{"product_id":"a-house-for-mr-biswas-introduction-by-karl-miller-9780679444589","title":"A House for Mr. Biswas: Introduction by Karl Miller","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the Nobel Prize-winning author comes a tragicomic masterpiece of social manners in a postcolonial society--and \"arguably Mr. Naipaul's finest novel\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e). - The book that turned the gentle satirist of the Caribbean into a major literary figure, in a hardcover edition with an introduction by Karl Miller.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis birth ill-omened, his life dominated by fitful, comic struggles and resentful truces with those to whom he is obligated, Mr. Mohun Biswas of Trinidad, toward the end of his forty-sixth year on earth, triumphantly purchases his own house and becomes his own man. Around this supremely simple story, V. S. Naipaul builds one of the few virtually perfect novels in our language, a book that is--in the balance struck between its small incidents and its large, overarching patterns, in the ironic beauty of its prose--at once compelling, mysterious, and classical. It is also one of the few novels in any language that transcend their own genre. By the end of \u003ci\u003eA House for Mr. Biswas\u003c\/i\u003e we are reading a tremendous parable about the individual self in its enslavement to time and change, and in its search for freedom.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eV.S. NAIPAUL was born in Trinidad in 1932. He came to England on a scholarship in 1950. He spent four years at University College, Oxford, and began to write, in London, in 1954. He pursued no other profession. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHis novels include \u003ci\u003eA House for Mr Biswas\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Mimic Men\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGuerrillas\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Bend in the River\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Enigma of Arrival\u003c\/i\u003e. In 1971 he was awarded the Booker Prize for \u003ci\u003eIn a Free State\u003c\/i\u003e. His works of nonfiction, equally acclaimed, include \u003ci\u003eAmong the Believers\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBeyond Belief\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Masque of Africa\u003c\/i\u003e, and a trio of books about India: \u003ci\u003eAn Area of Darkness\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eIndia: A Wounded Civilization\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eIndia: A Million Mutinies Now\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1990, V.S. Naipaul received a knighthood for services to literature; in 1993, he was the first recipient of the David Cohen British Literature Prize. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. He died in 2018.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Everyman's Library","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50412791267602,"sku":"9780679444589","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_417cd04d-1f22-4e57-b033-1fde9ea6d944.jpg?v=1729328345","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/a-house-for-mr-biswas-introduction-by-karl-miller-9780679444589","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}