Childhood, Youth and Exile
1977
First Published
3.95
Average Rating
306
Number of Pages
This book comprises the first two parts of Herzen's autobiography, My Past and Thoughts, one of the greatest monuments of Russian iterature, comparable to the major works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Turgenev. Herzen begins with his nurse's account of Napoleon's occupation of Moscow in 1812, and continues through his solitary boyhood and close friendship with his cousin Nick Ogarev, his days at Moscow University, and his eventual imprisonment for his socialist beliefs. The book ends with his adventures in exile which are vividly recounted and disply the rich observation of detail that make Herzen's work so compelling.
Avg Rating
3.95
Number of Ratings
65
5 STARS
31%
4 STARS
43%
3 STARS
17%
2 STARS
9%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads
Author
Alexander Herzen
Author · 8 books
Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (Russian: Александр Иванович Герцен) was a Russian pro-Western writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism", and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism (being an ideological ancestor of the Narodniki, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Trudoviks and the agrarian American Populist Party). He is held responsible for creating a political climate leading to the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. His autobiography My Past and Thoughts, written with grace, energy, and ease, is often considered the best specimen of that genre in Russian literature. He also published the important social novel Who is to Blame? (1845–46).
