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The Periodic Table: Introduction by Neal Ascherson
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The Periodic Table: Introduction by Neal Ascherson Hardcover - 1996

by Primo Levi; Raymond Rosenthal (Translator); Introduction by Neal Ascherson

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 publisher

The Periodic Table is largely a memoir of the years before and after Primo Levi's transportation from his native Italy to Auschwitz as an anti-Facist partisan and a Jew.

It recounts, in clear, precise, unfailingly beautiful prose, the story of the Piedmontese Jewish community from which Levi came, of his years as a student and young chemist at the inception of the Second World War, and of his investigations into the nature of the material world. As such, it provides crucial links and backgrounds, both personal and intellectual, in the tremendous project of remembrance that is Levi's gift to posterity. But far from being a prologue to his experience of the Holocaust, Levi's masterpiece represents his most impassioned response to the events that engulfed him.

The Periodic Table celebrates the pleasures of love and friendship and the search for meaning, and stands as a monument to those things in us that are capable of resisting and enduring in the face of tyranny.

Details

  • Title The Periodic Table: Introduction by Neal Ascherson
  • Author Primo Levi; Raymond Rosenthal (Translator); Introduction by Neal Ascherson
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition Reissue
  • Pages 278
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Everyman's Library, New York
  • Date 1996-10-01
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Illustrated
  • ISBN 9780679444633 / 0679444637
  • Weight 0.93 lbs (0.42 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.33 x 5.24 x 0.87 in (21.16 x 13.31 x 2.21 cm)
  • Reading level 1230
  • Themes
    • Topical: Holocaust
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 96008920
  • Dewey Decimal Code 858.914

Media reviews

“I immersed myself in The Periodic Table gladly and gratefully. There is nothing superfluous here, everything this book contains is essential. It is wonderful pure, and beautifully translated…I was deeply impressed.” –Saul Bellow

“The best introduction to the psychological world of one of the most important and gifted writers of our time.”–Italo Calvino

“A work of healing, of tranquil, even buoyant imagination.” –The New York Times Book Review

“Brilliant, grave and oddly sunny; certainly a masterpiece.” –Los Angeles Times

“Every chapter is full of surprises, insights, high humor, and language that often rises to poetry.” –The New Yorker

“One of the most important Italian writers.” –Umberto Eco

With a new Introduction by Neal Ascherson

About the author

PRIMO LEVI was born in Turin in 1919 to an Italian-Jewish family. Arrested as a member of the anti-Fascist resistance, he was deported to Auschwitz in 1944. After the war, Levi resumed his careers as a chemist and a writer in Turin until his untimely death in 1987. During his writing career, Levi won every distinguished prize in his native Italy. The Periodic Table, the first of his books to appear in America, was selected as one of the Best Books of 1985 by The New York Times Book Review.
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