Invisible Man
This book is the story of Griffin, a scientist who creates a serum to render himself invisible, and his descent into madness that follows.
What you might want to know about Invisible Man
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
An unnamed Black narrator looks back from a basement room in Harlem on his expulsion from a Southern college, his time in a paint factory, and his rise and fall inside a political organization called the Brotherhood.
Invisible Man (1952) was written by Ralph Ellison. It is one of the great American novels of the 20th century and won the 1953 National Book Award for Fiction. Ellison spent the rest of his life on a never-completed second novel, Juneteenth.
No. Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man (1952) is a literary novel about Black identity in mid-20th-century America. H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man (1897) is a science-fiction novella about a scientist who turns himself transparent. The two share only a similar title.
Invisible Man is 170 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Invisible Man takes most readers 3 to 4 hours to finish.
Invisible Man is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
Invisible Man is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
