Wise Blood

Wise Blood

First edition
Author	Flannery O'Connor
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Southern Gothic novel
Publisher	Harcourt, Brace & Company
Publication date	May 15, 1952
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	238
OCLC	1191239
LC Class	PZ4.O183 Wi PS3565.C57

Wise Blood is the first novel by American author Flannery O'Connor, published in 1952. The novel was assembled from disparate stories first published in Mademoiselle, The Sewanee Review and Partisan Review. The first chapter is an expanded version of her Master's thesis, "The Train", and other chapters are reworked versions of "The Peeler," "The Heart of the Park" and "Enoch and the Gorilla". The novel concerns a returning World War II veteran who, haunted by a life-long crisis of faith, resolves to form an anti-religious ministry in an eccentric, fictionalized city in the Southern United States after finding his family homestead abandoned without a trace.

The novel received little critical attention when it first appeared but has since come to be appreciated as a classic work of "low comedy and high seriousness" with disturbing religious themes.^[1][2] It was placed 62nd in The Observer's list of 100 greatest novels.^[3]