Photo by Jim Gipe/Pivot Media

Michael Gorra

Michael Gorra is the Mary Augusta Jordan Professor of English at Smith College, where he has taught since 1985. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation and, for his work as a reviewer, of the Balakian Award from the National Book Critics Circle. His books include The Saddest Words: William Faulkner’s Civil War; Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of on American Masterpiece, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography; The Bells in Their Silence: Travels through Germany; After Empire: Scott, Naipaul, Rushdie; The English Novel at Mid-Century; and, as editor, The Portable Conrad and the Norton Critical Editions of The Sound and the Fury and The Portrait of a Lady.

Michael Gorra

Awards

Shortlisted — National Book Critics Circle Award, 2012

Books by Michael Gorra

Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece
Michael Gorra
Hardback, 2012
A revelatory biography of the American master as told through the lens of his greatest novel.
Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece
Michael Gorra
Paperback, 2013
“...literary criticism at its most lucid and engaging, as it shows James embarking on his great work and displays Gorra, filled with enthusiasm and insight, as the book’s most ideal and intelligent...
The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War
Michael Gorra
Hardback, 2020
Michael Gorra, one of America’s most preeminent literary critics, asks how we read William Faulkner in the twenty-first century.
The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War
Michael Gorra
Paperback, 2021
Michael Gorra, one of America’s most preeminent literary critics, asks how we read William Faulkner in the twenty-first century.
Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece
Michael Gorra
E Book, 2012
“...literary criticism at its most lucid and engaging, as it shows James embarking on his great work and displays Gorra, filled with enthusiasm and insight, as the book’s most ideal and intelligent...
The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War
Michael Gorra
E Book, 2020
Michael Gorra, one of America’s most preeminent literary critics, asks how we read William Faulkner in the twenty-first century.
The Sound and the Fury: A Norton Critical Edition
William Faulkner, Michael Gorra
Third Edition, Paperback, 2014
“A man is the sum of his misfortunes.”
—William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
The Portrait of a Lady: A Norton Critical Edition
Henry James, Michael Gorra
First Edition, Paperback, 2017
Henry James’s most famous novel edited by the critically acclaimed author of Portrait of a Novel.
As I Lay Dying: A Norton Critical Edition
William Faulkner, Michael Gorra
Second Edition, Paperback, 2022