Account

Company

  Menu
Large Image

The Loss of El Dorado: A Colonial History

by

(36 reviews)

Get It Preview
$5.99 $11.99 Save 50%

Share This

Description

In this masterpiece about Trinidad, the Nobel Prize-winning author has "given us a lesson in history [and] shown us how it is best written" (The New York Times).

The history of Trinidad begins with a delusion: the belief that somewhere nearby on the South American mainland lay El Dorado, the mythical kingdom of gold. In this extraordinary and often gripping book, V. S. Naipaul -- himself a native of Trinidad -- shows how that delusion drew a small island into the vortex of world events, making it the object of Spanish and English colonial designs and a mecca for treasure-seekers, slave-traders, and revolutionaries.

Amid massacres and poisonings, plunder and multinational intrigue, two themes emerge: the grinding down of the Aborigines during the long rivalries of the El Dorado quest and, two hundred years later, the man-made horror of slavery. An accumulation of casual, awful detail takes us as close as we can get to day-to-day life in the slave colony, where, in spite of various titles of nobility, only an opportunistic, near-lawless community exists, always fearful of slave suicide or poison, of African sorcery and revolt. Naipaul tells this labyrinthine story with assurance, withering irony, and lively sympathy. The result is historical writing at its highest level.

Tag This Book

This Book Has Been Tagged
It hasn't. Be the first to tag this book!

Our Recommendation

Track It. This book has been $4.99 within the past year.

Notify Me When The Price...

  • If I'm already tracking this book

to track this book on eReaderIQ.

Track These Authors

to track V. S. Naipaul on eReaderIQ.

  • to be notified each time the price drops on any book by V. S. Naipaul.
  • to stop tracking V. S. Naipaul.

Price Summary

  • We started tracking this book on December 28, 2011.
  • This book was $9.99 when we started tracking it.
  • The price of this book has changed 27 times in the past 4,856 days.
  • The current price of this book is $5.99 last checked 11 hours ago.
  • This book is at its lowest price in the past 90 days.
  • This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is $4.99.
  • The lowest price to date was $4.99 last reached on October 13, 2024.
  • This book has been $4.99 one time since we started tracking it.
  • The highest price to date was $14.99 last reached on November 5, 2024.
  • This book has been $14.99 one time since we started tracking it.

Genres

Additional Info

  • Text-to-Speech: Disabled
  • Lending: Disabled
  • Print Length: 402 Pages
  • File Size: 29 KB

We last verified the price of this book about 11 hours ago. At that time, the price was $5.99. This price is subject to change. The price displayed on the Amazon.com website at the time of purchase is the price you will pay for this book. Please confirm the price before making any purchases.