The Enigma of Arrival

E764899

The Enigma of Arrival is a semi-autobiographical novel by V. S. Naipaul that meditates on exile, identity, and the passage of time through the narrator’s observations of rural England.

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The Enigma of Arrival canonical 1

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Predicate Object
instanceOf novel
author V. S. Naipaul NERFINISHED
countryOfOrigin United Kingdom
coverArtist Giorgio de Chirico (source painting) NERFINISHED
explores personal and historical change
relationship between observer and landscape
transformation of the English countryside
focusesOn observations of an English manor and its surroundings
the narrator’s life as an immigrant writer in England
genre autobiographical fiction
literary fiction
hasPart “Ivy” NERFINISHED
“Jack’s Garden” NERFINISHED
“Rooks” NERFINISHED
“The Ceremony of Farewell” NERFINISHED
“The Journey” NERFINISHED
hasSubject Caribbean immigrant experience in Britain
decline of the English landed estate
writer’s craft and self-reflection
language English
literaryForm prose
literaryMovement postcolonial literature
mainTheme colonial legacy
displacement
exile
identity
memory
passage of time
narrativePerspective first-person
narrator unnamed Caribbean writer
narratorBasedOn V. S. Naipaul NERFINISHED
notableFor blurring of fiction and autobiography
meditative, essayistic style
placeOfPublication London, England
surface form: London
publicationYear 1987
publisher Penguin Books NERFINISHED
The Viking Press
surface form: Viking Press
setting Wiltshire, England NERFINISHED
rural England
structure five-part narrative
titleOrigin Giorgio de Chirico painting “The Enigma of the Arrival and the Afternoon” NERFINISHED

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Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

V. S. Naipaul notableWork The Enigma of Arrival