Donna Tartt, The Little Friend

Lindsay Sullivan (Cardiff University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 2002

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Donna Tartt, in an essay entitled “The spirit and writing in a secular world”, says that the novel “addresses many of the same mysteries as does theology – questions of sin, suffering, mortality, fate”. This description is pertinent to Tartt’s

The Little Friend

, a novel that explores the interconnections of innocence and guilt. Tartt goes on to say: “At its best, the novel is a means to examine moral dilemmas without benefit of heaven or God”. The moral dilemmas of

The Little Friend

are complex and searching: the events of the novel focus around the attempts of the twelve and a half year-old Harriet Cleve Dufresnes to find out who killed her brother Robin. Harriet is a child playing in a grown-up world, and her behaviour seriously affects those with whom she comes into…

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2427 words

Citation: Sullivan, Lindsay. "The Little Friend". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 April 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16761, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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