The 50th anniversary special edition hardback of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, one of the most lauded works of speculative fiction of all time. Featuring a foil blocked cover, a foil blocked slipcase featuring a die-cut stencil, two-colour printing inside the book, and sixteen illustrations by Matt Rota. This magnificent edition is exclusive to The Gollancz Emporium.
‘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.
Ursula K. Le Guin is a legend of speculative fiction, and the author behind such classics as A Wizard of Earthsea, The Left Hand of Darkness, over a hundred short stories and several world-renowned pieces of literary criticism. In 2014 she won the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Her work has had a profound influence on many other authors, including Salman Rushdie, Iain Banks and David Mitchell, and she has been described by Michael Chabon as the ‘greatest American writer of her generation’. 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.
‘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.
Ursula K. Le Guin is a legend of speculative fiction, and the author behind such classics as A Wizard of Earthsea, The Left Hand of Darkness, over a hundred short stories and several world-renowned pieces of literary criticism. In 2014 she won the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Her work has had a profound influence on many other authors, including Salman Rushdie, Iain Banks and David Mitchell, and she has been described by Michael Chabon as the ‘greatest American writer of her generation’. 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.
Reviews
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
The Dispossessed is still one of Sci-Fi's' smartest books . . . Remains a thoughtful exploration of politics and economics nearly 50 years later
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
This remains a challenging and urgent book
I would be hard pressed to think of another novel that made as strong an impression on me
Le Guin's characters, especially Shevek and his family, are complex and haunting, and her writing is remarkable for its sinewy grace
A well told tale signifying a good deal; one to be read again and again
One of the great American political novels . . . Full of intrigue and drama
Written with thought, care - even love
Le Guin's most philosophical novel ... a study of character, ideology and the constant of change
Le Guin's storytelling is sharp, magisterial, funny, thought-provoking and exciting, exhibiting all that science fiction can be
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
THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS and THE DISPOSSESSED challenged me to reimagine what human culture might look like - challenged me to imagine how we might throw off the death grip of capitalism, and its attendant values of patriarchy and racism. In each of them, I was transported by Le Guin's prose - lyrical and rich and deliberate in its rhythms. And in each one of them, I found, there was a scene I stopped to reread, sometimes more than once - a scene so powerful it actually moved me to tears
A work of extraordinary imagination and compassion
One of the most important science fiction novels of the last several years
One of our finest projectionists of brave old and other worlds
A deeply imagined work of art
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
The Dispossessed paints a hopeful; and complex portrait of a society rooted in collectivism
I think that everyone on earth, and everyone who cares about being alive, should read THE DISPOSSESSED
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
Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power
