Victor Serge: The Course is Set on Hope Hardcover - 2001

First line

From the detritus of the disintegrated Soviet Union there seems little worth salvaging for a possible future.

Media reviews

“Victor Serge was probably the greatest working-class writer of the twentieth century. As this superb study makes clear, he was also the Revolution’s most ardent lover and indestructible conscience.”—Mike Davis

“Have you ever come across one of those madmen who joyfully, ironically and lightheartedly strove to build the world soviet republic? Or one of those revolutionaries who never gave up hope, despite betrayal and defeat, prison and exile? Susan Weissman presents Victor Serge, a member of that race of giants, a gargantuan in the fight for freedom and collective happiness.”—Antonio Negri

“Victor Serge is one of the unsung heroes of a corrupt century: a figure of great political courage and humanity. It is a pleasure to see this major witness to our time at last get the careful, sympathetic and informed biography he has so long deserved.”—Adam Hochschild

“In 1968, when I was preparing for a poetry reading in Mexico, my Mexican friends loaned me Victor Serge’s typewriter. My fingers almost froze as each touch of the keyboard brought to life the ghosts of the past...This is a unique book about a unique man, Victor Serge, who, in being one of the first to fight for a truly humanitarian socialism, was punished for his shame at the betrayal of the revolution he so longed for.”—Yevgeny Yevtushenko