James Applewhite on the New Harper Lee Novel

Gregory Peck and James Anderson in To Kill a Mockingbird. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” will publish a second novel this summer, her first since the literary classic appeared in 1960. The new book, “Go Set a Watchman,” was actually written earlier than “To Kill A Mockingbird.” It takes place when Scout Finch has grown up and features many of the same characters.

James Applewhite, a professor emeritus of English who has written many critical essays about Southern literature, is intrigued to find out what the new publication may reveal about these storied characters.

“The new novel represents a fascinating possibility for revisiting one of the classics of Southern literature,” Applewhite said. “One wonders if Scout, as an adult, will see the actions that take place in any way differently.”

In "To Kill A Mockingbird," lawyer Atticus Finch tries, and ultimately fails, to defend Tom Robinson, an innocent African-American man charged with rape.

“The novel participates in a tragic view of the past that pervaded Southern culture for a long time,” Applewhite said. “It represents a state of mind that the South had embedded in its cultural DNA for a long time following the Civil War, a state of mind that involves inability to escape the past.”

“That obsession with replaying the past tended to prevent an imagination of a positive future. It locked people of the deep South in a battle against accepting the outcome of the Civil War and against accepting the humanity of African-Americans.”

The new book is slated to appear in July.