A House for Mr Biswas and The Middle Passage

Abstract

A House for Mr Biswas (1961), Naipaul’s first major novel, belongs with such classics of the new English literatures as Patrick White’s Voss and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart in which through the portrayal of an individual the complexities and aspirations of a previously ignored colonial or colonized culture are articulated, given epic, mythic stature. Similar to these two novels, it is an imaginative, fictional recreation of the past. The main characters, places and events are based on Naipaul’s father, Naipaul’s own youth and the larger family of which they were a part (see Appendix A).