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V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018)

Autor(a) de A House for Mr Biswas

81+ Works 22,874 Membros 350 Críticas 78 Favorited

About the Author

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was born of Indian ancestry in Chaguanas, Trinidad on August 17, 1932. He was educated at University College, Oxford and lived in Great Britain since 1950. From 1954 to 1956, he edited a radio program on literature for the British Broadcasting Corporation's Caribbean mostrar mais Service. His first novel, The Mystic Masseur, was published in 1957. His other novels included A House for Mr. Biswas, A Bend in the River, Guerrillas, and Half a Life. In a Free State won the Booker Prize in 1971. He started writing nonfiction in the 1960s. His first nonfiction book, The Middle Passage, was published in 1962. His other nonfiction works included An Area of Darkness, Among the Believers, Beyond Belief, and A Turn in the South. He was knighted in 1990 and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. He died on August 11, 2018 at the age of 85. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
Image credit: Frederic Reglain

Obras por V. S. Naipaul

A House for Mr Biswas (1961) 3,386 exemplares
A Bend in the River (1979) 3,141 exemplares
Half a Life (2001) 1,478 exemplares
In a Free State (1971) 1,104 exemplares
The Enigma of Arrival (1987) 1,070 exemplares
An Area of Darkness (1964) 837 exemplares
India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990) 805 exemplares
Miguel Street (1959) 749 exemplares
The Mystic Masseur (1957) 692 exemplares
A Way in the World (1994) 657 exemplares
India: A Wounded Civilization (1977) 650 exemplares
The Mimic Men (1967) 643 exemplares
Guerrillas (1975) 636 exemplares
A Turn in the South (1989) 566 exemplares
Magic Seeds (2004) 555 exemplares
The Writer and the World: Essays (2002) 380 exemplares
Literary Occasions: Essays (2003) 276 exemplares
The Return of Eva Peron (1980) 254 exemplares
Finding the Center (1984) 195 exemplares
The Suffrage of Elvira (1958) 185 exemplares
A Flag on the Island (1967) 111 exemplares
Collected Short Fiction (2011) 98 exemplares
The Overcrowded Barracoon (1807) 85 exemplares
Mystic Masseur & Miguel Street (2001) 51 exemplares
Vintage Naipaul (2004) 35 exemplares
Proloog voor een autobiografie (1983) 20 exemplares
The Crocodiles of Yamoussoukro (1984) 17 exemplares
The Indian Trilogy (2016) 10 exemplares
The Suffrage of Elvira (1964) 3 exemplares
Sacrifices (1992) 2 exemplares
Sem título 2 exemplares
B. Wordsworth 1 exemplar
Sem título 1 exemplar
Dolore (2021) 1 exemplar
THE MIMIC MAN 1 exemplar
QYTETI BRI LUMIT 1 exemplar
A Curva do Rio 1 exemplar
Blant de troende 1 exemplar
Bim 1 exemplar
V ohybu řeky 1 exemplar
La fin du roman 1 exemplar
Aastha Ke Paar (2007) 1 exemplar
Half A Life 1 exemplar

Associated Works

Points of View: Revised Edition (1966) — Contribuidor — 404 exemplares
The Best of Modern Humor (1983) — Contribuidor — 287 exemplares
Granta 57: India! The Golden Jubilee (1997) — Contribuidor — 201 exemplares
Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic (1990) — Contribuidor — 152 exemplares
The Norton Book of Personal Essays (1997) — Contribuidor — 142 exemplares
The Norton Book of Travel (1987) — Contribuidor — 109 exemplares
Nobel Lectures: From the Literature Laureates, 1986 to 2006 (2006) — Contribuidor — 72 exemplares
The Picador Book of Journeys (2001) — Contribuidor — 53 exemplares
Trinidad Noir: The Classics (2017) — Contribuidor — 36 exemplares
Antaeus No. 61, Autumn 1988 - Journals, Notebooks & Diaries (1988) — Contribuidor — 33 exemplares
Into the Widening World: International Coming-of-Age Stories (1995) — Contribuidor — 27 exemplares
One World of Literature (1992) — Contribuidor — 22 exemplares
Naar huis (1994) — Contribuidor — 16 exemplares
The Faber Book of Contemporary Caribbean Short Stories (1990) — Contribuidor — 16 exemplares
Bombay: Gateway of India (1994) — Conversation with — 14 exemplares
Enjoying Stories (1987) — Contribuidor — 2 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Membros

Discussions

British Author Challenge May 2021: Na'ima B. Robert & V. S. Naipaul em 75 Books Challenge for 2021 (Dezembro 2021)
May 2014: V. S. Naipaul em Monthly Author Reads (Setembro 2018)
V. S. Naipaul 1932 - 2018 em 1001 Books to read before you die (Agosto 2018)

Críticas

you can't go home again, even if it was just your imagined home.
 
Assinalado
farrhon | 16 outras críticas | Nov 16, 2023 |
I think you can either love or hate this collection of early Naipaul stories. For me - I loved them, although the novella in the second half of the book had me confused at first because there was such a strong change in the narrative thrust compared to in the stories... though this resolved itself after the second part of the story explained who the characters were.

I wish I could write one tenth as well as Naipaul does here... and these are just his early stories. The man's a genius.
½
 
Assinalado
soylentgreen23 | Nov 13, 2023 |
Less than 200 pages but it is very hard to understand. Usually, Naipaul likes to analyse a country by traveling but he was circumscribed on this trip. Hence, much of the analysis was through his reading and interpretation of novels about India, and politicians' actions and words. His point is India's intellectual paucity, a country stagnating in its rituals and caste system. An unpleasant book to read if you are Indian but intriguing for other readers, that is if you are unable to understand it.
 
Assinalado
siok | 7 outras críticas | Nov 9, 2023 |
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-return-of-eva-peron-with-the-killings-in-tri...

It consists of four essays from the Nobel Laureate; it is notable that although the first and the longest of the pieces is about Trinidad, it is Eva Perón who is given top billing in the book’s title and cover. It’s an important book and I will describe each of the four essays briefly.

“Michael X and the Black Power Killings in Trinidad”:

I was not familiar with this grim story: Michael X, a political activist and effectively a cult leader who had ended up back in his native Trinidad after developing his activist career in London, had two of his followers brutally killed in 1971, and was eventually arrested, convicted and executed for the crimes. Naipaul goes into the rhetoric of Michael X’s particular version of Black Power in detail, which helps us understand why his followers (and others including John Lennon) took him so seriously. Naipaul doesn’t make the connection with Charles Manson, but I must say that I also saw similarities with other homicidal cult leaders before and since.

“The Return of Eva Perón”:

This is a lyrical and detailed essay about the extraordinary story of Juan and Eva Perón, and how Argentina (and Uruguay) descended into economic and political hell despite being blessed with natural resources and reasonably skilled populations. From the mid-1970s, when Naipaul was writing, it did all look pretty awful; now things look a bit better, but still fragile. He makes the point that Eva Perón would only have been in her fifties, and presumably still dominating the country’s politics, if she still been alive in 1977. He pulls in fellow writer Jorge Luis Borges for some interesting and disturbing observations.

The last two essays are both about the country then known as Zaire and now as the Democratic Republic of Congo. The first, “A New King for the Congo: Mobutu and the Nihilism of Africa”, is about the Mobutu regime, which had then been in power for over a decade and had another twenty years to go. The Mobutu regime eventually collapsed in a war that drew in all nine of the neighbouring countries at one time or another, and in the meantime other African regimes had followed it down the path of brutality and corruption. Naipaul’s analysis of the weaponisation of the cult of personality and the meagre but sufficient resources of state power is brief and forensic.

The final essay, “Conrad’s Darkness”, looks at Conrad’s work as a whole, but at Heart of Darkness in particular. Naipaul spent a lot more time thinking about Conrad than I have, but comes out in the same place: Heart of Darkness is a masterpiece and the rest of his work is remarkably good.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
nwhyte | 4 outras críticas | Oct 1, 2023 |

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Associated Authors

Simon Vance Narrator
Guido Golüke Translator
Franca Cavagnoli Translator
Elizabeth Hardwick Introduction
Patrick Marnham Introduction
W.A. Dorsman-Vos Translator
Ron Butler Narrator
Geertje Lammers Translator
Harry Pallemans Translator
Tinke Davids Translator

Estatísticas

Obras
81
Also by
18
Membros
22,874
Popularidade
#923
Avaliação
½ 3.6
Críticas
350
ISBN
923
Línguas
27
Marcado como favorito
78
Acerca
3
Pedras de toque
700

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