Folio Archives 275: If This is a Man by Primo Levi 2000

If This is a Man by Primo Levi 2000

Primo Levi was an Italian Jew and a newly graduated chemist aged 24 when he was captured in December 1943 while with a band of partisans near Modena. He was transported to Auschwitz and managed to survive there until liberated by the Russians in the Spring of 1945.

This is a first hand account of his transportation, life, work, hardships, friendships, captors, starvation, privations, punishments and eventual reprieve. It pulls no punches and describes in detail the daily life of prisoners in atrocious conditions. It is by far the best description of the holocaust I have read.

Levi seems to have held no lasting bitterness to Germans as a whole, although he does hold some of those directly responsible to account. In an afterword he answers questions from readers of earlier editions of the book, and one gets to understand the humanity of the author. He died in 1987 aged 67.

The 234 page book is translated from the Italian by Stuart Woolf, introduced by Frederic Raphael and there are 12 enigmatic etchings by Jane Joseph. The endpapers are silver and the book is bound in dark blue cloth that is blocked with a wrap-around image in silver and grey. The dark blue slipcase is 23.7x18.2cm.

Levi also wrote The Truce : A Survivor's Journey Home from Aushwitz, which was published by the Folio Society in 2002. His novel, The Periodic Table, was published by the Folio Society in 2011.





















































An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.

Agree - a very powerful and disturbing read.

Usually known in North America as "Survival in Auschwitz". Primo Levi is one of my favourite authors.

An essential book.

Hmmm, The Periodic Table is one of my favourite books. Would you say that this one is just as powerful?

>5 Kainzow: It's a magnificent book, made an indelible impression on me. I wouldn't compare the two, but If This Is A Man is very powerful.

As an aside, I wonder if FS would ever consider publishing Ian Thomson's highly-regarded biography of Levi.

>4 overthemoon: I absolutely agree. The manner in which he laid out the grim reality in such a straightforward way and allowed the reader draw their own conclusions about man’s inhumanity to man, was so much more powerful to me than Solzhenitsyn’s depiction of the gulag with his often acting as an apologist for tsarism, and which I read at a similar time.

>7 HuxleyTheCat: His opening sentence, "It was my good fortune..." stunned me like a hammer blow.
The Periodic Table is excellent, and I'd also recommend The Wrench, which I read long long ago.

>1 wcarter: thanks for the, as ever, excellent review.
I have these three books on one of my lounge bookcases, and although The Periodic Table doesn’t match the other covers, it’s a good design.