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A new edition of Primo Levi's classic memoir of the Holocaust, with
an introduction by David Baddiel, author of Jews Don't Count 'With
the moral stamina and intellectual pose of a twentieth-century
Titan, this slightly built, dutiful, unassuming chemist set out
systematically to remember the German hell on earth, steadfastly to
think it through, and then to render it comprehensible in lucid,
unpretentious prose... One of the greatest human testaments of the
era' Philip Roth 'Levi's voice is especially affecting, so clear,
firm and gentle, yet humane and apparently untouched by anger,
bitterness or self-pity... If This Is a Man is miraculous, finding
the human in every individual who traverses its pages' Philippe
Sands 'The death of Primo Levi robs Italy of one of its finest
writers... One of the few survivors of the Holocaust to speak of
his experiences with a gentle voice' Guardian '[What] gave it such
power... was the sheer, unmitigated truth of it; the sense of what
a book could achieve in terms of expanding one's own knowledge and
understanding at a single sitting... few writers have left such a
legacy... A necessary book' Independent
Primo Levi's account of life as a concentration camp prisoner falls
into two parts. IF THIS IS A MAN describes his deportation to
Poland and the twenty months he spend working in Auschwitz. THE
TRUCE covers his long journey to Italy at the end of the war
through Russia and Central Europe. Levi never raises his voice,
complains or attributes blame. By telling his story quietly,
objectively and in plain language he renders both the horror and
the hope of the situation with absolute clarity. Probing the themes
which preoccupy all his writing - work love, power, the nature of
things, what it is to be human - he leaves the reader drained,
elated, apprehensive.
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The Periodic Table (Paperback)
Primo Levi; Translated by Raymond Rosenthal
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R430
R327
Discovery Miles 3 270
Save R103 (24%)
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An extraordinary work in which each of the 21 chapters takes its title and starting point from one of the elements in the periodic table. Mingling fact and fiction, history and anecdote, Levi uses his training as a chemist and his experiences as a prisoner in Auschwitz to illuminate the human condition.
From the Hardcover edition.
'So it happens, therefore, that every element says something to
someone' Inspired by the rhythms of the Periodic Table, Primo Levi
assesses his life in terms of the chemical elements he associates
with his past. From his birth into an Italian Jewish family through
his training as a chemist, to the pain and darkness of the
Holocaust and its aftermath, Levi reflects on the difficult course
of his life in this heartfelt and deeply moving book.
A chemist by training, Primo Levi became one of the supreme witnesses to twentieth-century atrocity. In these haunting reflections inspired by the elements of the periodic table, he ranges from young love to political savagery; from the inert gas argon - and 'inert' relatives like the uncle who stayed in bed for twenty-two years - to life-giving carbon. 'Iron' honours the mountain-climbing resistance hero who put iron in Levi's student soul, 'Cerium' recalls the improvised cigarette lighters which saved his life in Auschwitz, while 'Vanadium' describes an eerie post-war correspondence with the man who had been his 'boss' there. All are written with characteristically understated eloquence and shot through with deep humanity.
Shortly after completing The Drowned and the Saved, Primo Levi
committed suicide. The manner of his death was sudden, violent and
unpremeditated, and there are some who argue that he kiled himself
because he was tormented by guilt - guilt that he had survived the
horrors of Auschwitz while others, better than he, had gone to the
wall. 'The Drowned and the Saved dispels the myth that Primo Levi
forgave the Germans for what they did to his people. He didn't, and
couldn't forgive. He refused, however, to indulge in what he called
"the bestial vice of hatred" which is an entirely different matter.
The voice that sounds in his writing is that of a reasonable man .
. . it warns and reminds us that the unimaginable can happen again.
A would-be tyrant is waiting in the wings, with "beautiful words"
on his lips. The book is constantly impressing on us the need to
learn from the past, to make sense of the senseless' - Paul Bailey
Primo Levi, the Italian-born chemist once described by Philip Roth
as that "quicksilver little woodland creature enlivened by the
forest's most astute intelligence," has largely been considered a
heroic figure in the annals of twentieth-century literature for If
This Is a Man, his haunting account of Auschwitz. Yet Levi's body
of work extends considerably beyond his experience as a survivor.
Now, the transformation of Levi from Holocaust memoirist to one of
the twentieth century's greatest writers culminates in this
publication of The Complete Works of Primo Levi. This magisterial
collection finally gathers all of Levi's fourteen books-memoirs,
essays, poetry, and fiction-into three slip-cased volumes. Thirteen
of the books feature new translations, and the other is newly
revised by the original translator. Nobel laureate Toni Morrison
introduces Levi's writing as a "triumph of human identity and worth
over the pathology of human destruction." The appearance of this
historic publication will occasion a major reappraisal of "one of
the most valuable writers of our time" (Alfred Kazin). The Complete
Works of Primo Levi features all new translations of: The Periodic
Table, The Drowned and the Saved, The Truce, Natural Histories,
Flaw of Form, The Wrench, Lilith, Other People's Trades, and If Not
Now, When?-as well as all of Levi's poems, essays, and other
nonfiction work, some of which have never appeared before in
English.
Two works of autobiography. If This is a Man tells of Levi's experiences as a victim of the Holocaust, from his arrest by the Fascists in 1943 to the liberation of Auschwitz by the Russians. The Truce is the story of his eight-month journey back to Italy after he was liberated.
'With the moral stamina and intellectual pose of a twentieth-century Titan, this slightly built, duitful, unassuming chemist set out systematically to remember the German hell on earth, steadfastly to think it through, and then to render it comprehensible in lucid, unpretentious prose. He was profoundly in touch with the minutest workings of the most endearing human events and with the most contempible. What has survived in Levi's writing isn't just his memory of the unbearable, but also, in THE PERIODIC TABLE and THE WRENCH, his delight in what made the world exquisite to him. He was himself a magically endearing man, the most delicately forceful enchanter I've ever known'
- Philip Roth
The death of Primo Levi robs Italy of one of its finest writers ... One of the few survivors of the Holocaust to speak of his experiences with a gentle voice'
- Guardian
Primo Levi was one of the most astonishing voices to emerge from
the twentieth century. This landmark selection of his short stories
opens up a world of wonder, love, cruelty and curious twists of
fate, where nothing is as it seems. In 'The Fugitive' an office
worker composes the most beautiful poem ever with unforeseen
consequences, while 'Magic Paint' sees a group of researchers
develop a paint that mysteriously protects them from misfortune.
'Gladiators' and 'The Knall' are chilling explorations of mass
violence, and in 'The Tranquil Star' a simple story of stargazing
becomes a meditation on language, imagination and infinity.
'This is not a book for journalists. Civil servants, too, will feel
uneasy while reading it, and as for lawyers, they will never sleep
again. For it is about a man in his capacity as homo faber, a maker
of things with his hands, and what has any of us ever made but
words. I say it is "about" the man who makes; truly, it is more a
hymn of praise than a description, and not only because the toiler
who is the hero of the book is a hero indeed - a figure, in his
humanity, simplicity, worthy of inclusion in the catalogue of
mythical giants alongside Hercules, Atlas, Gargantua and Orion. He
is Faussone, a rigger' Bernard Levin, The Times
Primo Levi was among the greatest witnesses to twentieth-century atrocity. In this gripping novel, based on a true story, he reveals the extraordinary lives of the Russian, Polish and Jewish partisans trapped behind enemy lines during the Second World War. Wracked by fear, hunger and fierce rivalries, they link up, fall apart, struggle to stay alive and to sabotage the efforts of the all-powerful German army. A compelling tale of action, resistance and epic adventure, it also reveals Levi's characteristic compassion and deep insight into the moral dilemmas of total war. It ranks alongside The Periodic Table and If This Is A Man as one of the rare authentic masterpieces of our times.
Survival in Auschwitz: If This Is a Man is a book written by the
Italian author, Primo Levi. It describes his experiences in the
concentration camp at Auschwitz during the Second World War.
Levi, then a 25-year-old chemist, spent 10 months in Auschwitz
before the camp was liberated by the Red Army. Of the 650 Italian
Jews in his shipment, Levi was one of only twenty who left the
camps alive. The average life expectancy of a new entrant was three
months.
This truly amazing story offers a revealing glimpse into the
realities of the Holocaust and its effects on our world.
Survival in Auschwitz: If This Is a Man is a book written by the
Italian author, Primo Levi. It describes his experiences in the
concentration camp at Auschwitz during the Second World War.
Levi, then a 25-year-old chemist, spent 10 months in Auschwitz
before the camp was liberated by the Red Army. Of the 650 Italian
Jews in his shipment, Levi was one of only twenty who left the
camps alive. The average life expectancy of a new entrant was three
months.
This truly amazing story offers a revealing glimpse into the
realities of the Holocaust and its effects on our world.
Primo Levi was one of the most astonishing voices to emerge from
the twentieth century: a man who survived one of the ugliest times
in history, yet who was able to describe his own Auschwitz
experience with an unaffected tenderness. Levi was a master
storyteller but he did not write fairytales. These stories are an
elegy to the human figures who stood out against the tragic
background of Auschwitz, 'the ones in whom I had recognized the
will and capacity to react, and hence a rudiment of virtue'. Each
centres on an individual who - whether it be through a juggling
trick, a slice of apple or a letter - discovers one of the
'bizarre, marginal moments of reprieve'.
First published in English in 1965, The Reawakening is Primo Levi's
bestselling sequel to his classic memoir of the Holocaust, Survival
in Auschwitz. The inspiring story of Levi's liberation from the
German death camp in January 1945 by the Red Army, it tells of his
strange and eventful journey home to Italy by way of the Soviet
Union, Hungary, and Romania. Levi's railway travels take him
through bombed-out cities and transit camps, with keen insight he
describes the former prisoners and Russian soldiers he encounters
along the way. An extraordinary account of faith, hope, and undying
courage, The Reawakening was praised by Irving Howe as a remarkable
feat of literary craft.
Against the terrifying, tragic background of Auschwitz, Levi preserves for future generations the tales of his friends, companions, and even adversaries who shared his hell during the Holocaust.
With the publication of "The Periodic Table"on 1984, Primo Levi
became one of America's most beloved writers. This new collection
of his stories and essays reveals the full imaginative range of
this great Italian writer. Most of the stories are science fiction
and fantasy, combining Levi's love for science with his keen
perception of human nature. The essays, originally written for the
Italian newspaper "La Stampa, "cover a broad range of his
interests, from art and literature to politics and current affairs.
Levi's quick wit and humanity shine through in these gemlike
pieces.
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