Ralph Ellison Invisible Man ISBN 13: 9780679732761

Invisible Man - Softcover

9780679732761: Invisible Man
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
A milestone in American literature--a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952.

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read
A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.

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

Review:
We rely, in this world, on the visual aspects of humanity as a means of learning who we are. This, Ralph Ellison argues convincingly, is a dangerous habit. A classic from the moment it first appeared in 1952, Invisible Man chronicles the travels of its narrator, a young, nameless black man, as he moves through the hellish levels of American intolerance and cultural blindness. Searching for a context in which to know himself, he exists in a very peculiar state. "I am an invisible man," he says in his prologue. "When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except me." But this is hard-won self-knowledge, earned over the course of many years.

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

From the Inside Flap:
Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood," and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.

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

  • PublisherVintage Books
  • Publication date1995
  • ISBN 10 0679732764
  • ISBN 13 9780679732761
  • BindingPaperback
  • Edition number2
  • Number of pages581
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780141184425: Invisible Man

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780141184425
Publisher: Penguin Books, Limited (UK), 2007
Softcover

  • 9780679601395: Invisible Man (Modern Library 100 Best Novels)

    Modern..., 1994
    Hardcover

  • 9780241970560: Invisible Man

    Pengui..., 1748
    Softcover

  • 9780451038142: Invisible Man

    Signet, 1968
    Softcover

  • 9780385365987: The Invisible Man/Juneteenth (Collectible Editions)

    Pengui..., 2018
    Hardcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Seller Image

Ralph Ellison
Published by Vintage Books (1995)
ISBN 10: 0679732764 ISBN 13: 9780679732761
New Soft Cover Quantity: 1
Seller:
booksXpress
(Bayonne, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780679732761

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.08
Convert currency

Add to Basket

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

Ralph Ellison
Published by Vintage Books (1995)
ISBN 10: 0679732764 ISBN 13: 9780679732761
New paperback Quantity: 2
Seller:
Gulf Coast Books
(Memphis, TN, U.S.A.)

Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 0679732764-11-30528456

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.36
Convert currency

Add to Basket

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

Ralph Ellison
Published by Vintage Books (1995)
ISBN 10: 0679732764 ISBN 13: 9780679732761
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Lakeside Books
(Benton Harbor, MI, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Brand New! Not Overstocks or Low Quality Book Club Editions! Direct From the Publisher! We're not a giant, faceless warehouse organization! We're a small town bookstore that loves books and loves it's customers! Buy from Lakeside Books!. Seller Inventory # OTF-S-9780679732761

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 10.38
Convert currency

Add to Basket

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

Ellison, Ralph
Published by Vintage Books (1995)
ISBN 10: 0679732764 ISBN 13: 9780679732761
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Roundabout Books
(Greenfield, MA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New from the publisher. Seller Inventory # 1434059

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.61
Convert currency

Add to Basket

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

Ellison, Ralph
Published by Vintage Books USA 3/14/1995 (1995)
ISBN 10: 0679732764 ISBN 13: 9780679732761
New Paperback or Softback Quantity: 5
Seller:
BargainBookStores
(Grand Rapids, MI, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. Invisible Man 1. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780679732761

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.02
Convert currency

Add to Basket

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

ELLISON, RALPH
Published by Penguin Random House (1995)
ISBN 10: 0679732764 ISBN 13: 9780679732761
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
INDOO
(Avenel, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 0679732764

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 11.35
Convert currency

Add to Basket

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

Ellison, Ralph
Published by Vintage Books (1995)
ISBN 10: 0679732764 ISBN 13: 9780679732761
New Softcover Quantity: 5
Seller:
GreatBookPrices
(Columbia, MD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 413048-n

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 12.89
Convert currency

Add to Basket

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

Ralph Ellison
Published by Vintage Books (1995)
ISBN 10: 0679732764 ISBN 13: 9780679732761
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Shakespeare Book House
(Rockford, IL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. The item is Brand New!. Seller Inventory # 570TQW0019VL_ns

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 11.99
Convert currency

Add to Basket

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

Ralph Ellison
Published by Vintage Books (1995)
ISBN 10: 0679732764 ISBN 13: 9780679732761
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 # bk0679732764xvz189zvxnew

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 17.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

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

Ralph Ellison
Published by Vintage Books (1995)
ISBN 10: 0679732764 ISBN 13: 9780679732761
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 # 353-0679732764-new

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 17.00
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