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  <title><![CDATA[The First Circle (European Classics)]]></title>
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  <description><![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]></description>
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    <id>10420</id>
        <name><![CDATA[Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn]]></name>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[The First Circle]]>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[Derek Brown]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at>Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1990</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Aug 02 10:29:51 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Dec 17 03:25:11 -0800 2009</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[While it is overtly a story of talented engineers and technical types in a &quot;special prison&quot; in the Stalin era Soviet Union, it is an apt allegory of the workplaces in which many of us have, at times, found ourselves.<br/><br/>While typically Solzhenitsyn in style, it is appreciably less ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3972683">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle]]>
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  <average_rating>4.24</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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  <read_at>Sat Jul 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Aug 21 06:10:02 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Aug 21 06:30:41 -0700 2009</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[This book was an amazingly well written book (at least the translation that I read).  Solzhenitsyn takes you into one of the Soviet labor camps shortly after World War II - but this is a skilled labor camp just outside of Moscow and taken care of because of the important work that they do.  This mak...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68320051">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
  <id>39351244</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Manny]]></name>
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  <text_reviews_count type="integer">3</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[First Circle, The]]>
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  <average_rating>4.44</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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  <read_at>Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1975</read_at>
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  <date_updated>Tue May 12 07:15:52 -0700 2009</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[I work with speech understanding: making computers understand what people say. Oddly enough, this is the only novel I know which is centered around that technology. It's very credible, as one would expect from Solzhenitsyn. <br/><br/>I'm not sure how much of it is based on his own experiences. The...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/39351244">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[The First Circle]]>
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  <average_rating>4.26</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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    <rating>5</rating>
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  <read_at>Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Oct 14 19:07:44 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Oct 14 19:38:59 -0700 2008</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[This has to be one of the five best books written in the 20th century.  <br/><br/>Solzhenitsyn is able to bring to life with unbelievable clarity and insight (unlike the review I am writing) a few days in a late 1940s Russian gulag located outside of Moscow which is a special prison for engineers....<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/35335767">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/35335767]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/35335767]]></link>
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      <review>
  <id>3363857</id>
    <user>
    <id>196189</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Shannon]]></name>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle]]>
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  <average_rating>4.67</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>3</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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  <read_at>Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Sat Jul 21 19:27:34 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Jul 31 10:31:00 -0700 2007</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[In graduate school I read at least one short story by Solzhenitsyn.  I was not impressed and with so much other Russian lit that I loved, Solzhenitsyn fell by the way side.  Later when reading Anne Applebaum's book on the Gulag system, I thought I would give Solzhenitsyn another try.  So I started C...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3363857">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3363857]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3363857]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>54663</id>
    <user>
    <id>2247</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Jessica]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[New York, NY]]></location>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle]]>
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  <average_rating>4.26</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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  <read_at>Wed Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Feb 18 13:38:44 -0800 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Feb 18 13:43:48 -0800 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Not an &quot;easy&quot; read like Solzhenitsyn's A DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH, but intellectually much more rewarding if you can plow through the hundreds of different characters and intersecting plotlines.  A wonderfully intimate portrait of Soviet intellectual society from within the elit ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/54663">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/54663]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>25337004</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Jonathan]]></name>
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  <text_reviews_count type="integer">3</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[First Circle, The]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>4.26</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[A brilliant panorama of life in Stalin's Russia in which the system of incarceration and arbitrary punishment is all pervasive. A complex picture emerges in which those who genuinely believe in the progressive character of the Soviet system count too among its victims. The petty and the vindictive a...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/25337004">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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  <isbn13>9780810115903</isbn13>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[The First Circle]]>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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  <read_at>Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Sep 01 19:25:35 -0700 2009</date_added>
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    <body><![CDATA[I've read The First Circle several times, along with Cancer Ward.  Solzhenitsyn was a powerful writer, who experienced much of what his characters experienced, primarily life in the gulag.  Solzhenitsyn's characters suffer, but at the end they find redemption.  ]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/69756239]]></url>
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      <review>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle]]>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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  <read_at>Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Apr 28 17:55:42 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Apr 28 18:00:21 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[My first Solzhenitsyn experience. NEVER my last. You just literally enter the first circle of hell and feel with the characters. The realism. What more can I say?<br/> It's just a MUST READ for every self-respecting reader.  ]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/54298850]]></url>
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      <review>
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    <name><![CDATA[Jason]]></name>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle]]>
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  <ratings_count>452</ratings_count>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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  <date_added>Fri Oct 23 17:43:51 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Oct 23 17:44:48 -0700 2009</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[Goodreads doesn't seem to list it, but I'll actually be reading a brand-new edition of this book that just came out (October 2009), the very first completely uncensored version of this book in history.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75539592]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75539592]]></link>
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      <review>
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    <name><![CDATA[Paul]]></name>
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  <text_reviews_count type="integer">39</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The First Circle]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>4.26</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>452</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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  <date_added>Mon Aug 17 18:14:13 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Aug 17 18:15:23 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Actually reading a galley of the new, totally revised and authoritative version to be coming out in October. Rereading this classic for the first time in 20+ years. Phenomenal characterization and dialogue.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/67814792]]></url>
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      <review>
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    <name><![CDATA[Joseph]]></name>
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  <text_reviews_count type="integer">39</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The First Circle]]>
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  <average_rating>4.26</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>452</ratings_count>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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  <date_added>Sat Jul 04 15:04:27 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Nov 10 08:53:54 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I haven't so much as read the first page, but there is one very important thing to know about the versions of this book as they are quite different. The translation of the first edition published in 1968 is the watered-down version AIS tried to publish in the former USSR. He eliminated the more cont...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/62148516">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/62148516]]></url>
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      <review>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[First Circle, The]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>4.26</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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  <date_added>Wed Jul 09 08:11:33 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Jul 09 08:16:19 -0700 2008</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[Expansive and masterful depiction of life in Stalin's Russia, focused primarily on the workings of the GULAG and a technical prison outside of Moscow. Solzhenitsyn extends his tale from voices of the prisoners, following prosecutors, political operators and even Stalin himself. The scope of the nove...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26745600">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[In the First Circle]]>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, In the First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, In the First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[fascinating/terrifying/intense. a long one-- but definitely worth the (emotional) investment.]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle]]>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[Tough reading, but a must-read classic that's very informative of Communist Russia]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle]]>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[A challenge at times for a distracted reader to recall the various characters and their motivations -- nevertheless, Solzhenitsyn is adept at weaving many tales into one, and especially at balancing the central themes of honor and justice. The writer's talents are most obvious in the varied pacing o...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/32726845">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle]]>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[The First Circle by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (1969)]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/44206975]]></url>
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      <review>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Im ersten Kreis]]>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[Im ersten Kreis. by Alexander Solschenizyn (1985)]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle]]>
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    <![CDATA[The First Circle of Dante's Hell -- where the souls of the pre-Christian philosophers are doomed to exist throughout eternity -- stands in this novel as a metaphor for certain penal institutions of Stalin's Russia. Set in Moscow during a three-day period in December 1949, The First Circle is the story of the prisoner Gleb Nerzhin, a brilliant mathematician. At the age of thirty-one, Nerzhin has, like the author, survived the war years on the German front and the post-war years in a succession of Russian prisons and labor camps. His story is interwoven with the stories of a dozen fellow prisoners -- each an unforgettable human being -- from the prison janitor to the tormented Marxist intellectual who designed the Dnieper dam; of the reigning elite and their conflicted subordinates; and of the women, wretched or privileged, bound to these men. As we follow Nerzhin's fortunes, we become familiar with the inner paths of an entire society -- one vast Inferno -- and the diverse ways in which different men and women managed, or failed, to live within it. While Solzhenitsyn portrays the exercise of moral and political authority at all levels of the hierarchy (even devoting a few chapters to a portrait of a failing Stalin), the novel's principal setting is a special prison where inmates conduct scientific research. Through his treatment of the prisoners, the secret police, and the non-prisoner Muscovites trying to lead honest lives during this difficult period, Solzhenitsyn explores the problems of complicity and conscience, ends and means. Included are many reflections on Soviet history of the sort Solzhenitsyn expanded in The Gulag Archipelago. In 1962 the publication of One Day in theLife of Ivan Denisovich brought Solzhenitsyn international fame. Two years later, The First Circle was accepted for publication in a Soviet journal. Its publication was blocked, however, by Soviet authorities; ultimately the manuscript was smuggled abroad and published in translation in 1968. A landmark of Soviet Circle is as powerful today as when it was first published.]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[Solzhenitsyn can be an uneven writer.  Take, for example, the structure of this book: the first half (or more) deals with a 48 hour period; the remainder of the book takes place over a number of weeks.  Solzhenitsyn goes into a lot of little details and inner thoughts in the first part of the book, ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/11554015">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <body><![CDATA[Fiction]]></body>
    
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