The Canon Library
Cover of Beloved

Contemporary · Novel

Beloved

by Toni Morrison. A formerly enslaved woman’s home is haunted by the past, making historical trauma intimate, supernatural, and inescapable.

Find a print edition

Browse Bookshop.org's current catalog to choose an available edition.

Some purchase links are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Date
1987
Origin
United States
Era
Contemporary
Genre
Novel
Canon tier
Essential core
Difficulty
Challenging
Length
Long
Collection
The Western Canon

Subjects and themes

SlaveryMemoryMotherhood

Why it matters

A formerly enslaved woman’s home is haunted by the past, making historical trauma intimate, supernatural, and inescapable.

This work is included on the basis of modern expanded canon. Its cataloged influence level is 5 out of 5.

Related works

Reading paths featuring Beloved

Continue through a deliberately ordered journey that places this work in conversation with others.

Reading path

Expanded Canon

A starting shelf for voices and traditions that enlarge the inherited survey. 8 books · Intermediate.

Reading path

Start the Western Canon in 20 Books

A deliberately varied first route through epic, philosophy, scripture, drama, political thought, science, the novel, and modern literature. 20 books · Intermediate.

Reading path

The Great American Novel

Eight major contenders for the elusive Great American Novel: books that test the country's myths of freedom, race, money, mobility, violence, and memory. 8 books · Intermediate.

Access and editions