Bibliographic Details
Title: Invisible Man (Modern Library 100 Best ...
Publisher: Modern Library June 1994
Publication Date: 1994
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Used - Very Good
About 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
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Store Description
tems can be returned within 30 days of the estimated delivery date. All returns must be approved before an item is shipped back. Domestic returns generally take two weeks and International returns can take up to six weeks to be received and processed by our return center. In the event that an item is being returned due to an error on our part, a prepaid return label will be supplied via email upon request. If a return is not approved, there may be a delay with processing a refund. Tax ID: 20-874...
More InformationOrders usually ship within 2 business days [M-F]. We provide tracking numbers for all our shipments. If you havde a speacial request, give us a call.
Items shipped via USPS Standard Mail should arrive within 4-14 business days [M-F]. Please note, as per USPS, depending on service location and/or high peak periods within the post office, deliveries can take up to 21 business days [M-F] to arrive.
Should your order not arrive within 21 business days [M-F], please contact us promptly for resolution.
Payment Methods
accepted by seller