Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads
0 0
Download high-resolution image Look inside

Extravagant Strangers

A Literature of Belonging

Part of Vintage International

Author Caryl Phillips
Look inside
Paperback
$16.95 US
Knopf | Vintage
On sale Dec 29, 1998 | 336 Pages | 9780679781547
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

See Additional Formats
Shakespeare called Othello "an extravagant and wheeling strangerOf here and every where." In this exciting anthology, Caryl Phillips has collected writings by thirty-nine extravagant strangers: British writers who were born outside of Britain and see it with clear and critical eyes. These eloquent and incisive voices prove that English literature, far from being pure or homogenous, has in fact been shaped and influenced by outsiders for over two-hundred years.

CONTENTS:

Editor's Note
Preface

The Shortcomings of Christian England (1770)  Ukawasaw Gronniosaw
Letter to Mr. Sterne (1776)  Ignatius Sancho
Voyage to England (1789)  Olaudah Equiano
A Word about Dinners (1846)  William Thackeray
From The Nigger of 'Narcissus' (1897)  Joseph Conrad
The English Flag (1891)  Rudyard Kipling
Letter to David Kahma (1947);  Letter to Edgar Preston Richardson (1948); Letter to Geoffrey Stone (1948)  Wyndham Lewis
Letter to Henry Eliot (1914); Letter to Eleanor Hinkley (1914)  T.S. Eliot
The Tiredness of Rosabel (1924)  Katherine Mansfield
First Steps (1979)  Jean Rhys
Bloomsbury: An Encounter with Edith Sitwell (1932)  C.L.R. James
Confessions of a Down and Out (1933)  George Orwell
From Choice of Straws (1965)  E.R. Braithwaite
London at Night (1969)  Lawrence Durrell
In Defence of the Underground (1987)  Doris Lessing
From The Angel at the Gate (1982)  Wilson Harris
From The Lonely Londoners (1956)  Samuel Selvon
'From Lucy: Englan' Lady (1982); 'From Lucy: Carnival Wedd'n', 1981 (1982)  James Berry
From Three Continents (1987)  Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
A Voyage (1954)  George Lamming
An Ingrate's England (1989)  Peter Porter
First Impressions of London (1993)  J.G. Ballard
From Little Eden: A Child at War (1978)  Eva Figes
The Journey (1987)  V.S. Naipaul
From Oleander, Jacaranda (1994)  Penelope Lively
From Bye-Bye, Blackbird (1971)  Anita Desai
From Darkest England (1996)  Christopher Hope
Living in Earl's Court (1984)  Shiva Naipaul
A General Election (1983)  Salman Rushdie
From Pilgrim's Way (1988)  Abdulrazak Gurnah
The Child I Never Was (1986); Assassins (1983)  George Szirtes
From Sour Sweet (1982)  Timothy Mo
Fly Away Home (1997)  William Boyd
Inglan is a Bitch (1980)  Linton Kwesi Johnson
From Reef (1994)  Romesh Gunesekera
From The Remains of the Day (1989)  Kazuo Ishiguro
London Taxi Driver (1988)  David Dabydeen
The Machine That Cried (1986)  Michael Hoffman
Disparities (1986)  Ben Okri
© Michael Eastman
Caryl Phillips was born in St. Kitts, West Indies, and brought up in England. He is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction. His novel Dancing in the Dark won the 2006 PEN/Beyond Margins Award, and an earlier novel, A Distant Shore, won the 2004 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. His other awards include the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and currently lives in New York. View titles by Caryl Phillips

About

Shakespeare called Othello "an extravagant and wheeling strangerOf here and every where." In this exciting anthology, Caryl Phillips has collected writings by thirty-nine extravagant strangers: British writers who were born outside of Britain and see it with clear and critical eyes. These eloquent and incisive voices prove that English literature, far from being pure or homogenous, has in fact been shaped and influenced by outsiders for over two-hundred years.

CONTENTS:

Editor's Note
Preface

The Shortcomings of Christian England (1770)  Ukawasaw Gronniosaw
Letter to Mr. Sterne (1776)  Ignatius Sancho
Voyage to England (1789)  Olaudah Equiano
A Word about Dinners (1846)  William Thackeray
From The Nigger of 'Narcissus' (1897)  Joseph Conrad
The English Flag (1891)  Rudyard Kipling
Letter to David Kahma (1947);  Letter to Edgar Preston Richardson (1948); Letter to Geoffrey Stone (1948)  Wyndham Lewis
Letter to Henry Eliot (1914); Letter to Eleanor Hinkley (1914)  T.S. Eliot
The Tiredness of Rosabel (1924)  Katherine Mansfield
First Steps (1979)  Jean Rhys
Bloomsbury: An Encounter with Edith Sitwell (1932)  C.L.R. James
Confessions of a Down and Out (1933)  George Orwell
From Choice of Straws (1965)  E.R. Braithwaite
London at Night (1969)  Lawrence Durrell
In Defence of the Underground (1987)  Doris Lessing
From The Angel at the Gate (1982)  Wilson Harris
From The Lonely Londoners (1956)  Samuel Selvon
'From Lucy: Englan' Lady (1982); 'From Lucy: Carnival Wedd'n', 1981 (1982)  James Berry
From Three Continents (1987)  Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
A Voyage (1954)  George Lamming
An Ingrate's England (1989)  Peter Porter
First Impressions of London (1993)  J.G. Ballard
From Little Eden: A Child at War (1978)  Eva Figes
The Journey (1987)  V.S. Naipaul
From Oleander, Jacaranda (1994)  Penelope Lively
From Bye-Bye, Blackbird (1971)  Anita Desai
From Darkest England (1996)  Christopher Hope
Living in Earl's Court (1984)  Shiva Naipaul
A General Election (1983)  Salman Rushdie
From Pilgrim's Way (1988)  Abdulrazak Gurnah
The Child I Never Was (1986); Assassins (1983)  George Szirtes
From Sour Sweet (1982)  Timothy Mo
Fly Away Home (1997)  William Boyd
Inglan is a Bitch (1980)  Linton Kwesi Johnson
From Reef (1994)  Romesh Gunesekera
From The Remains of the Day (1989)  Kazuo Ishiguro
London Taxi Driver (1988)  David Dabydeen
The Machine That Cried (1986)  Michael Hoffman
Disparities (1986)  Ben Okri

Author

© Michael Eastman
Caryl Phillips was born in St. Kitts, West Indies, and brought up in England. He is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction. His novel Dancing in the Dark won the 2006 PEN/Beyond Margins Award, and an earlier novel, A Distant Shore, won the 2004 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. His other awards include the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and currently lives in New York. View titles by Caryl Phillips

Additional formats

Other books in this series

Other Books by this Author

Related Articles

Books for National Depression Education and Awareness Month
Psychology

Books for National Depression Education and Awareness Month

For National Depression Education and Awareness Month in October, we are sharing a collection of titles that educates and informs on depression, including personal stories from those who have experienced depression and topics that range from causes and symptoms of depression to how to develop coping mechanisms to battle depression.

Read more

Books for National Depression Education and Awareness Month

Psychology
Literature

Horror Titles for the Halloween Season

In celebration of the Halloween season, we are sharing horror books that are aligned with the themes of the holiday: the sometimes unknown and scary creatures and witches. From classic ghost stories and popular novels that are celebrated today, in literature courses and beyond, to contemporary stories about the monsters that hide in the dark, our list

Read more

Horror Titles for the Halloween Season

Literature
Gender and Sexuality Studies History

Books for LGBTQIA+ History Month

For LGBTQIA+ History Month in October, we’re celebrating the shared history of individuals within the community and the importance of the activists who have fought for their rights and the rights of others. We acknowledge the varying and diverse experiences within the LGBTQIA+ community that have shaped history and have led the way for those

Read more

Books for LGBTQIA+ History Month

Gender and Sexuality Studies History
Subscribe

Penguin Random House Higher Education

© 2025 Penguin Random House

Back to Top
0
    • 0
    Wish List (0)