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catincaciornei's review
5.0
Beautiful historical reading! I took advantage of numerous free resources put up during unhappy COVID-19 lockdown and read "My Past And Thoughts" by Alexander Herzen free on archive.org (they have amazing old books, few nowhere to be found otherwise; it's usually free at all times, but one must borrow a book for not longer than 14 days, and cue for it if it's not available - just like in a regular library; Mr. Herzen's biography cannot be passed through is a couple of week, I've found, and it was always leased before - probably because it's dense and brimming with wonders).
Mr Herzen, born in 1812, was a Russian nobleman and intellectual, popularly known as the "father of Russian socialism". Him and Marx were on different sides of the philosophical debate about socialism - if only for this and one must read this book! This is Mr. Herzen's autobiography, written in flowing meandering essay-style, throughout decades.
It is a narrow book, in that it likely proves interesting for those curious about Russian history, the many boiling years that preceded the Bolshevik revolution, and the evolution of thought in Europe during the 1800's.
It is amazing to see how new is old and old is new, how ideas circulate and reverberate for hundred of years, how history evolves seemingly in patters, repetitions directly linked to our humane specific repetitive character.
Mr. Herzen tells us his life, from his upbringing (the book's beginning is magical, foretelling of its author's great powers of storytelling: "Vera Artamonovna, come tell me once more how the French came to Moscow" - Napoleon's entry into Moscow took place the same year, 1812, that the author was born) to his studies, his banishment inside and outside Russia, his clandestine newspaper undertakings in Western Europe. We see his life unfold, his thinking crystallise, and it is a magical road to walk on. I really recommend this to anyone interested in Russian and/or European history.
Mr Herzen, born in 1812, was a Russian nobleman and intellectual, popularly known as the "father of Russian socialism". Him and Marx were on different sides of the philosophical debate about socialism - if only for this and one must read this book! This is Mr. Herzen's autobiography, written in flowing meandering essay-style, throughout decades.
It is a narrow book, in that it likely proves interesting for those curious about Russian history, the many boiling years that preceded the Bolshevik revolution, and the evolution of thought in Europe during the 1800's.
It is amazing to see how new is old and old is new, how ideas circulate and reverberate for hundred of years, how history evolves seemingly in patters, repetitions directly linked to our humane specific repetitive character.
Mr. Herzen tells us his life, from his upbringing (the book's beginning is magical, foretelling of its author's great powers of storytelling: "Vera Artamonovna, come tell me once more how the French came to Moscow" - Napoleon's entry into Moscow took place the same year, 1812, that the author was born) to his studies, his banishment inside and outside Russia, his clandestine newspaper undertakings in Western Europe. We see his life unfold, his thinking crystallise, and it is a magical road to walk on. I really recommend this to anyone interested in Russian and/or European history.
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