About this Item
Naipaul, V. S. The middle passage : the Caribbean revisited. Impressions of five societies - British, French and Dutch - in the West Indies and South America. Third impression. London: Andre Deutsch, April, 1963. Hardback, VG, in Good, unclipped dustjacket, bumped to corners, shelfwear and creases to all edges, small nicks to spine and small U-shape missing from reverse top. Age-discolouration to white background on reverse. Black cloth, a little marked in places, with gilt lettering to spine. Binding strong. Endpapers illustrated with maps in blue, white and black. 232pp. Top edge of page block has a few small stains. Contents clean and bright. In September 1960, Naipaul was sounded out about visiting Trinidad as a guest of the government and giving a few lectures. The following month an invitation arrived offering an all-expenses-paid trip and a stipend. Naipaul spent the next five months in the Caribbean. In Port-of-Spain, Naipaul was invited by Dr. Eric Williams, Premier of Trinidad and Tobago within the short-lived West Indies Federation, to visit other countries of the region and write a book on the Caribbean. The Middle Passage: Impressions of Five Societies British, French and Dutch in the West Indies and South America, Naipaul's first work of travel writing, was the result. To gather material for the book, Naipaul travelled to British Guiana, Suriname, Martinique and Jamaica. The book begins with perceptive, lively, but unflattering and gratuitously descriptive portraits of the fellow passengers bound for Trinidad. Although he was later criticised for the insensitivity of these descriptions, he stood by his book, claiming it was "a very funny book," and that he was employing a form of irreverent West Indian humour. Naipaul does not attempt to be detached in the book, continually reminding the reader of his own ties to the region. For him, the West Indies are islands colonised only for the purpose of employing slaves for the production of other people's goods. RightWayUp Books aims to provide accurate and detailed descriptions. All images are of the actual book for sale - no stock images are ever used. Thank you for looking at this listing. Seller Inventory # ABE-1693833671965
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