Wise Blood
About this book
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.
Reader Profile
3.9/5 · 27 readers · 232 pages · ≈ 4 h 18 m · Moderate
How long does it take to read Wise Blood?
About ≈ 4 h 18 m — 232 pages, assuming roughly 250 words per page at 225 words per minute.
How many pages is Wise Blood?
232 pages in its most-read edition.
What genre is Wise Blood?
It sits on the Religion, Fiction shelves.
Has Wise Blood been made into a movie or TV show?
Yes — screen adaptations include Wise Blood (1979).
Is Wise Blood in the public domain?
No — it is still under copyright.
Who are the main characters in Wise Blood?
The main characters include Hazel Mote, Francis Marion Tarwater.
Who wrote Wise Blood?
Flannery O'Connor.
“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.”