How long is it?
581 pages in the Cherokee Publishing Company 1990 hardcover edition.
Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction
Years of Grace
Highly regardedPulitzer Prize for Novel (pre-1948), 1931Reading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 39 / 100Moderate
- Length
- 581 pagesCherokee Publishing Company · 1990
- Reading time
- 11 h 30 minat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Measured
- Emotional intensity
- 3 / 5
About 11 h 30 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 24 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
In 1890s Chicago, fourteen-year-old Jane Ward loves André, a French boy whose artistic ambitions clash with her prosperous family's expectations. Her life carries her from Bryn Mawr College into marriage to banker Stephen Carver and motherhood, while her own wishes remain difficult to separate from what she has been taught is proper. Across four decades, her children's changing ideas about marriage and divorce challenge the standards she grew up accepting.
Reader notes
Leisurely and conversational, the family chronicle dwells on domestic arguments, clothes and social rituals. Much happens in discussion. Romantic longing matters throughout, but sexual relationships remain discreetly described.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Descriptive
- Tone
- Intimate · Reflective · Wistful
- Structure
- Linear
- Driven by
- Character · Relationships
- Point of view
- Third person, limited
- Setting
- Chicago
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 2 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 2 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 1 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Aging
- Class
- Family
- Gender
- Marriage
- Morality
Content notes
- Violence
- Mild
- Sexual content
- Mild
- Swearing
- Mild
- Substance use
- Mild
- Abuse
- Mild
- Self-harm or suicide
- Mild
Standing and awards
Highly regarded
- Pulitzer Prize for Novel (pre-1948), 1931
Questions readers ask
Which edition is shown here?
Cherokee Publishing Company · 1990 · Hardcover. ISBN 9780877971795.
How long does it take to read Years of Grace?
About 11 hours 30 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 581-page Cherokee Publishing Company edition. Dense books can take longer.
About the author
Margaret Ayer Barnes
Margaret Ayer Barnes was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright whose fiction examines women negotiating duty, private desire, and changing social expectations. Drawing on theatrical technique, she often defines character through conversation and closely observed scenes of upper-middle-class Chicago life. Years of Grace follows one woman from adolescence into middle age, using her choices to register shifts in manners and morality across several decades. Barnes also links domestic conflict to broader historical change. In Within This Present, a failing marriage unfolds alongside the erosion of Chicago’s social order from the First World War into the Depression.
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Edition and details
- Publisher
- Cherokee Publishing Company
- Publication year
- 1990
- Format
- Hardcover
- Pages
- 581
- ISBN
- 9780877971795
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 1930
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction · Literary fiction · Coming of age · Family saga · Social novel
- Editions
- 10
- Languages
- 2 (English, Unspecified)
The catalog does not yet include a matching edition. Details may differ between editions.