The Dispossessed
On sale
3rd October 2019
Price: £19.99
Genre
Classic Fiction (pre C 1945) / Classic Science Fiction / Modern & Contemporary Fiction (post C 1945) / Science Fiction
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One of the very best must-read novels of all time – with a new introduction by Roddy Doyle
‘There was a wall. It did not look important – even a child could climb it. But the idea was real. Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon which side of it you were on…’
Shevek is brilliant scientist who is attempting to find a new theory of time – but there are those who are jealous of his work, and will do anything to block him. So he leaves his homeland, hoping to find a place of more liberty and tolerance. Initially feted, Shevek soon finds himself being used as a pawn in a deadly political game.
With powerful themes of freedom, society and the natural world’s influence on competition and co-operation, THE DISPOSSESSED is a true classic of the 20th century.
Featuring a new introduction written and read by Roddy Doyle
(p) The Orion Publishing Group Ltd 2019
‘There was a wall. It did not look important – even a child could climb it. But the idea was real. Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon which side of it you were on…’
Shevek is brilliant scientist who is attempting to find a new theory of time – but there are those who are jealous of his work, and will do anything to block him. So he leaves his homeland, hoping to find a place of more liberty and tolerance. Initially feted, Shevek soon finds himself being used as a pawn in a deadly political game.
With powerful themes of freedom, society and the natural world’s influence on competition and co-operation, THE DISPOSSESSED is a true classic of the 20th century.
Featuring a new introduction written and read by Roddy Doyle
(p) The Orion Publishing Group Ltd 2019
Reviews
Le Guin's storytelling is sharp, magisterial, funny, thought-provoking and exciting, exhibiting all that science fiction can be
Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power
The book I wish I had written ... It's so far away from my own imagination, I'd love to sit at my desk one day and discover that I could think and write like Ursula Le Guin
This remains a challenging and urgent book
One of the great American political novels . . . Full of intrigue and drama
Written with thought, care - even love
Le Guin's book ... is so persuasive that it ought to put a stop to the writing of prescriptive Utopias for at least 10 years
A well told tale signifying a good deal; one to be read again and again
A deeply imagined work of art
The Dispossessed paints a hopeful; and complex portrait of a society rooted in collectivism
Dystopia and utopia are entwined in Le Guin's story of hierarchy-bound Urras and its anarchist neighbour planet Anarres. With stylish prose and intellectual rigour, Le Guin charts the journey of young physicist Shevek, whose theories cause upheaval on both planets, as he struggles to survive, falls in love and contemplates human society
A seamless creation: everything is made up, nothing seems arbitrary
[Le Guin had] the heart of a poet who knew all too well the difference between miracle and eureka, revelation and revolution
An extraordinary work ... [Le Guin] created a working society in exquisite detail ... a fully realised hypothetical culture [as well as] living breathing characters who are inevitable products of that culture
One of our finest projectionists of brave old and other worlds
The Dispossessed is still one of Sci-Fi's' smartest books . . . Remains a thoughtful exploration of politics and economics nearly 50 years later
