Skip to Main Content (Press Enter)
The Wedding by Dorothy West
Add The Wedding to bookshelf
Add to Bookshelf

Look Inside | Reading Guide

The Wedding

A Novel

A Novel

A Novel

By Dorothy West

By Dorothy West

By Dorothy West

By Dorothy West

By Dorothy West
Read by Robin Miles

By Dorothy West
Read by Robin Miles

Best Seller
Paperback $16.00

Jan 01, 1996 | ISBN 9780385471442

Ebook $9.99

Dec 30, 2009 | ISBN 9780307575708

Audiobook Download $17.50

Aug 03, 2021 | 442 Minutes

All Formats
+
    The Wedding by Dorothy West
    Paperback $16.00
    Jan 01, 1996 | ISBN 9780385471442

    Buy from Other Retailers:

    See All Formats (2) +
    • $16.00

      Jan 01, 1996 | ISBN 9780385471442

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Dec 30, 2009 | ISBN 9780307575708

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Aug 03, 2021 | ISBN 9780593501931

      442 Minutes

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Buy the Audiobook Download:

    About The Wedding

    In her final novel, “a beautiful and devastating examination of family, society and race” (The New York Times), Dorothy West offers an intimate glimpse into the Oval, a proud, insular community made up of the best and brightest of the East Coast’s Black bourgeoisie on Martha’s Vineyard in the 1950s.

    Within this inner circle of “blue-vein society,” we witness the prominent Coles family gather for the wedding of the loveliest daughter, Shelby, who could have chosen from “a whole area of eligible men of the right colors and the right professions.” Instead, she has fallen in love with and is about to be married to Meade Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York. A shock wave breaks over the Oval as its longtime members grapple with the changing face of its community.

    With elegant, luminous prose, Dorothy West crowns her literary career by illustrating one family’s struggle to break the shackles of race and class.

    About The Wedding

    In her final novel, “a beautiful and devastating examination of family, society and race” (The New York Times), Dorothy West offers an intimate glimpse into the Oval, a proud, insular community made up of the best and brightest of the East Coast’s Black bourgeoisie on Martha’s Vineyard in the 1950s.

    Within this inner circle of “blue-vein society,” we witness the prominent Coles family gather for the wedding of the loveliest daughter, Shelby, who could have chosen from “a whole area of eligible men of the right colors and the right professions.” Instead, she has fallen in love with and is about to be married to Meade Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York. A shock wave breaks over the Oval as its longtime members grapple with the changing face of its community.

    With elegant, luminous prose, Dorothy West crowns her literary career by illustrating one family’s struggle to break the shackles of race and class.

    About The Wedding

    In her final novel, Dorothy West offers an intimate glimpse into African American middle class.  Set on bucolic Martha’s Vineyard in the 1950s, The Wedding tells the story of life in the Oval, a proud, insular community made up of the best and brightest of the East Coast’s black bourgeoisie.  Within this inner circle of “blue-vein society,” we witness the prominent Coles family gather for the wedding of the loveliest daughter, Shelby, who could have chosen from “a whole area of eligible men of the right colors and the right professions.” Instead, she has fallen in love with and is about to be married to Meade Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York. A shock wave breaks over the Oval as its longtime members grapple with the changing face of its community.

    With elegant, luminous prose, Dorothy West crowns her literary career by illustrating one family’s struggle to break the shackles of race and class.


    Norman Lewis (1909–1979),     Girl with Yellow Hat (aka Woman with Yellow Hat and Yellow Hat), 1936, oil on burlap, 36 1/2 x 26 inches; Courtesy of Leslie Lewis and Christina Lewis Halpern from the Reginald F. Lewis Family Collection; © Estate of Norman Lewis; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

    Reading Guide

    Reading Guide

    Reading Guide

    Listen to a sample from The Wedding

    Also by Dorothy West

    The Richer, the Poorer
    The Messenger Reader
    The Richer, the Poorer
    See all books by Dorothy West

    Also by Dorothy West

    The Richer, the Poorer
    The Messenger Reader
    The Richer, the Poorer
    See all books by Dorothy West

    Also by Dorothy West

    The Richer, the Poorer
    The Messenger Reader
    The Richer, the Poorer
    See all books by Dorothy West

    About Dorothy West

    Dorothy West founded the Harlem Renaissance literary magazine Challenge in 1934, and New Challenge in 1937, with Richard Wright as her associate editor. She was a welfare investigator and WPA relief worker in Harlem during the Depression.  Her first novel, The Living Is Easy, appeared in… More about Dorothy West

    About Dorothy West

    Dorothy West founded the Harlem Renaissance literary magazine Challenge in 1934, and New Challenge in 1937, with Richard Wright as her associate editor. She was a welfare investigator and WPA relief worker in Harlem during the Depression.  Her first novel, The Living Is Easy, appeared in… More about Dorothy West

    About Dorothy West

    Dorothy West founded the Harlem Renaissance literary magazine Challenge in 1934, and New Challenge in 1937, with Richard Wright as her associate editor. She was a welfare investigator and WPA relief worker in Harlem during the Depression.  Her first novel, The Living Is Easy, appeared in… More about Dorothy West

    Product Details

    Category: Historical Fiction | Literary Fiction

    Paperback | $16.00
    Published by Anchor
    Jan 01, 1996 | 256 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780385471442

    Category: Historical Fiction | Literary Fiction

    Ebook | $9.99
    Published by Anchor
    Dec 30, 2009 | 256 Pages | ISBN 9780307575708

    Category: Historical Fiction | Literary Fiction | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $17.50
    Published by Random House Audio
    Aug 03, 2021 | 442 Minutes | ISBN 9780593501931

    YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

    Praise

    “A fascinating and unforgettable tale.” —People

    “West is a wonderful storyteller, painting vivid and memorable scenes of the life and plight of African Americans from slavery to the fifties.  The Wedding is an engrossing tale.” —USA Today

    “In The Wedding, West brilliantly portrays the ferocity of class, race, and gender distinctions within family, groups, and generations.” —Entertainment Weekly

    “Dorothy West is an epic storyteller.” —Quarterly Black Review of Books

    “The Wedding‘s prose has biblical rhythms and echoes of William Faulkner.  This novel of Dorothy West’s later life is luminous, unexpected gift that should bring her a new generation of admirers.” —The Washington Post

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Raise kids who love to read

    Brightly

    Raise kids who love to read

    Today's Top Books

    Today's Top Books

    Want to know what people are actually reading right now?

         An online magazine for today’s home cook

    TASTE

    An online magazine for today’s home cook