The Stone Angel, first published in 1964 by McClelland and Stewart, is perhaps the best-known of Margaret Laurence's series of novels set in the fictitious town of Manawaka, Manitoba. In parallel narratives set in the past and the present-day (early 1960s), The Stone Angel tells the story of Hagar Currie Shipley. In the present-day narrative, 94-year-old Hagar is struggling against being put in a nursing home, which she sees as a symbol of death. The present-day narrative alternates with Hagar's looking back at her life.
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In a series of vignettes, The Stone Angel tells the story of Hagar Shipley, a 90-year old woman struggling to come to grips with a life of intransigence and loss. "Pride was my wilderness, the demon that led me there was fear."
Amongst other titles by Laurence, The Stone Angel is consistently listed as one of the greatest Canadian novels ever written.[1] It has also been banned by some school boards and high schools, usually following complaints from fundamentalist Christian groups labeling the book blasphemous and obscene.[2] Although The Stone Angel has been banned from some schools and public libraries; it is studied at the grade 12 university level in other schools.