Things Fall Apart

Mass Market Paperback, 192 pages

English language

Published Dec. 12, 1988 by Fawcett Crest.

ISBN:: 978-0-449-20810-6
OCLC Number:: 22060817

First published in England in 1958, THINGS FALL APART is Chinua Achebe's first and most famous novel, a classic of modern African writing. It is the story of a "strong' mand whose life is dominated by fear and anger, a powerful and moving narrative that critics have compared with classic Greek tragedy. Written with remarkable economy and subtle irony, it is uniquely and richly African and at the same time reveals Achebe's keen awareness of the human qualities common to men of all times and places.

THINGS FALL APART is no less successful as a social document, dramatizing traditional Ibo life in its first encounter with colonialism and Christianity at the turn of this century. Set in an Ibo village in Nigeria, the novel vividly recreates pre-Christian tribal life and shows how the coming of the white man led to the breaking up of the old ways.

(back …

First published in England in 1958, THINGS FALL APART is Chinua Achebe's first and most famous novel, a classic of modern African writing. It is the story of a "strong' mand whose life is dominated by fear and anger, a powerful and moving narrative that critics have compared with classic Greek tragedy. Written with remarkable economy and subtle irony, it is uniquely and richly African and at the same time reveals Achebe's keen awareness of the human qualities common to men of all times and places.

THINGS FALL APART is no less successful as a social document, dramatizing traditional Ibo life in its first encounter with colonialism and Christianity at the turn of this century. Set in an Ibo village in Nigeria, the novel vividly recreates pre-Christian tribal life and shows how the coming of the white man led to the breaking up of the old ways.

(back cover)

42 editions

yanez reviewed Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Heinemann African Writers Series; Red Classics)

Things do fall apart indeed - a great book and a great, sorrowful story

No rating

This is great African literature, and it's great literature.

It's an adventure book, to me, that punches you in the stomach. And if you don't feel the punch, it just means that you're not able to read.

This book called me from the bookstore shelf a few times in the last months. It's the huge bookstore in Roma Termini train station, and the copy I finally bought last week was always the same one. I did not know this author, nor I heard about this book. I'm sure many will read this as a piece of "african literature", and even if it is, I believe it is foolishness to treat it as such, just like it feels strange when I hear talk about the Divine Comedy as a "european masterpiece". It's a great book, with a great, sorrowful story, full of people and lives.

This is great African literature, and it's great literature.

It's an adventure book, to me, that punches you in the stomach. And if you don't feel the punch, it just means that you're not able to read.

This book called me from the bookstore shelf a few times in the last months. It's the huge bookstore in Roma Termini train station, and the copy I finally bought last week was always the same one. I did not know this author, nor I heard about this book. I'm sure many will read this as a piece of "african literature", and even if it is, I believe it is foolishness to treat it as such, just like it feels strange when I hear talk about the Divine Comedy as a "european masterpiece". It's a great book, with a great, sorrowful story, full of people and lives.

Subjects

Igbo (African people) -- Fiction