V.S. Naipaul’s Followers (1,585)

V.S. Naipaul

Born

in Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago

August 17, 1932

Died

August 11, 2018

Genre

Fiction, Nonfiction, Travel

Influences

Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham, Evelyn Waugh ...more

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Naipaul was born and raised in Trinidad, to which his grandfathers had emigrated from India as indentured servants. He is known for the wistfully comic early novels of Trinidad, the bleaker novels of a wider world remade by the passage of peoples, and the vigilant chronicles of his life and travels, all written in characteristic, widely admired, prose.

At 17, he won a Trinidad Government scholarship to study abroad. In the introduction to the 20th-anniversary edition of A House for Mr. Biswas, he reflected that the scholarship would have allowed him to study any subject at any institution of higher learning in the British Commonwealth, but that he chose to go to Oxford to do a simple degree in English. He went, he wrote, "in order at last to ...more

Combine Editions
V.S. Naipaul’s books

Average rating: 3.7 · 75,787 ratings · 6,299 reviews · 134 distinct works • Similar authors

	A House for Mr Biswas 3.81 avg rating — 20,657 ratings — published 1961 — 115 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Bend in the River 3.77 avg rating — 17,330 ratings — published 1979 — 111 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Miguel Street 3.94 avg rating — 4,659 ratings — published 1959 — 44 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In a Free State 3.49 avg rating — 4,813 ratings — published 1971 — 79 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Half a Life 3.24 avg rating — 4,233 ratings — published 2001 — 86 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Among the Believers : An Islamic Journey 3.85 avg rating — 2,324 ratings — published 1981 — 71 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mystic Masseur and Miguel Street 3.48 avg rating — 2,473 ratings — published 1957 — 73 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	An Area of Darkness: A Discovery of India 3.68 avg rating — 2,189 ratings — published 1964 — 61 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	India: A Million Mutinies Now 3.93 avg rating — 1,991 ratings — published 1990 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Enigma of Arrival: A Novel in Five Sections 3.70 avg rating — 1,823 ratings — published 1987 — 72 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by V.S. Naipaul…

Series by V.S. Naipaul

India Trilogy (3 books)
by

V.S. Naipaul

3.78 avg rating — 5,835 ratings

Willie Chandran (2 books)
by

V.S. Naipaul

3.22 avg rating — 5,200 ratings

Quotes by V.S. Naipaul (?)

“The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.”
― V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State

2769 likes

“The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.”
― V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River

tags: exile, naipaul, racism

186 likes

“Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.”
― V.S. Naipaul

tags: expectations, free-will, freedom, lack-of-vision, limitations, peer-pressure

138 likes

See all V.S. Naipaul's quotes »

Polls

Vote for the August group read in our 'Beyond 1940...' category.

A Death in the Family by James Agee (1957)

7 votes, 31.8%

A Maggot by John Fowles (1985)

6 votes, 27.3%

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)

5 votes, 22.7%

A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul (1961)

4 votes, 18.2%

22 total votes

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V.S. Naipaul’s Followers (1,585)

V.S. Naipaul

Combine EditionsV.S. Naipaul’s books

Series by V.S. Naipaul

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Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
V.S. Naipaul’s books