About this title: Two young American scholars travel to Albania in the 1930s with a tape recorder, seeking the truth about Homer's composition of THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY. In their search for an oral epic, they are mistaken for foreign spies, followed, reported on, and ultimately become the victims of a violent nationalist plot.
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Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9781559704014ISBN:1559704012
Description: New. Clean, crisp & tight, never read. NO remainder mark! & DJ is very good. Books may have a remainder mark on bottom of text block. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780099497196ISBN:0099497190
Description: Good. Ex library **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9781559704014ISBN:1559704012
Description: New. Clean, crisp & tight, never read. NO remainder mark! & DJ is very good. Books may have a remainder mark on bottom of text block. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9781559706278ISBN:1559706279
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: Softcover
Publisher: Arcade Pub
Date Published: 2002-06-06
ISBN-13:9781559706278ISBN:1559706279
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: 9781559706278. read more
Edition: 1st English ed.
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Harvill, London
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9781860462573ISBN:186046257X
Description: Paperback trade, very good condition, minor edgewear, small mark fore-edge. 169 pp. (Translated from Albanian into French, then into English. ) This simple tale by Albania's most eminent and gifted novelist serves to lift the veil on one of the most secret and mysterious countries of modern Europe. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: New York, Arcade [
Date Published: 1997]
ISBN-13:9781559704014ISBN:1559704012
Description: First U.S. Edition. Translated from French of Jusuf Vrioni by Barbara Bray (original was Albanian). Hardcover. Condition: Near-fine in near-fine dust jacket. [Novel] ISBN 1559704012. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: The Harvill Press
Date Published: 19/06/1997
ISBN-13:9781860462573ISBN:186046257X
Description: Used-Good. Book in good or better condition. Dispatched same day from warehouse. Please email with any questions for quick response. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9781559704014ISBN:1559704012
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. Cover shows light wear. No Markings. Price sticker on Cover. Excellent Condition. Excellent Condition! read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Little Brown & Co
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9781559706278ISBN:1559706279
Description: New. In the mid 1930s, two young American scholars voyage to the Albanian highlands, the last remaining natural habitat of the oral epic, with one of the world's first tape recorders in hand. Their mission? To discover how Homer could have composed works... read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780099497196ISBN:0099497190
Description: New. Two Irish-American scholars from Harvard journey to Albania in the 1930s with a tape recorder in order to record the last genuinely oral epic singers. Their purpose, they say, is to show how Homer's epics might have been culled from a verbal tradition. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Arcade Publishing, New York
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9781559706278ISBN:1559706279
Description: Trans. Jusuf Vrioni & David Bellosan. New. Misunderstandings arose when two scholars went to Albania to record oral poetry in their search for the origins of Homeric epic. "Part spy novel, part comedy of errors, "The File on H. "is a work of inventive genius and piercing irony that may be Ismail Kadare's funniest...to date" read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780099497196ISBN:0099497190
Description: Good. All orders are dispatched from our UK warehouse within one working day. Established in 2004. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied. read more
"In a WAY...this is a serious book. Since it's unthinkable to the state that people would pursue an intellectual endeavor for its own sake, they take to spying on the two American scholars who have come to Albania to look for the living remnants of epic oral poetry.
In contrast to a few of Kadare's other books, I found it less obtuse than The Palace of Dreams, and definitely more light-hearted than Broken April (which is still remains his best). Parts of the File On H thate made me chuckle: the politician's overly-enthusiastic appreciation for the writings of the spy, as if his reports themselves were Homeric, his wife's steamy fantasies of the far-from-steamy American scholars, and the scholars' obsessive chronicling of evidence of the mind's ability to forget.
Everything is done by proxy in this book. The scholars want to access Homer via the living bards and the politician's wife wants to screw the scholars...and these things are accomplished, but only in a figurative sense.
Like the characters in Kadare's novel, I was one of those people looking for something "pure" and rustic in the Balkans and Albania is particular is a place where what you find/accomplish is commonly one step removed from what you had imagined."
"i really liked this book. it had been on my shelf for a long time. it's kadare's take on an incident that did happen, though not in albania, in yugoslavia, i think. about two irish scholars who travel with a new 'tape recording machine' to study the epic poems, looking for a trace back to homer's poems. the albanian (paranoid) gov't assumes they are spys. it's so well written, i really felt transported to this strange world of albania in the 1930s. maybe it helped that i read it while in the strange world of bulgaria (also slavs)."
"An Albanian writer who won The Book, I am enjoying the absurdism that characterizes E. Europe...BUT NO Aghh, can't get into this book. The absurdism is too broad, too one-note for me. 'I get it already,' I keep thinking which is annoying. It's the heavy hand of eastern European humor which is like that of some old uncle who repeats the same joke whenever he sees you...and he laughs, you don't."
"My first Kadare and I found it refreshing. It's witty, thoughtful, and absurd, though the absurdity is most likely based on truth. Two Irish-American Harvard scholars are out to prove that homer's epics were culled from a verbal tradition, from gypsy singers. They bring with them the newly available invention, the tape recorder (or tapregorder as the Albanian governor calls it) to record the epic songs."
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