''The Woman of Andros'' is a 1930 novel by

Thornton Wilder Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes — for the novel '' The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' and for the plays ''Our Town'' and '' The Skin of Our Teeth'' — ...

. Inspired by '' Andria'', a comedy by

Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 166–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought ...

, it was the third-best selling book in the United States in 1930. The novel is set on the fictional Greek island of Brynos in the pre-Christian era, probably around 200 B.C. (''i.e.'', in the decline of Greece's golden age though the novel does not give an explicit date) The Cabala and The Woman of Andros - Two Novels
Harper Collins Canada (description for 2006 reissue), Retrieved 26 November 2014(23 February 1930)

''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' The book examines conflicts between Christian and pre-Christian morality. Though some reviews considered the novel a masterpiece, others were more critical.All Movie Guide Biography
via nytimes.com, Retrieved 26 November 2014 This was the first time that Wilder's work received any significant negative critical response.

Mike Gold Michael Gold (April 12, 1894 – May 14, 1967) was the pen-name of Jewish American writer Itzok Isaac Granich. A lifelong communist, Gold was a novelist and literary critic. His semi-autobiographical novel '' Jews Without Money'' (1930) was a bes ...

's review in ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

'' faulted Wilder for not addressing modern social issues.Ho, Melanie
Useful Fiction: Why Universities Need Middlebrow Literature
(2008 UCLA Ph.D. dissertation)Dirda, Michael
The Chameleon: Thornton Wilder's multifaced life and work
'' Harper's Magazine'' (January 2013)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woman of Andros, The 1930 American novels Novels set in ancient Greece Boni & Liveright books