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Invisible man

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When Invisible Man first appeared in 1952, it remained on best-seller lists for 16 weeks, won the National Book Award, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the pillars of 20th-century American literature. Expelled from a southern black college for introducing a white trustee to some local color,...

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Main Author: Ellison, Ralph (Author)
Other Authors: James, Peter Francis (Narrator)
Format: Audiobooks eAudiobook Downloads eAudiobook
Language:English
Published: Prince Frederick : Recorded Books Inc., 2014.
Edition:Unabridged.
Subjects:
African Americans > Social conditions > To 1964 > Fiction.
Downloadable audio books.
Online Access:Go to Downloadable Audiobook Here.
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Summary:When Invisible Man first appeared in 1952, it remained on best-seller lists for 16 weeks, won the National Book Award, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the pillars of 20th-century American literature. Expelled from a southern black college for introducing a white trustee to some local color, a nameless young man moves to Harlem. There he embarks on what will become a life-long search for truth and a better life. Learning that his former headmaster's letters of recommendation are derogatory only adds to his growing sense of disillusionment. In his search for some degree of social visibility, he becomes a spokesman for a group of activists known as "the Brotherhood." Unfortunately, their agenda proves more important to them than racial equality. Although this book chronicles a young black man's search for identity through a maze of American intolerance, it is much more than a story of racial prejudice. It speaks of each individual's search for justice and truth in an increasingly devious and complex world. Peter Francis James' expert narration gives powerful voice to an important message.
Item Description:Unabridged.
Physical Description:1 online resource (20 audio files) : digital
Playing Time:21:08:31
Format:Requires OverDrive Listen (file size: N/A KB) or OverDrive app (file size: 594686 KB).
Audience:Text Difficulty 4 - Text Difficulty 5
870
ISBN:9781490611501
Author Notes:Ralph Ellison (March 1, 1914 - April 16, 1994) has the distinction of being one of the few writers who has established a firm literary reputation on the strength of a single work of long fiction. Writer and teacher, Ralph Ellison was born in Oklahoma City, studied at Tuskegee Institute, and has lectured at New York, Columbia, and Fisk universities and at Bard College. He received the Prix de Rome from the Academy of Arts and Letters in 1955, and in 1964 he was elected a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He has contributed short stories and essays to various publications.

Invisible Man (1952), his first novel, won the National Book Award for 1953 and is considered an impressive work. It is a vision of the underground man who is also the invisible African American, and its possessor has employed this subterranean view and viewer to so extraordinary an advantage that the impression of the novel is that of a pioneer work. A book of essays, Shadow and Act, which discusses the African American in America and Ellison's Oklahoma boyhood, among other topics, appeared in 1964.

Ralph Ellison died on April 16, 1994 of pancreatic cancer and was interred in a crypt at Trinity Church Cemetery in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan.

(Bowker Author Biography)

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