Their Eyes Were Watching God

Name: Their Eyes Were Watching God
ISBN: 9781983254246

by Zora Neale Hurston · first published 1937

11mentions

2recommended by

10HN commenters

2013–2025first – last mentioned

20% recommend80% neutral

Fiction & Literature

Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) is a classic Harlem Renaissance novel by American writer Zora Neale Hurston. The novel follows Janie Crawford as she recounts the story of her life as she journeys from a naive teenager to a woman in control of her destiny.

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View on Open Library ISBN 9781983254246

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What Hacker News says

cabbeer · Dec 26, 2013 · Recommends

…Dreiser Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie My Antonia by Willa Cather (1918) On the Road by Jack Kerouac The Heart is A Lonely Hunter by Carson Mccullers The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1934) Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf Ulysses by James Joyce
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2013” ↗
bryanrasmussen · Feb 19, 2022 · Recommends

…Dick. 15. Life on the Mississippi. 16. The Garden of Forking Paths 17. Dhalgren 18. The Gods of Pegāna, basically all the fantasy work of Dunsany. 19. The Lathe of Heaven. Anything by LeGuin. 20. Their Eyes Were Watching God 21. The Master and Margarita 22. The Gulag Archipelago
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite fiction book?” ↗
thisisforyou · Dec 22, 2016 · Mentions

…Matter and Autobiographical Sketches -Schrödinger, Erwin Dictionary of the Khazars -Pavić, Milorad Honored Guest -Williams, Joy Martyrs and Miracles -Trickey-Bapty, Carolyn Noa Noa -Gauguin, Paul Their Eyes Were Watching God -Hurston, Zora Neale Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party -Stewart, George R. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale -Melville, Herman Eileen -Moshfegh, Ottessa Haute Surveillance -Göransson, Johannes…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗
lizardwalk5 · Nov 15, 2017 · Mentions

by coincidence, I picked up this book for reading over lunch and it is a compelling story. I got about halfway through before forcing myself to put it down. during college, Their Eyes were Watching God, by Hurston was required reading for one of my courses. but I never really knew much about her life or personality.
on “Zora Neale Hurston: “A Genius of the South”” ↗
isaacfrond · May 30, 2023 · Mentions

…30% The Silmarillion J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien 28% Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 27% A Game of Thrones George R.R. Martin 27% The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 26% Dune Frank Herbert 26% Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 25% To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 25% Casino Royale Ian Fleming 24% Neuromancer William Gibson 22% Ender's Game Orson Scott Card 20% Brave New World Aldous Huxley 19% Gone…
on “ChatGPT Secret Training Data: The Top Books AI Bots Are Reading” ↗
api · Oct 3, 2023 · Mentions

…forever on the same horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.” ― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
on “Short Film: "One Revolution per Minute"” ↗
dragontamer · May 11, 2016 · Mentions

…Don't just parrot out their lies. I mean, cripes. Just look at the literature that was written in the 1930s by the Greatest Generation. "Of Mice and Men" is about vagabonds looking for farm-work. While "Their Eyes were Watching God" is about a woman who was beaten by multiple suitors before being forced to kill the man she loves because a hurricane wiped out a region and a rabid dog have him rabies. Common in both stories? Hard,…
on “Trump-Sanders Signal an Oligarchy on the Brink of Collapse” ↗
noname123 · Jul 17, 2013 · Mentions

…African go'vt back then to give their students education grants to Chinese universities. I honestly don't think Mao had an understanding of the African American experience in the sense of "Invisible Man," "Their Eyes Were Watching God" etc. but simply had an abstract understanding of "third-world solidarity". Nowadays, the Chinese leadership is helping Africa in the name of the third-way of "peaceful rise" and "political non-interference…
on “On Being Black in China” ↗
dragontamer · May 11, 2016 · Mentions

…But that's beside the point. > in general, not with your naive example of a particular case where a son ends up living a worst life than his parents because of some hurricane You know you're dissing "Their Eyes were Watching God", right? This isn't exactly an unpopular novel. --------- My point is that the article is actually good on history (although I disagree with how the author interprets history). You however, are nowhere…
on “Trump-Sanders Signal an Oligarchy on the Brink of Collapse” ↗
vba616 · Dec 24, 2022 · Mentions

…human. It replied: Zora Neale Hurston: Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author who was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. She is best known for her novels "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and "Moses, Man of the Mountain," as well as her work as a folklorist, collecting and preserving African American folktales and oral histories. Zora Arkus-Duntov: Zora Arkus-Duntov was a Belgian-born…
on “Who are three famous people named Zora?” ↗
raincole · Dec 14, 2025 · Mentions

…education system expected this: > As a high school student less than a decade ago, he was assigned many whole books and plays to read, among them, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” “The Crucible” and “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Yeah, sounds like a very great way to filter out perhaps 20% of good readers and make sure the rest 80% will hate reading for the rest of their lives.
on “Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class” ↗