Skip to content
Scan a barcode
Scan
Paperback The Long Night Book

ISBN: 0817304150

ISBN13: 9780817304157

The Long Night

Select Format

Select Condition ThriftBooks Help Icon

Recommended

Format: Paperback

Condition: Acceptable

$19.39
Save $10.56!
List Price $29.95
Almost Gone, Only 1 Left!

Book Overview

Provides vivid descriptions of Alabama during an important period in the state's history

A first-rate novel that provides vivid descriptions of Alabama during an important period in the state's history, The Long Night is set in the vicinity of Montgomery, Alabama, between 1850 and 1865. Originally published in 1936, the book is based on a true story related to Lytle by one of his close friends and colleagues at Vanderbilt University, Frank L. Owsley, who later became the chairman of The University of Alabama Department of History. In fact, the novel opens with a letter to Professor Owsley from the author, and Owsley's son has written the introduction to this edition.

As described by George B. Tindall, The Long Night is "the episodic story of a young Alabamian beset by the moral dilemma of desire for revenge against the persecutors of his father and his larger duty in the war, a story that rose to its climax in the Battle of Shiloh." The work is rich in its description of the land and people of Black-Belt Alabama during the mid-19th century.

Customer Reviews

2 ratings

Southern Honor

Lytle's fictional account should be read as a companion piece to Bertram Wyatt-Brown's Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South (Oxford). Wyatt-Brown's thesis is that honor functioned as the most important, though often too quickly overlooked, social mechanism in the Antebellum South, ensuring that every facet of society behaved within the confines of a stringent, mutually agreed upon code of conduct. Reaction--either positive or negative--to a person's behavior was thus both internal to the person and reflected by society as a whole. The degree of a person's acceptance by society was a mirror that reflected his or her own sense of self-worth, which was directly related to the degree to which he or she conformed to universally accepted societal behavioral norms. Deviating from these norms resulted in social castigation--essentially assuring overall ostracism due to loss of honor. The only two means of recourse was (1) to challenge society's appraisal, frequently in a violent manner; or (2) to leave town, or even the state ("Gone to Texas," was the general term for this, which is literally what Lytle's fictional family attempted to do in Long Night, until that planned backfired and they resorted to violence to avenge the their lost honor). Strangely, Wyatt-Brown completely ignores Lytle's Long Night in illustrating his point about how honor operated in the Old South and often lead to bloody ends, although he relies on countless other fictional works. Nonetheless, both works greatly inform each another, rendering much greater understanding of the period and the place, and the motivations of those living in them. Lytle goes far in dramatising how, at the outbreak of the War, Southerners were required to temporariy set aside personal honor for regional honor, and how one man's refusal to do so led to tragic inner turmoil and loss of self-identity.

Best Civil War novel ever !

This the the first novel by the great critic a much neglected-novelist, Andrew Lytle. The story is narrated by an older uncle to his nephew during one long night as he tells the story of his Alabama family around the period of the Civil War. Like Cold Mountain, Lytle's research and knowledge of the customs, speech, and lifestyle of his characters is perfect. Though this was his first novel, you'll see Lytle was already a master of fiction. When you're finished read "The Fathers" the Civil War novel by Lytle's friend poet, Alan Tate.
Copyright © 2025 Thriftbooks.com Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
GoDaddy Verified and Secured