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India: An Area Of Darkness, A Wounded Civilization & A Million Mutinies Now
Paperback / softback
Main Details
Title |
India: An Area Of Darkness, A Wounded Civilization & A Million Mutinies Now
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Authors and Contributors |
By (author) V. S. Naipaul
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Series | Picador Classic |
Physical Properties |
Format:Paperback / softback | Pages:1104 | Dimensions(mm): Height 196,Width 131 |
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Category/Genre | Memoirs Travel writing |
ISBN/Barcode |
9781529031133
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Classifications | Dewey:915.40453 |
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Audience | |
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Publishing Details |
Publisher |
Pan Macmillan
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Imprint |
Picador
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Publication Date |
9 July 2020 |
Publication Country |
United Kingdom
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Description
With an introduction from Paul Theroux, author of The Great Railway Bazaar. V.S. Naipaul first visited India in 1962 at twenty-nine. He returned in 2015 at eighty-two. The intervening years and visits sparked by an inquisitiveness about a country he had never seen but had been a dream of his since childhood have resulted in three books: India: An Area of Darkness, A Wounded Civilization and A Million Mutinies Now. India is the collection of all three, introduced by fellow traveller and writer Paul Theroux. An Area of Darkness is V. S. Naipaul's semi-autobiographical account - at once painful and hilarious, but always thoughtful and considered - of his first visit to India, the land of his forebears. From the moment of his inauspicious arrival he experienced a cultural estrangement from the subcontinent. India was land of myths, an area of darkness closing up behind him as he travelled. What emerged was a masterful work of literature that provides a revelation both of India and of himself: a displaced person who paradoxically possesses a stronger sense of place than almost anyone. India: A Wounded Civilization casts a more analytical eye than before over Indian attitudes, while recapitulating and further probing the feelings aroused in him by this vast, mysterious, and agonized country. A work of fierce candour and precision, it is also a generous description of one man's complicated relationship with the country of his ancestors. India: A Million Mutinies Now is the fascinating account of Naipaul's return journey to India and offers a kaleidoscopic, layered travelogue, encompassing a wide collage of religions, castes, and classes at a time when the percolating ideas of freedom threatened to shake loose the old ways. The brilliance of the book lies in Naipaul's approach to a shifting, changing land from a variety of perspectives. India: A Million Mutinies Now is a truly perceptive work whose insights continue to inform travellers of all generations to India.
Author Biography
V.S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932. He went to England on a scholarship in 1950. He spent four years at University College, Oxford, and began to write, in London, in 1954. His novels include A House for Mr Biswas, The Mimic Men, Guerrillas, A Bend in the River, and The Enigma of Arrival. In 1971 he was awarded the Booker Prize for In a Free State. His works of nonfiction, equally acclaimed, include Among the Believers, Beyond Belief, The Masque of Africa, and a trio of books about India. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. He died in 2018.
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