Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife

( 18 )

Overview

In June 1942, Anne Frank received a red-and-white-checked diary for her thirteenth birthday, just weeks before she and her family went into hiding in an Amsterdam attic to escape the Nazis. For two years, with ever-increasing maturity, Anne crafted a memoir that has become one of the most compelling documents of modern history. But Anne Frank's diary, argues Francine Prose, is as much a work of art as it is a historical record. Through close reading, she marvels at the teenage Frank's skillfully natural narrative...

See more details below
Paperback
$11.98
BN.com price
(Save 20%)$14.99 List Price
Pick Up In Store

Pick Up In Store

Reserve and pick up in 60 minutes at your local store

Other sellers (Paperback)
  • All (25) from $1.99   
  • New (9) from $1.99   
  • Used (16) from $1.99   
Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife

Available on NOOK devices and apps  
  • Nook Devices
  • NOOK HD/HD+ Tablet
  • NOOK
  • NOOK Color
  • NOOK Tablet
  • Tablet/Phone
  • NOOK for Windows 8 Tablet
  • NOOK for iOS
  • NOOK for Android
  • NOOK Kids for iPad
  • PC/Mac
  • NOOK for Windows 8
  • NOOK Study
  • NOOK for Web

Want a NOOK? Explore Now

NOOK Book (eBook)
$10.99
BN.com price

More About This Book

Overview

In June 1942, Anne Frank received a red-and-white-checked diary for her thirteenth birthday, just weeks before she and her family went into hiding in an Amsterdam attic to escape the Nazis. For two years, with ever-increasing maturity, Anne crafted a memoir that has become one of the most compelling documents of modern history. But Anne Frank's diary, argues Francine Prose, is as much a work of art as it is a historical record. Through close reading, she marvels at the teenage Frank's skillfully natural narrative voice, at her finely tuned dialogue and ability to turn living people into characters.

Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife tells the extraordinary story of the book that became a force in the world. Along the way, Prose definitively establishes that Anne Frank was not an accidental author or a casual teenage chronicler but a writer of prodigious talent and ambition.

Read More Show Less

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

If Anne Frank were alive today, she would have just turned eighty-one; instead, she died in the Nazi's Bergen Belsen concentration camp when she was only fifteen. Her diary, which had received as a 13th birthday gift, was rescued, returned to her father Otto Frank, and published in Germany and France in 1950. In this revelatory book, National Book Award finalist Francine Prose notes that the diary as we know it is a carefully shaped work of art: From radio broadcasts, Anne knew that Dutch officials in exile were already planning to create a documented history of German oppression once the war was ended. Prose's attentive reading of Frank's revised Secret Annexe journal entries discloses the care their author paid to her work of art. A stirring reappraisal of a teenage writer's undying legacy. Now in paperback.

Booklist
"Prose is commanding and illuminating...definitive, deeply moving inquiry into the life of the young, imperiled artist.... Extraordinary testimony to the power of literature and compassion."
Anne Roiphe
"A fascinating book...riveting to read..."
Jerusalem Post
"Talented author Francine Prose approaches Anne Frank with the awe and respect of one writer for another…Prose’s research uncovers what many will be surprised to discover."
New York Times Book Review
"A deeply felt reappraisal of the work and its global impact.... [Prose] makes a persuasive argument for Anne Frank’s literary genius."
New York Times
"An impressively far-reaching critical work, an elegant study both edifying and entertaining...full of keen observations and fascinating disputes."
Miami Herald
"This is an amazing book…thorough, thoughtfully, beautifully written…[It] focuses on Anne Frank as an accomplished writer…I was thrilled to find it."
Boston Sunday Globe
"Prose is clear-headed, tough, and fair, and her book, though in places immensely sad, is superb. It should be cherished alongside the masterpiece that inspired it."
Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Prose’s book is a stunning achievement…Now Anne Frank stands before us…a figure who will live not only in history but also in the literature she aspired to create."
Washington Post
"Illuminating…A compelling story…Francine Prose explains some of the many sides of this remarkable story."
Booklist (starred review)
“Prose is commanding and illuminating...definitive, deeply moving inquiry into the life of the young, imperiled artist.... Extraordinary testimony to the power of literature and compassion.”
Christian Science Monitor
"Compelling…With compassion and grace, Prose looks at Anne Frank as Anne wished to be seen: above all, as a writer."
Jewish Book World
"Substantially researched and wide-ranging…This probing and informed book introduces readers to a far more complex and accomplished young woman than the Anne we met in our adolescence."
Haaretz (Israel)
"Passionate…A sensitive, beautifully written and fascinating account of the myriad aspects of Anne Frank’s life, death and diary"
Los Angeles Times
"Provocative.... A penetrating analysis."
Chicago Tribune
"Prose admirably recreates the events in the attic over the years—no small feat—[with] all the drama of a classic whodunit…Transcendent criticism…[A] case so brilliantly proven."
Philadelphia Inquirer
"A valuable resource…useful and well-written and –researched"
San Francisco Chronicle
"Francine Prose...takes Anne’s story and adds to it a new perspective....Prose tells this story with tremendous beauty, pathos and a profound awareness of tragic coincidence."
San Diego Union-Tribune
"Impassioned…compelling…No one has made the case as convincingly and forcefully as Francine Prose does that Anne Frank aspired to be taken seriously as a writer—and should be."
Janet Maslin
Ms. Prose uses her formidable powers of discernment to write incisively about many facets of the Anne Frank phenomenon, from the life itself to the various ways in which it has been willfully distorted. And although Ms. Prose jokes she could hear friends opening magazines as she expounded on Anne Frank over the telephone, she turns her thoughts into a lively and illuminating disquisition…This seemingly narrow work is an impressively far-reaching critical work, an elegant study both edifying and entertaining. In a book full of keen observations and fascinating disputes…Ms. Prose looks in all directions to find noteworthy material.
—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
In considering the iconic diary of Anne Frank, prolific novelist and critic Prose (Reading Like a Writer), praises the young writer's fresh narrative voice, characterizations, sense of pacing and ear for dialogue. Prose calls her a literary genius whose diary was a “consciously crafted work of literature” rather than the “spontaneous outpourings of a teenager,” and offers evidence that Frank scrupulously revised her work shortly before her arrest and intended to publish it after the war. Fans of literary gossip will savor how writer Meyer Levin, a close friend of Anne's father, Otto Frank, famously gave the Diary a front-page rave in the New York Times and later sued Otto when his script for a play based on it was rejected. Some may conclude that Prose contributes to a queasy-making idolization and commodification of Anne Frank, and that she lets Otto Frank off the hook too easily for minimizing the Jewish essence of the Holocaust, yet the author lucidly collates material from a wide range of sources, and her work would be valuable as a teaching guide for middle school, high school and college students. (Oct.)
Library Journal
If she had survived, Anne Frank would have turned 80 this year. Prose (Goldengrove) analyzes her diary in an innovative way, underscoring Frank's writing genius. In viewing the diary from a more literary perspective, Prose examines Frank's life, her original and revised writings, the annex where she hid, Holocaust deniers, and the challenges of teaching the diary. Her discussions of the play and film adapted from the diary are particularly enlightening; these dramatic versions veered fundamentally from the diary, rendering Frank a silly, love-struck teenager rather than the pensive adolescent one discovers in the diary. Prose touches on many subjects, e.g., how Frank's plight has been "universalized" and "Americanized," taking away from the message she tried to convey in her writings. Despite these issues, Prose recognizes that Frank's story can still make an impact and continues to resonate 64 years after her horrific death. VERDICT This riveting book is highly recommended for all readers interested in the enduring legacy of Anne Frank and for literature scholars. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/09.]—Erica Swenson Danowitz, Delaware Cty. Community Coll., Media, PA
Kirkus Reviews
An articulate statement of the enduring power of Anne Frank's original work joined with a brief biography, an analysis of the 1955 play and 1959 film based on the diary, some attacks on Holocaust deniers and a few thoughts on approaches to teaching the work. Prose (Goldengrove, 2008, etc.) first read The Diary of a Young Girl (1952) when she was a child, and later saw the original production of the play on Broadway. Recently she reread Diary and was even more impressed with its young author's accomplishment. She believes that Frank was an artist, her diary-more accurately a memoir, the author asserts-a work of art. Prose takes us through the text, pointing out its literary merits, generally in convincing fashion, though she is sometimes so insistent and earnest an advocate that she sacrifices just a bit of credibility. The author reviews the history of the Frank family, emphasizing how Anne began as a child diarist and later, in hiding, grew into a more mature, reflective writer, revising and refining with an eye toward postwar publication. Prose properly credits the 1989 Critical Edition of the diary, the volume that first presented Frank's versions of the diary in parallel columns-as well as the overwhelming scientific evidence of the diary's authenticity. The author wrestles with Frank's reputation today, at first uncomfortable with her becoming a symbol of naive hopefulness, then forgiving of anything that draws readers to the book. Prose rehearses the internecine, nasty struggle to bring Diary to the stage, and chronicles Meyer Levin's descent into near madness as he sought, unsuccessfully, to be the diary's playwright. The author attacks both the stage and screen versions for theirportrayals of Frank, at times, as a dimwit. She also has little good to say about the actresses who portrayed Frank. Prose also blasts the infrahuman Holocaust deniers and ends with some fairly perfunctory, even ordinary thoughts about teaching the book. A graceful tribute and a touching act of gratitude.
Read More Show Less

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780061430800
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 10/5/2010
  • Series: P. S. Series
  • Pages: 322
  • Sales rank: 320,683
  • Product dimensions: 5.30 (w) x 7.90 (h) x 0.90 (d)

Meet the Author

Francine Prose
Francine Prose
Known as much for her wit as she is for her eclecticism, Francine Prose is a true renaissance woman of the literary set. She has written essays, art and literary reviews, translations, children’s books, novellas, and short stories -- not to mention bitingly humorous novels like Bigfoot Dreams and Blue Angel.

Biography

When it comes to an author as eclectic as Francine Prose, it's difficult to find the unifying thread in her work. But, if one were to examine her entire oeuvre—from novels and short stories to essays and criticism—a love of reading would seem to be the animating force. That may not seem extraordinary, especially for a writer, but Prose is uncommonly passionate about the link between reading and writing. "I've always read," she confessed in a 1998 interview with Atlantic Unbound. "I started when I was four years old and just didn't stop…The only reason I wanted to be a writer was because I was such an avid reader." (In 2006, she produced an entire book on the subject—a nuts-and-bolts primer entitled Reading Like a Writer, in which she uses excerpts from classic and contemporary literature to illustrate her personal notions of literary excellence.)

If Prose is specific about the kind of writing she, herself, likes to read, she's equally voluble about what puts her off. She is particularly vexed by "obvious, tired clichés; lazy, ungrammatical writing; implausible plot turns." Unsurprisingly, all of these are notably absent in her own work. Even when she explores tried-and-true literary conventions—such as the illicit romantic relationship at the heart of her best known novel, Blue Angel—she livens them with wit and irony. She even borrowed her title from the famous Josef von Sternberg film dealing with a similar subject.

As biting and clever as she is, Prose cringes whenever her work is referred to as satire. She explained to Barnes & Noble.com, "Satirical to me means one-dimensional characters…whereas, I think of myself as a novelist who happens to be funny—who's writing characters that are as rounded and artfully developed as the writers of tragic novels."

Prose's assessment of her own work is pretty accurate. Although her subject matter is often ripe for satire (religious fanaticism in Household Saints, tabloid journalism in Bigfoot Dreams, upper-class pretensions in Primitive People), etc.), she takes care to invest her characters with humanity and approaches them with respect. "I really do love my characters," she says, "but I feel that I want to take a very hard look at them. I don't find them guilty of anything I'm not guilty of myself."

Best known for her fiction, Prose has also written literary criticism for The New York Times, art criticism for The Wall Street Journal, and children's books based on Jewish folklore, all of it infused with her alchemic blend of humor, insight,and intelligence.

Good To Know

Prose rarely wastes an idea. In Blue Angel, the novel that the character Angela is writing is actually a discarded novel that Prose started before stopping because, in her own words, "it seemed so juvenile to me."

While she once had no problem slamming a book in one of her literary critiques, these days Prose has resolved to only review books that she actually likes. The ones that don't adhere to her high standards are simply returned to the senders.

Prose's novel Household Saints was adapted into an excellent film starring Tracey Ullman, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Lili Taylor in 1993.

Another novel, The Glorious Ones, was adapted into a musical.

In 2002, Prose published The Lives of the Muses, an intriguing hybrid of biography, philosophy, and gender studies that examines nine women who inspired famous artists and thinkers—from John Lennon's wife Yoko Ono to Alice Liddell, the child who enchanted Lewis Carroll.

Read More Show Less
    1. Hometown:
      New York, New York
    1. Date of Birth:
      April 1, 1947
    2. Place of Birth:
      Brooklyn, New York
    1. Education:
      B.A., Radcliffe College, 1968

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 18 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(9)

4 Star

(4)

3 Star

(4)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(1)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines
Add Recommendations
Your Name: Create a Pen Name or

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

  • - HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
  • - Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
  • - Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
  • - Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
  • - Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
  • - Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
  • - Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

  • - By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
  • - Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
  • - See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.
Search for Products You'd Like to Recommend

Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!

Create a Pen Name

Your Pen Name is your unique identity on BN.com. It will appear on the reviews you write and other website activities. Your Pen Name cannot be edited, changed or deleted once submitted.

 
Your Pen Name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters (plus - and _), and must be at least two characters long.

Continue Anonymously
Sort by: Showing 1 – 19 of 18 Customer Reviews

  • Posted May 14, 2010

    A complete exploration of the history Anne Frank's diary

    This is a complete exploration of Anne Frank's diary. It includes about 60 pages of her life story. Then it examines and critiques the book as literature. It also explains the process by which Anne wrote the diary, including revisions and editing that she undertook after hearing on the radio that the Dutch government in exile was asking people to save and submit to an official repository their writings about the war period. The description of the controversy around the adaptation of the diary into a play was detailed. This was totally unknown to me before reading this book. There is a complete comparison of the merits of the play and the subsequent film version to the diary, in which both the adaptations come up lacking. There are also brief descriptions of the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam, the holocaust deniers focus on the diary as a hoax, and the use of the diary in the public schools.
    I enjoyed reading the book and would recommend it. I've never read the book, although I picked up a used copy several years ago and will probably now read it soon. I generally find holocaust literature to be interesting and I would put the diary and this book in that category.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted November 21, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    Anne Frank: Her Story Lives On

    Since i first read her Diary when i was a teen, i was compelled to learn all i could about Anne Frank. Now i'm a Grandmother, and her story still resonates. This book is a detailed examination of how Anne's Diary became the world renouned best seller and its continued impact on new generations. If you want to delve deep into the history of the Diary, this is the book for you. No illustrations and a bit dry and scholarly, it's for select readers more than for the general population who simply want to read about Anne during her years in hiding from the Nazi's.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted January 1, 2012

    The story we must never forget

    As other reviewers mentioned, I thought I knew all there is to know about Anne Frank since I read her diary as a teen, saw the play and the movie and even visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. But in this book I learned much more. I then read the "Definitive edition" of the diary and was again overwhelmed by the story presented by this brilliant young writer. I now plan to tell all the serious readers I know to re-visit "The Secret Annex" through this book.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted December 12, 2009

    stunning, well written, well researched

    I thought I knew a great deal about this topic, but I thought wrong. Vivid new details emerge about what happened before the diary began, during the time Anne kept her diary, and what happened, from a legal, moral, theatrical and cinematic point of view after Anne died and her diary became an international sensation. Insightful, informative, provocative and touching.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted February 19, 2013

    Nk n kbm

    I think her sister margot kept a diary maybe itss stilo in the frank house or it could have beeen burned when they birned doownn the camp i sure hope its still in the frank house because it would be cool to read about her. I havent read this yet but i cant wait to

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 1, 2012

    A stranger but a friend

    Anne frank is a stranger but shes also like my best friend

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 10, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted April 20, 2013

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 22, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted January 8, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted July 1, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 11, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted September 13, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 13, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 9, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 19, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted February 5, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 19, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted January 22, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

Sort by: Showing 1 – 19 of 18 Customer Reviews
If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble
Why is this product inappropriate?
Comments (optional)