"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
As the book gets started, the narrator is expelled from his Southern Negro college for inadvertently showing a white trustee the reality of black life in the south, including an incestuous farmer and a rural whorehouse. The college director chastises him: "Why, the dumbest black bastard in the cotton patch knows that the only way to please a white man is to tell him a lie! What kind of an education are you getting around here?" Mystified, the narrator moves north to New York City, where the truth, at least as he perceives it, is dealt another blow when he learns that his former headmaster's recommendation letters are, in fact, letters of condemnation.
What ensues is a search for what truth actually is, which proves to be supremely elusive. The narrator becomes a spokesman for a mixed-race band of social activists called "The Brotherhood" and believes he is fighting for equality. Once again, he realizes he's been duped into believing what he thought was the truth, when in fact it is only another variation. Of the Brothers, he eventually discerns: "They were blind, bat blind, moving only by the echoed sounds of their voices. And because they were blind they would destroy themselves.... Here I thought they accepted me because they felt that color made no difference, when in reality it made no difference because they didn't see either color or men."
Invisible Man is certainly a book about race in America, and sadly enough, few of the problems it chronicles have disappeared even now. But Ellison's first novel transcends such a narrow definition. It's also a book about the human race stumbling down the path to identity, challenged and successful to varying degrees. None of us can ever be sure of the truth beyond ourselves, and possibly not even there. The world is a tricky place, and no one knows this better than the invisible man, who leaves us with these chilling, provocative words: "And it is this which frightens me: Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?" --Melanie Rehak
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. A superb portrait of a generation of black Americans, this novel established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the twentieth centuryRalph Ellison's blistering and impassioned first novel tells the extraordinary story of a man invisible 'simply because people refuse to see me'. Published in 1952 when American society was in the cusp of immense change, the powerfully depicted adventures of Ellison's invisible man - from his expulsion from a Southern college to a terrifying Harlem race riot - go far beyond the story of one individual. As John Callahan says, 'In an extraordinary imaginative leap, he hit upon a single word for the different yet shared condition of African Americans, Americans, and, for that matter, the human individual in the twentieth century and beyond.'This edition includes Ralph Ellison's introduction to the thirtieth anniversary edition of Invisible Man, a fascinating account of the novel's seven-year gestation. Tells the story of a man invisible 'simply because people refuse to see me'. In this book, the author from his expulsion from a Southern college to a terrifying Harlem race riot - go far beyond the story of one individual. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780141184425
Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9780141184425
Book Description Condition: New. pp. xli + 582. Seller Inventory # 7114834
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0141184426
Book Description Condition: New. Tells the story of a man invisible 'simply because people refuse to see me'. In this book, the author from his expulsion from a Southern college to a terrifying Harlem race riot - go far beyond the story of one individual. Series: Penguin Modern Classics. Num Pages: 608 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 196 x 129 x 28. Weight in Grams: 422. 2001. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # 9780141184425
Book Description Rústica. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: Nuevo. 01. The lives of countless millions are evoked in Ralph Ellisons superb portrait of a generation of black Americans, Invisible Man. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by John F. Callahan, as well as an introduction by the author. . Ralph Ellisons blistering and impassioned first novel tells the extraordinary story of a man invisible simply because people refuse to see me. Published in 1952 when American society was in the cusp of immense change, the powerfully depicted adventures of Ellisons invisible man - from his expulsion from a Southern college to a terrifying Harlem race riot - go far beyond the story of one individual. As John Callahan says, In an extraordinary imaginative leap, he hit upon a single word for the different yet shared condition of African Americans, Americans, and, for that matter, the human individual in the twentieth century and beyond. . This edition includes Ralph Ellisons introduction to the thirtieth anniversary edition of Invisible Man, a fascinating account of the novels seven-year gestation. LIBRO. Seller Inventory # 93439
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # 9780141184425-GDR
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 624 pages. 7.76x5.08x1.46 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __0141184426
Book Description Condition: New. Tells the story of a man invisible 'simply because people refuse to see me'. In this book, the author from his expulsion from a Southern college to a terrifying Harlem race riot - go far beyond the story of one individual. Series: Penguin Modern Classics. Num Pages: 608 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 196 x 129 x 28. Weight in Grams: 422. 2001. Paperback. . . . . Seller Inventory # 9780141184425