Things Fall Apart is the debut novel by the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. Published in 1958 by Heinemann as part of its iconic African Writers Series, it is a slim novel whose third-person narrative voice tells the deceptively simple, linear story of the rise and fall of one man, Okonkwo, in the early days of British colonialism in Nigeria. Whilst many works of literature are referred to as seminal, Achebe’s Things Fall Apart can claim to be so in the most accurate sense of the word. Its initial success established the African Writers Series “as a major provider of African fiction and poetry in English and in English translation” (Izevbaye 2004: 484). Since its publication, Things Fall Apart has been …
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Citation: Rushton, Amy S.. "Things Fall Apart". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 July 2012 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8277, accessed 26 November 2024.]
