Achebe, Chinua Things Fall Apart ISBN 13: 9780385474542

Things Fall Apart - Softcover

9780385474542: Things Fall Apart
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 

“A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world.”  Barack Obama 

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read


Things Fall Apart
is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe's critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order.

With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
One of Chinua Achebe's many achievements in his acclaimed first novel, Things Fall Apart, is his relentlessly unsentimental rendering of Nigerian tribal life before and after the coming of colonialism. First published in 1958, just two years before Nigeria declared independence from Great Britain, the book eschews the obvious temptation of depicting pre-colonial life as a kind of Eden. Instead, Achebe sketches a world in which violence, war, and suffering exist, but are balanced by a strong sense of tradition, ritual, and social coherence. His Ibo protagonist, Okonkwo, is a self-made man. The son of a charming ne'er-do-well, he has worked all his life to overcome his father's weakness and has arrived, finally, at great prosperity and even greater reputation among his fellows in the village of Umuofia. Okonkwo is a champion wrestler, a prosperous farmer, husband to three wives and father to several children. He is also a man who exhibits flaws well-known in Greek tragedy:
Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children. Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo's fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.
And yet Achebe manages to make this cruel man deeply sympathetic. He is fond of his eldest daughter, and also of Ikemefuna, a young boy sent from another village as compensation for the wrongful death of a young woman from Umuofia. He even begins to feel pride in his eldest son, in whom he has too often seen his own father. Unfortunately, a series of tragic events tests the mettle of this strong man, and it is his fear of weakness that ultimately undoes him.

Achebe does not introduce the theme of colonialism until the last 50 pages or so. By then, Okonkwo has lost everything and been driven into exile. And yet, within the traditions of his culture, he still has hope of redemption. The arrival of missionaries in Umuofia, however, followed by representatives of the colonial government, completely disrupts Ibo culture, and in the chasm between old ways and new, Okonkwo is lost forever. Deceptively simple in its prose, Things Fall Apart packs a powerful punch as Achebe holds up the ruin of one proud man to stand for the destruction of an entire culture. --Alix Wilber

From the Publisher:
This is Chinua Achebe's classic novel, with more than two million copies sold since its first U.S. publication in 1969. Combining a richly African story with the author's keen awareness of the qualities common to all humanity, Achebe here shows that he is "gloriously gifted, with the magic of an ebullient, generous, great talent." -- Nadine Gordimer

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherPenguin Books
  • Publication date1994
  • ISBN 10 0385474547
  • ISBN 13 9780385474542
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages209
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780141023380: Things Fall Apart (Penguin Red Classics)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780141023380
Publisher: Penguin Books, 2007
Softcover

9780679446231: Things Fall Apart (Everyman's Library)

Everym..., 1995
Hardcover

9780141186887: Things Fall Apart (Penguin Modern Classics)

PENGUIN, 2001
Softcover

9781475033199: Things Fall Apart

Create..., 2012
Softcover

9780435121624: Things Fall Apart

Heinem..., 1971
Hardcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Achebe, Chinua
Published by Penguin Books (1994)
ISBN 10: 0385474547 ISBN 13: 9780385474542
New Softcover Quantity: 2
Seller:
Shakespeare Book House
(Rockford, IL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. The item is Brand New!. Seller Inventory # 570SDV000QJN_ns

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 5.33
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Achebe, Chinua
Published by Penguin Books (1994)
ISBN 10: 0385474547 ISBN 13: 9780385474542
New Soft Cover Quantity: 10
Seller:
booksXpress
(Bayonne, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780385474542

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 12.42
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Achebe, Chinua
Published by Penguin Books (1994)
ISBN 10: 0385474547 ISBN 13: 9780385474542
New Softcover Quantity: 5
Seller:
GreatBookPrices
(Columbia, MD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 462944-n

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 10.84
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 2.64
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Achebe, Chinua
Published by Anchor Books 9/1/1994 (1994)
ISBN 10: 0385474547 ISBN 13: 9780385474542
New Paperback or Softback Quantity: 5
Seller:
BargainBookStores
(Grand Rapids, MI, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. Things Fall Apart 0.45. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780385474542

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 13.51
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

ACHEBE, CHINUA
Published by Penguin Random House (1994)
ISBN 10: 0385474547 ISBN 13: 9780385474542
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
INDOO
(Avenel, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 0385474547

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 10.17
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Achebe, Chinua
Published by Penguin Publishing Group (1994)
ISBN 10: 0385474547 ISBN 13: 9780385474542
New Paperback Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Save With Sam
(North Miami, FL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Brand New!. Seller Inventory # 0385474547

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.48
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Achebe, Chinua
Published by Penguin Books (1994)
ISBN 10: 0385474547 ISBN 13: 9780385474542
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Books Unplugged
(Amherst, NY, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Buy with confidence! Book is in new, never-used condition. Seller Inventory # bk0385474547xvz189zvxnew

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Achebe, Chinua
Published by Penguin Books (1994)
ISBN 10: 0385474547 ISBN 13: 9780385474542
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Book Deals
(Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-0385474547-new

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Achebe, Chinua
ISBN 10: 0385474547 ISBN 13: 9780385474542
New Trade Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Thomas F. Pesce'
(Anaheim, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Trade Paperback. Condition: New. This is a new book, direct from the publisher. Inspect this title in person by exercising your personal walking apparatus. Pages are clean, tight and bright. Bookstore's stamped address appears on the inside of the rear cover. Seller Inventory # CL140

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 10.75
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.97
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Chinua Achebe
ISBN 10: 0385474547 ISBN 13: 9780385474542
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Grand Eagle Retail
(Wilmington, DE, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world. Barack Obama African literature is incomplete and unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe. Toni MorrisonNominated as one of Americas best-loved novels by PBSs The Great American ReadThings Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe's critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order. With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities. Achebe's first novel portrays the collision of African and European cultures in people's lives. Okonkwo, a great man in Igbo traditional society, cannot adapt to the profound changes brought about by British colonial rule. Yet, as in classic tragedy, Okonkwo's downfall results from his own character as well as from external forces. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780385474542

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.82
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book