal father-son relationship (which is a relative in < i> Watchman suggested that Jean Louise was completely his own person) and looked at the past not as lost but precious memories.In a 1963 interview, Lee, whose hometown was Monroeville, Ala, said about Mockingbird : 'This book is not an indictment as an application for something, a reminder for people at home.' "
Harper Lee's literary agency papers in the 1950s, Annie Laurie Williams and Maurice Crain, held by Columbia University's Rare Books & amp; Manuscript Library. Their records show that Go Set a Watchman is the initial draft To Kill a Mockingbird , and undergoes significant changes in story and characters during the revision process. Harper Lee wrote Go Set a Watchman in January 1957, and sold the manuscript to JB Lippincott publisher in October 1957. He then went on to work on his manuscript over the next two years, sending a revised manuscript to his literary agent. At one point in that two-year period, Lee changed his name to his book To Kill a Mockingbird . Some of these notes have been copied and posted online.
Discovery
The manuscript for this novel was originally considered lost. According to The New York Times , the typed manuscript of Go Set a Watchman was first discovered during Lee's asset assessment in 2011 in the safe deposit box in Lee Monroeville's hometown. Lee's lawyer, Tonja Carter, later revealed that he first considered the script as the earliest concept of To Kill a Mockingbird . Then, after studying in mid-2014 about the existence of a second novel at a family gathering, he then checked Lee's back and found the manuscript for Go Set a Watchman. After contacting Lee and reading his script, he gave it to Lee's agent, Andrew Nurnberg.
Lee released a statement through his lawyer in connection with the discovery. "In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel entitled Go Set a Watchman .It features a character known as Scout as a mature woman and I think it's a pretty decent effort. My editor, taken by a flashback to Scout's childhood, convinced me to write a novel from the Young Scout's point of view.I was the first writer, so I did as I was told.I did not realize it was safe, so was surprised and happy when my friend and lawyer Tonja Carter found it After thinking long and hesitantly I shared it with some people I trusted and was happy to hear that they thought it was worthy to be published.I feel humbled and amazed that this will now be published after so many years. "
Controversy
Some publications call the time of the book "suspicious," citing Lee's declining health, statements he has made for decades that he will not write or release another novel, and the death of his sister and nanny - two months before the announcement. NPR reported on the news release of his new book, in which "it raises the question of whether he was being used in his old age". Some publications even asked fans to boycott the work. News sources, including NPR and BBC News, have reported that the conditions surrounding the release of the book are unclear and assume that Lee may not have full control over the decision. Researchers for the state of Alabama interviewed Lee in response to suspicions of old abuse in connection with the publication of the book. However, in April 2015, investigations have found that the claim was unfounded.
Lee's historian and longtime friend Wayne Flynt told
Marja Mills, author of The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee, a friend and former neighbor of Lee and his sister Alice, painted a very different picture. In his work for The Harper Lee I know, he quotes Lee's sister, Alice, whom he describes as "gatekeeper, adviser, patron" for much of Lee's adult life, who says "Poor Nelle Harper can not see and can not hear and will sign whatever is put before her by whomever she believes. "She notes that Watchman was announced only two and a half months after Alice's death and all correspondence to and from Lee through his new lawyer. He describes Lee as "in a wheelchair in an assisted care center, almost deaf and blind, with uniformed guards posted on doors" and his visitors "limited to those on the approved list".
New York Times columnist Joe Nocera continues this argument. He also questioned how the book was promoted by 'Murdoch's Empire' as a "New found" novel, which proves that others in the Sotheby meeting insist that Lee's lawyer was present in 2011, when former Lee agent (whom he later fired) and a Sotheby specialist discovered manuscript. They said he knew well that it was the same to Lippencott in the '50s that reworked into Mockingbird , and that Carter had sat on the discovery, waiting for the moment when he, instead of Alice, was in charge answer to the affairs of Harper Lee. He questions how the commentator treats Atticus's character as if he is a real person and deliberately tries to argue that characters develop with age as opposed to evolving during the development of novels. He quoted Lee himself from one of his last interviews in 1964 in which he said "I think the thing I regret most about American writing - is the lack of expertise.It comes down to this - the absolute lack of love for the language, the lack of sitting and working ideas "He states that," a publisher who cares about Harper Lee's legacy will take those words to heart, and refuse to publish Go Set a Watchman - a great idea that Lee eventually turns into gems. "HarperCollins decided to make a fake literary program not surprising, really sad."
Others have questioned the context of the release of the book, not in the issue of consent, but it has been published as a sequel that goes against the first unedited draft. There was no introduction to the book, and the dust jacket, though noting that it was written in the mid-1950s, gave the impression that it was written as a sequel or companion for Mockingbird, which Lee never intends. Edward Burlingame, who was an executive editor at Lippincott at the time of the Mockingbird 's release, has stated there was never any intention, then or after, on Lee or Hohoff's part, to publish Watchman . It is only considered as the first concept. "Lippincott's sales department will publish Harper Lee's laundry list," Burlingame said. "But Tay really takes care of Nelle like a junk dog, he will not let commercial pressure or anything else to stress it out to publish something that will not make Nelle proud or do justice to her.I'm worried about all of us get another book from Harper Lee , it is a decision we all support. "He said that in all the years at Lippincott," there has been no discussion about the publication of Go Set a Watchman. "
Brilliant Books, an independent bookstore in Michigan, made headlines by offering full refunds to customers who felt cheated by the marketing of the book, calling it "embarrassing" and "exploitative". They released a statement shortly after Go Set a Watchman was released, comparing the book with James Joyce Stephen Hero and condemning its publication.
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Reception
Go Set a Watchman received mixed reviews. Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times describes Atticus's characterization as "shocking", because he "has been affiliated with raving anti-integration, anti-black insanity, and readers sharing horror and confusion [Scout] ] ". Aside from this revealing, Kakutani indeed notes that Watchman is the first draft of Mockingbird and discusses how writing students will find Watchman that appeals to them for reasons. A reviewer for The Wall Street Journal describes the main theme of this book as a disappointment. Despite Atticus's suspicion in the novel, he won a case similar to the one he lost in To Kill a Mockingbird .
Entertainment Weekly highlighted the book as "first draft To Kill a Mockingbird " and said "Although Watchman has some amazing parts, it reads, for most, like the sluggish first design, full of incompatibility, poor dialogue, and less developed characters. " "Swam and stagger," writes William Giraldi at The New Republic, "stuttering, this novel goes along looking for plots, reassuring you with vast patches, with deadly dead zones, with the onslaught of clichés and dialogue made from pamphlet monologues or rolling-eye chats ". In The New Yorker Adam Gopnik commented that the novel could be seen as a "string of cliches", although he went on to comment that "some of them are cliches simply because, within half a century since the Lee generation introduced them, they have become clichés: taken in their own way, they are still quite touching and beautiful ". Maureen Corrigan in NPR Books calls the novel "a kind of chaos". In The Spectator , Philip Hensher calls Go Set a Watchman "an interesting document and a very bad novel", as well as "a confused juvenile piece". "Go Set A Watchman is not a horrible book, but it's not a very good book," "judges Fort Worth Star-Telegram, citing among other deficiencies" too " plot "is too simple.
Alexandra Petri writes on The Washington Post, "It's a silent jumble... Go Set a Watchman no, by any imagination, good, or even finished book. For the first 100 pages did not have anything that could even be described as a plot.... [T] he wrote very badly...... I threw the book down and moaned out loud and I almost did not take it back even though I knew I had less than 100 pages to go... It should not be published This is 280 pages that badly need an editor... If you were around me when I was reading that, you heard a terrible scream, followed by the sound of that book with angry thrown down... "
Author Ursula K. Le Guin writes that "Harper Lee is a good writer, he wrote a much-loved, beloved book, but this is earlier, for all his errors and omissions, asking some difficult questions. To Kill a Mockingbird dodge. "
Go Set a Watchman set a record for selling the highest adult novels in Barnes & amp; Noble, which includes digital sales and pre-orders made before July 14th. Barnes & amp; Noble refused to release the exact numbers.
Some novel translations have appeared. In Finnish translation of the novel by Kristiina Drews "nigger" is translated as if "negro" or "black" has been used. Drews states that he interprets what is meant at all times, and uses a vocabulary that does not offend blacks.
In 2015, this book won the first Goodreads Choice Award.
References
Bibliography
- Lee, Harper (2015). Go Show Guard . UK: William Heineman. ISBN: 978-1-785-15028-9.
- Lee, Harper (2015). Go Show Guard . US: Harper. ISBN 978-0-062-40985-0.
- Lee, Harper (2015). Go Define Guard (Audiobook ed.). US: HarperAudio. ISBN 978-0-062-40990-4.
- Lee, Harper (2015). Go Set Bodyguard (Large Print ed.). US: HarperLuxe. ISBN 978-0-062-40988-1.
External links
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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