Series

The Color Purple Collection series in reading order

The The Color Purple Collection series has 3 books.

Published between 1975 and 1989. The publication order differs from the reading order — both are below.

Walker's Pulitzer-winning epistolary novel chronicles Celie, a Black woman in the Jim Crow South, who finds her voice through love, trauma, and resilience. Intimate, unflinching, and radiant with hope, it explores sisterhood, sexuality, and survival against brutal oppression.

All 3 books, in reading order

• 1. The Color Purple (1976) — Alice Walker · 288 pages
• 2. The Temple of My Familiar (1989) — Alice Walker · 419 pages
• 3. Possessing the Secret of Joy (1975) — Alice Walker · 308 pages

The Color Purple Collection in publication order

1. Possessing the Secret of Joy (1975) — Alice Walker
2. The Color Purple (1976) — Alice Walker
3. The Temple of My Familiar (1989) — Alice Walker

All 3 books total 1,015 pages.

The Books Oracle — track the series you are partway through, and see what to read next.