Tells the story of a man invisible 'simply because people refuse to see me'. In this book, the author from his expulsion from a Southern college to a terrifying Harlem race riot - go far beyond the story of one individual.

Defeated and embittered by a country which treats him as a non-being, the 'invisible man' retreats into an underground cell, where the author smokes, drinks, listens to jazz and recounts his search for identity in white society.