Invisible Man - Softcover

Ellison, Ralph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451010302 ISBN 13: 9780451010308

Publisher: Signet, 1968

Synopsis

Ralph Elllison's Invisible Man is a monumental novel, one that can well be called an epic of modern American Negro life. It is a strange story, in which many extraordinary things happen, some of them shocking and brutal, some of them pitiful and touching--yet always with elements of comedy and irony and burlesque that appear in unexpected places. It is a book that has a great deal to say and which is destined to have a great deal said about it.After a brief prologue, the story begins with a terrifying experience of the hero's high school days, moves quickly to the campus of a Southern Negro college and then to New York's Harlem, where most of the action takes place. The many people that the hero meets in the course of his wanderings are remarkably various, complex and significant. With them he becomes involved in an amazing series of adventures, in which he is sometimes befriended but more often deceived and betrayed--as much by himself and his own illusions as by the duplicity of the blindness of others.Invisible Man is not only a great triumph of storytelling and characterization; it is a profound and uncompromising interpretation of the Negro's anomalous position in American society.From the Hardcover edition.

About this title

From the Publisher

This work is part of "The Annotated H.G. Wells" series from McFarland.

From the Inside Flap

A gripping and entertaining tale of terror and suspense as well as a potent Faustian allegory of hubris and science run amok, "The Invisible Man endures as one of the signature stories in the literature of science fiction. A brilliant scientist uncovers the secret to invisibility, but his grandiose dreams and the power he unleashes cause him to spiral into intrigue, madness, and murder. The inspiration for countless imitations and film adaptations, "The Invisible Man is as remarkable and relevant today as it was a hundred years ago. As Arthur C. Clarke points out in his Introduction, "The interest of the story . . . lies not in its scientific concepts, but in the brilliantly worked out development of the theme of invisibility. If one could be invisible, then what?"

Edition details

• Publisher: Signet
• Publication date: 1968
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0451010302
• ISBN 13: 9780451010308
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 166