Items related to The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (English and Polish...
Synopsis
Examines the reign and recent fall of Ethiopia's Haile Selassie through eyewitness accounts of former members of the Emperor's circle
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Review
Haile Selassie, His Most Puissant Majesty and Distinguished Highness the Emperor of Ethiopia, enjoyed a 44-year reign until his own army gave him the boot in 1974. In the days following the coup, the Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski traveled to Ethiopia and sought out members of the imperial court for interviews.
His composite portrait of Selassie's crumbling imperium is an astonishing, wildly funny creation, beginning with the very first interview. "It was a small dog," recalls an anonymous functionary, "a Japanese breed. His name was Lulu. He was allowed to sleep in the Emperor's great bed. During various ceremonies, he would run away from the Emperor's lap and pee on dignitaries' shoes. The august gentlemen were not allowed to flinch or make the slightest gesture when they felt their feet getting wet. I had to walk among the dignitaries and wipe the urine from their shoes with a satin cloth. This was my job for ten years." (Well, it's a living.)
Elsewhere, the interviewees venture into tragic or grotesque or downright unbelievable terrain. Kapuscinski has shaped their testimonies into an eloquent whole, and while he never alludes to the totalitarian regime that ruled his native Poland during the same period, the analogy is impossible to ignore.
From the Publisher
"[The Emperor] transcends reportage, becoming a nightmare of power... An unforgettable, fiercely comic, and finally compassionate book."--Salman Rushdie
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The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (English and Polish Edition)
Published by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983
ISBN 10: 0151287716
ISBN 13: 9780151287710
Used
Hardcover
Seller: World of Books (was SecondSale), Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Acceptable. Item in acceptable condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00103437343
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The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (English and Polish Edition)
Published by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983
ISBN 10: 0151287716
ISBN 13: 9780151287710
Used
Hardcover
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0151287716I5N00
Stock Image
The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (English and Polish Edition)
Published by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983
ISBN 10: 0151287716
ISBN 13: 9780151287710
Used
Hardcover
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0151287716I3N00
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The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (English and Polish Edition)
Published by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983
ISBN 10: 0151287716
ISBN 13: 9780151287710
Used
Hardcover
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Former library book; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0151287716I3N10
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The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (English and Polish Edition)
Published by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983
ISBN 10: 0151287716
ISBN 13: 9780151287710
Used
Hardcover
Seller: BookResQ., West Valley City, UT, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
hardcover. Condition: Good. Name inside. Dust jacket has wear around the edges with small tears. Mark on top edge. Priority Mail is available on this item. No international shipping. -2a-. Seller Inventory # E500424ksmug170331
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The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat
Published by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983
ISBN 10: 0151287716
ISBN 13: 9780151287710
Used
Hardcover
Seller: Tiber Books, Cockeysville, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Good. . . . . 8vo, hardcover. Good condition in good dj. Previous owner's name on front endpaper, and 6 pages of light notation in the text. Otherwise, clean and unworn. Binding square and tight. 164 pp. African, Ethiopia, History, 0151287716. Seller Inventory # 1210224.13
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The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (English and Polish Edition)
Published by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York., 1983
ISBN 10: 0151287716
ISBN 13: 9780151287710
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Doss-Haus Books, Redondo Beach, CA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. Hardcover, 1983, 1st edition. Dust jacket and boards in fine condition. Binding firm. Slight foxing to top edge. Pages unmarked and clean. (164 pages). Seller Inventory # 023907
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The Emperor: Downfall of An Autocrat
Published by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983
ISBN 10: 0151287716
ISBN 13: 9780151287710
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: zenosbooks, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
hardcover. Condition: Very Good in Dustjacket. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. San Diego. 1983. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 0151287716. Translated from the Polish by William R. Brand & Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand. 180 pages. hardcover. Jacket photo: United Press International. Jacket design by Bob Silverman. keywords: Africa Ethiopia History Biography. DESCRIPTION - 'The Emperor is the nightmare that men of power dream when they are most alone. It is a bone-chilling, brilliant tale, as precise in its cut-glass literary style as in its political insights. Taut, yet brimming with aphorism, it is the ultimate re-creation of power in decay.' - Alvin Toffler. After Haile Selassie was deposed in 1974, Ryszard Kapuscinski - Poland's top foreign correspondent - went to Ethiopia to piece together a firsthand account of how the Emperor governed his country and why he fell from power. At great risk to himself, Kapuscinski interviewed members of the imperial circle who had gone into hiding. The result is this remarkable book, an extraordinary study of power anywhere. Humorous and grotesque, acute and moving, the stories of the Emperor's servants and associates portray a man utterly determined to preserve autocratic rule. They tell how he established a network of informants, pitted potential rivals against one another, cultivated his image as sole benefactor. The eyewitnesses describe autocracy's strengths and autocracy's flaws, the people around the Emperor who were 'on their knees - but with knives.' When The Emperor was published in Poland in 1978, it was widely viewed as an allegory of dictatorship in general. Critics saw its publication as a key event in shaping the consensus for reform in Poland, and the book spawned a score of stage adaptations in 1981 alone. Whether read as historical documentary or political allegory, The Emperor is a dazzling literary performance. inventory #4944. Seller Inventory # z4944
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THE EMPEROR: DOWNFALL OF AN AUTOCRAT - Rare Fine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing
Published by
New York City, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978, 1983
ISBN 10: 0151287716
ISBN 13: 9780151287710
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: ModernRare, CHICAGO, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. 1st Printing. 164 pages. Published in 1978. The author's first book to be translated into English. One of the greatest books of the 20th century. The first appearance of the title in English and in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. Presents Ryszard Kapuscinski's "The Emperor" in a felicitous English translation. The Fall of an absolute monarch. As The Last Emperor of the Solomonic Dynasty whose lineage goes all the way back to Biblical times, Emperor Haile Selassi remains, even after the humiliation of being arrested, tortured, and eventually killed, a divine figure to this day, worshipped as God Incarnate ("The Messiah") by the Jamaican/Rastafarian faith. The latter's most famous disciple, Bob Marley, was incidentally himself the greatest Jamaican figure of the 20th century, autocratic in his own way. "Transcends reportage, becoming a nightmare of power" (Salman Rushdie). Kapuscinski is not a journalist in the Anglo-American sense. He writes what his admirers worldwide have described as literary journalism, which is not to be confused with the American New Journalism (of writers like Tom Wolfe) because his methods, subject, and tragic worldview are the exact opposite. He deploys his literary mastery to document the rise, decline, and collapse of authoritarian regimes around the world - only to be replaced, in the case of Ethiopia, ironically and tragically, by an even more ruthless, totalitarian dictatorship: Among other crimes, the diabolical Marxist regime of Mengistu Mariam committed genocide against his own people. Prompting comparison with Kafka, Kapuscinski's literary journalism is unique in that none of his accounts has an ending in the conventional sense: His narratives simply end, inconclusively and abruptly, on an unresolved, often jarring note. Which is something that writers of TIME Magazine or The New York Times would never do, neatly wrapping things up instead for the sake of an artificially satisfying story. An absolute "must-have" title for Ryszard Kapuscinski collectors. This title is a great book. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (American) still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws or are in multiple subsequent printings. HBJ identified true firsts at the time with the statement ("First Edition") followed by a letter line that begins with the letter B. A rare copy thus. One of the greatest journalist-writers of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI TITLES IN OUR CATALOG) ISBN 0151287716. no. Seller Inventory # 23536
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The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat
Published by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983
ISBN 10: 0151287716
ISBN 13: 9780151287710
Used
Hardcover
Seller: Glands of Destiny First Edition Books, Sedro Woolley, WA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
hardcover. Condition: Like New. Dust Jacket Condition: Like New. First American Edition. Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1983. FINE- hardcover book in FINE- mylar-protected, slightly shelf-rubbed dust-jacket. Remainder marked, otherwise as new. Text in English. First US Edition, First Printing. Seller Inventory # 2301280003