Eve: A Biography

by Pamela Norris

Book Overview

The history of Everywoman--the Book of Genesis's famously debated character

Eve: A Biography is the history of Everywoman. Her brief adventure in the Book of Genesis is where the Western idea of woman began, and three thousand years after Eve offered Adam the forbidden fruit, everyone still knows that losing Paradise was Eve's fault.

Pamela Norris traces the evolution of Eve's bad reputation, drawing on a rich and diverse...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814758150
• ISBN13: 9780814758151
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: New York University Press
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 1.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 5.7" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

a wide-ranging, wonderful book

As I read this book I kept alternating between being fascinated and appalled. I would ask myself, "Were men really that afraid of women?" Ms. Norris does a wonderful job of tracing through how the story of Eve has been used to create and justify various attitudes toward women in Hebrew and Christian societies with a side trip to look at the Greeks and how they became part of the mix. In many ways it is even more interesting to see what happened as women got access to and were able to leave their own written tradition. There is the temptation in this sort of work to write about the most extreme views that are floating around rather than the ones that were the most influencial. Ms. Norris is aware of this and I think she avoids it. Many of the most extreme quotes and stories were from people that I already knew something about such as Hesiod, Ben Sira and Tertullian.

Witty and smart history of "the world's first woman"

Eve is a wonderful book. I expected it to be informative but dry, and instead it was lively and funny and entertaining. Norris offers an eclectic history of not just the figure of Eve, but many of her sisters in crime--Pandora, Delilah, Lilith--and provides a bracing account of these good and bad sisters and mothers through the ages. It's also a gorgeous book, with great color and b+w illustrations throughout. It's tops on my holiday gift list, especially for friends interested in religion and women's history. What can I say, I loved it.

Tantalising introduction to history,literature,and religion

Like Scorsese's Personal Journey through American Film, this book is an incredibly enlightening journey through religious, historical and literary reactions to stereotypes of female icons and behaviour. I found this book extremely readable, amazingly broad in its coverage, humourous and thoughtful. I look forward to similar works by the author!! Unreservedly recommended to people interested in theories of history and religion and especially literature and art theory.