#12 in Classics
The Dispossessed
- 352
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
- Hugo Award for Best Novel
- Nebula Award for Best Novel
- Locus Award for Best Novel
- Premio Gigamesh
- Prometheus Award - Hall of Fame
- NPR Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
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Our view
“The Dispossessed” is utopian science fiction that takes its anarchist society seriously enough to show its flaws. Le Guin’s real subjects are revolution and capitalism, the individual and the collective, and for all its bleak stretches the novel stays hopeful. Some readers find the plot thin. It suits those who come to science fiction for ideas more than for events.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Dispossessed is a 1974 anarchist utopian science fiction novel by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, one of her seven Hainish Cycle novels. It is one of a small number of books to win all three awards—Hugo, Locus, and Nebula—for best science fiction or fantasy novel. It achieved a degree of literary recognition unusual for science fiction because of its exploration of themes such as anarchism and revolutionary societies, capitalism, utopia, individualism, and collectivism.
Reading order · Hainish Cycle
Full order & progress →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.4 across 933 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 86% of the weight and the score stays at 8.5 — the Classics average of 7.7 barely moves it. A further +0.20 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.9 | 36 | 4% |
| Hardcover | 8.4 | 897 | 96% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Dispossessed?
It has 352 pages — shorter than 71% of the ranked books in Classics.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Classics — with scores between 8.3 and 8.8, closest to this book.
