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Things Fall Apart

1958 novel by Chinua Achebe

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 21, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Things Fall Apart is the 1958 debut novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. Set in Colonial Nigeria, it portrays the story of Okonkwo, a traditional and influential leader of the fictional Igbo clan of Umuofia, who opposes colonialism and early Christianity. Written when Achebe was working at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, it was first published in London by Heinemann on 17 June 1958.

Editorial summary

“Things Fall Apart” enters the record as 1958 novel by Chinua Achebe. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Things, Fall and Apart can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1958—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Things, Fall and Apart.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Things Fall Apart” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Things, Fall and Apart provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1958.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Things Fall Apart”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Things Fall Apart primary sources, Things Fall Apart archive and Things research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Things Fall Apart”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Things Fall Apart” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.