HOPES AND IMPEDIMENTS: Selected Essays

New York: Doubleday, 1989. First printing. Very good plus in near fine jacket.. Inscribed first US edition of the celebrated Nigerian author's book of essays, including the much discussed "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" This important collection begins with a quintessential piece of postcolonial criticism, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness," which makes the apparently controversial claim that Conrad's depiction of Africa and its natives was inherently racist — much to the chagrin of critics and contemporaries who found themselves largely unable (or perhaps unwilling) to reconcile such a designation with what they believed to be the aesthetic merits of Conrad's work. A sharp copy with a warm inscription. 8.25'' x 5.5''. Original half-cloth, blue-grey paper boards with green decorative stamping to front, silver-lettered spine. In original unclipped ($17.95) color pictorial jacket. Tan endpapers. xviii, 188 [2] pages. Inscribed by Achebe to half title: "For Fernando E. Vega / with every good wish / Chinua Achebe. March 18, 1996." Jacket with trace rubbing. Book with minor bumping to corners, faint toning to top edge, else fresh.