A Spectre, Haunting - by China Miéville (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

China Miéeacute;ville's riveting engagement with the Communist Manifesto offers a lyrical introduction and a spirited defense of the modern world's most influential political document.

Few written works can so confidently claim to have shaped the course of history as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's Manifesto of the Communist Party. Since first rattling the gates of the ruling order in 1848, this incendiary pamphlet has never ceased providing fuel for the fire in the hearts of those who dream of a better world. Nor has it stopped haunting the nightmares of those who sit atop the vastly unequal social system it condemns.

In this strikingly imaginative introduction, China Miéville provides readers with a guide to understanding the Manifesto and the many specters it has conjured. Through his unique and unorthodox reading, Miéville offers a spirited defense of the enduring relevance of Marx and Engels' ideas.

Presented along with the full text of the Communist Manifesto, Miéville's guide has something to offer first-time readers, revolutionary partisans, and even the most hard-nosed skeptics.

Review Quotes

"The Manifesto is one of history's most profound prophecies. In Miéeacute;ville's brilliant interpretation it is like a great comet whose periodic return blinds the sky with its light and urgency. Read this and be dazzled by its contemporaneity."
-Mike Davis

"An excellent book, very lively and engaging, written in clear and readable prose... much more than a contextual and analytical reading of the Manifesto... For today's readers, Miéville does excellent work presenting and reviewing a huge amount of twentieth-century history"
--Professor Terrell Carver

"Very enjoyable and well done... properly scholarly and thorough in its apparatus of discussion and issue identification...lively, politically-driven appreciation"
--Professor Gregor McLennan

PRAISE FOR CHINA MIÉVILLE:

"You can't talk about Miéville without using the word "brilliant.'"
--Guardian

"One of our most important writers."
--Independent

"Miéville is gifted with an incomparable visionary imagination."
--Financial Times

"Miéville is regarded as one of the most interesting and freakishly gifted writers of his generation."
--Daily Telegraph

About the Author

China Miéville is the multi-award-winning author of many works of fiction and non-fiction. His fiction includes The City and the City, Embassytown and This Census-Taker. He has won the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Arthur C. Clarke awards. His non-fiction includes the photo-illustrated essay London's Overthrow, Between Equal Rights, a study of international law, and the narrative history of the Russian Revolution, October. He has written for various publications, including the New York Times, Guardian, Conjunctions and Granta, and he is a founding editor of Salvage.