The Gulag, the Stalinist labour camps to which millions of Russians were condemned for political deviation, has become a household word in the West. This is due to the accounts of many witnesses, but most of all to the publication, in 1962, of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the novel that first brought Aleksandr Sozhenitsyn to public attention. His story of one typical day in a labour camp as experienced by prisoner Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is sufficient to describe the entire world of the Soviet camps. The original ...
Read More
The Gulag, the Stalinist labour camps to which millions of Russians were condemned for political deviation, has become a household word in the West. This is due to the accounts of many witnesses, but most of all to the publication, in 1962, of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the novel that first brought Aleksandr Sozhenitsyn to public attention. His story of one typical day in a labour camp as experienced by prisoner Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is sufficient to describe the entire world of the Soviet camps. The original text was first published in the Soviet journal Novy Mir, during the Khrushchev 'thaw'. However, in the rush to bring out the first translation, the novel was significantly diminished. The idiosyncratic language of the protagonist - a man of peasant origins and no formal education - the colloquialisms and prison-camp slang were inadequately rendered; dense, elliptical syntax was smoothed over; earthy dialogue vanished into euphemism. Moreover, the novel, published in the Soviet Union for avowedly political reasons, was received abroad almost exclusively as a political sensation. With this new translation, however, the full measure of the work's artistic achievement can finally be gauged.
Read Less
Add this copy of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich to cart. $8.54, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2019 by Must Have Books.
Add this copy of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich to cart. $12.30, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2014 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Add this copy of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich to cart. $12.98, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2009 by Berkley Books.
Absolutely fantastic. I swallowed it whole in one sitting. The stile mixes between first person and third person narrative, but it does so in an intelligent way. It's a very interesting read, and considering the fact it's a relatively short book, I reccomend any person with even a passing interest in Russian litterature, or the Gulags, read this. It won't take long, but it is well worth the money.
mrsp
Sep 15, 2011
Excellent
Great piece of literature that illustrates the true nature of Russian prison camps. Gives enormous insight into the nature of man, as an individual and in a society.
Ron Townsend
Mar 29, 2007
One day in the life of a Soviet
When my history teacher in my sophomore year in high school had us read this book there was concern that he was teaching us communism. That is true. He was teaching us just how bad it was in Soviet Russia and later as an adult I read 3 books by Dostoyevski and Tolstoy which greatly reflected how I better understood the Russian mind. Today, I feel we can still have good relations with the Russians. And that makes the suffering of those in the Soviet archipelago much more meaningful. I also read one of Solzhenitzen's books in graduate school and I feel like I am much better informed about our neighbors in the East. I am not a political science major. My major was in chemistry and Sakharov's bio was very good too.
