About this title: this is Kapuscinski's rendition of Selassie's servants and closest associates accounts- humorous, frightening, sad, grotesque- of a man living amidst nearly unimaginable pomp and luxury while his people teetered between hunger and starvation.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1984-04-12
ISBN-13:9780394723761ISBN:0394723767
Description: Good. Curling to cover corners. Text clean, binding good. No spine crease. Ships within one business day with delivery confirmation. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Vintage Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780679722038ISBN:0679722033
Description: Good. 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" Name inked on first page, else text clean & bright; binding tight; 3" crease to front cover, else minor wear to covers. 164 pages. read more
Description: Kapuscinski, Ryszard w/trans. by William R. Brand & Kataryzna Mroczkowska-Brand., Vintage Books "Vintage International", nd (1989), c1983, 1st printing by this pub., illus. soft cover, fine, 164 pp, 8vo. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Vintage Books
Date Published: 1989-04-01
ISBN-13:9780679722038ISBN:0679722033
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780679722038. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780679722038ISBN:0679722033
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1989-03-13
ISBN-13:9780679722038ISBN:0679722033
Description: Good. Paperback. General paperback wear, bends in spine, possible bends from reading on the cover, and may have a bookstore stamp inside cover. Quick response! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780141188034ISBN:0141188030
Description: New. After the deposition of Haile Selassie in 1974, which ended the ancient rule of the Abyssinian monarchy, Ryszard Kapuscinski travelled to Ethiopia and sought out surviving courtiers to tell their stories. This work depicts the lavish, corrupt world th... read more
Edition: Reissue
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Inc
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780679722038ISBN:0679722033
Description: New. This is Kapuscinski's rendition of Selassie's servants and closest associates accounts-humorous, frightening, sad, grotesque-of a man living amidst nearly unimaginable pomp and luxury while his people teetered between hunger and starvation. read more
"The most penetrating, compelling book on the nature of power and the inevitability of it's dissolution within the framework of human nature, Kapuscinski's book should be taught -before- Maciavelli in any self-respecting Political Science class."
"The Emperor baffles any ready description. A Polish journalist, Ryszard Kapuscinski, renders an account of the last schizophrenic years of Ethiopia's ancient kingdom and the demise of it emperor, whose ways are not our ways, to say the least. Reviews may not suffice to say exactly why or how the book works, but I'll add mine anyway to the others that have noted its mystique.
The book's structure takes a straightforward path. The author interviews courtiers, associates and servants of the Emperor Haile Selassie in the months just after his dethronement. Selassie's reign is recounted in parts, each starting with Kapuscinski's observations about the situation at hand, followed by comments from the relevant courtiers to furnish color, detail and insight.
The tapestry woven from these remarks and the writer's added observations depict an esoteric mindset. I've often wondered: When humans left their tribes to create the world's first civilizations, what were those societies like? I don't mean the art they created or the decrees of their leaders - I mean, did the people think and act like us? The fabric of the story gives us that answer, for Ethiopia was just such a place. And the answer is a mind-boggling no.
What we find is a land so ancient it's not even medieval, a place where even feudalism would represent progress. But make no mistake, it is still a fully developed civilization, not some savage prehistoric amalgam. Kapuscinski knows he has stumbled into something unique, a culture whose primeval foundation neither lends nor refuses itself to any obvious interpretation. In this emperor, this court, and this society, a primordial human drama demands its stage.
Such a provenance makes conclusions or judgments about Ethiopia impossible to categorize. The declivities of class and hierarchy within this kingdom exceed anything known to man. An antediluvian social stucture showcases the raw exercise of power at its stripped-down worst, absent any modern guile. By design, mediocrity trumps merit as a tool to balance power and maintain social order, turning the country into a kind of Ayn Rand novel come to life. Such an order inevitably clashes with the outside. But more decisive are the its own internal contradictions.
The several speakers whose contributions build the story relate the details with elegance. In these vignettes lie much of the book's narrative power; the interviewees tell what they know with a delicate economy that, page-per-page, conveys more detail, plot and feeling than any book I can recall. Here's one such description, of the increasingly opaque autocracy:
"... People seemed unable to control things; things existed and ceased to exist in their own malicious ways, slipping through people's hands. Everyone felt helpless before the seemingly magic force by which things autonomously appeared and disappeared, and nobody knew how to master or break that force."
This speaker later accentuates the dissipation gripping Selassie's final decade:
"...Even conversation deteriorated, losing its vigor and momentum. Conversations started but somehow never seemed to be completed. They always reached an invisible but perceptible point, beyond which silence fell. The silence said, Everything is already known and clear, but clear in an obscure way, known unfathomably, dominating by being beyond helping. Having confirmed this truth by a moment of silence, the conversation changed its direction and moved on to a different subject, a trivial, second-rate, second-hand subject."
The elliptical way the speakers tell their stories adds to the book's kaleidoscopic dazzle. Their many points of view make truth a perspectival quest. No immediate verdict emerges upon the rule of Ethiopia's last emperor; his sycophants both attack and defend his rule, and they're right in each case. Yet all the while the reader can detect a bigger picture getting lost in the details. Under Kapuscinski's journalistic guidance the gripping reality of this society emerges to recruit one's sense of the grotesque. This regime outclasses modern ones in some ways: No violent purges or collective bloodbaths ever occur. But the extremes of hierarchy leave the tragic fates of the many to deface a benighted land.
Kapuscinski tells an amazing story amazingly, and his journalist's sense of having discovered an unprecedented subject is dead-on right. The writing speaks for itself. Its object is unique. The story is a spellbinding discovery. The Emperor, in short, has all the qualities of a perfect book. You cannot go wrong choosing it to read."
""The Emperor" is Kapuscinski's collection of first-hand accounts from former members of Haile Selassie's regime in Ethiopia. After the emperor was dethroned in 1974 at the age of 90, many of his closest advisors were either killed, imprisoned, or went into hiding. With the help of a trusted source, Kapuscinski carefully and discreetly sought out the remaining members of Selassie's court still residing in Addis Ababa. They tell a story of an autocrat who believed himself to be kindly and mindful of his subjects but in reality led a primitive regime based on loyalty at all costs. I couldn't help but think "the end is near" as I read about Selassie's advisors' schemes to stand close to the emperor, have their names mentioned a certain number of times in hearings, rat out another advisor to win the Emperor's trust, etc. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands perished from famine in the northern provinces. A captivating look at the inside of an immature and backwards monarchy."
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