Levi's memoir beats Darwin to win science book title
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1927916,00.html
James Randerson, science correspondent
Saturday October 21, 2006
The Guardian
Primo Levi's haunting memoir of life as a Jew in Mussolini's Italy told
through the unlikely metaphor of chemistry has been named the best science
book ever written.
The Periodic Table, published in 1975, fought off competition from Richard
Dawkins, DNA legend James Watson, Tom Stoppard, Bertolt Brecht and Charles
Darwin to win the vote at an event organised by the Royal Institution in
London.
"This book pinions my awareness to the solidity of the world around me," said
former Guardian science editor Tim Radford, who was the book's advocate at
the event. "The science book is the ultimate in non-fiction," he told the
Guardian's weekly science podcast. "You've got the entire universe and the
entire sub-atomic world to choose from and everything that has happened in
it."
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關於Primo Levi
http://books.guardian.co.uk/authors/author/0,,96564,00.html
PRIMO LEVI (1919-1987)
"I am a normal man with a good memory who fell into a maelstrom and got out
of it more by luck than by virtue, and who from that time on has preserved a
certain curiosity about maelstroms large and small, metaphorical and actual."
Birthplace
Turin, Italy
Education
University of Turin (chemistry)
Other jobs
He worked as a chemist ("I am a chemist by conviction"), and after the war
managed a paint factory before becoming a full-time writer.
Did you know?
Levi never removed the number tattooed on his arm at Auschwitz; it was
engraved on his headstone.
Critical verdict
Auschwitz "was what turned me into a writer": "I had an absolute need to
write. Not only as a moral duty, but as a psychological need." Levi's memoir
on his return was rejected by several publishers; brought out by a small
press, it swiftly disappeared and only found an audience as recently as 1958,
when it was republished. Levi continued to bear witness with his relation of
the journey home, The Truce; he also concentrated on tales of heroism and,
with The Drowned and the Saved, reviewed history's perceptions of the
Holocaust. But he found himself to be a fiction writer too: The Sixth Day and
The Mirror Maker approach science fiction and philosophy, while The Periodic
Table transcends genre. As Saul Bellow said, "There is nothing superfluous
here, everything this book contains is essential" - both content and style.
Recommended works
The Periodic Table - autobiography, scientific meditation, humanist
philosophy - is astonishing in every genre.
Influences
The combination in his writing style of the simplicity of fable and utter
precision of a grammarian is similar to Calvino.
Now read on
Other notable Holocaust memoirs include Elie Wiesel's Night and Victor
Klemperer's I Will Bear Witness.
Adaptations
The Truce was filmed by Francesco Rosi as La Tregua in 1996.
Recommended biography
Ferdinando Camon has published his Conversations with Primo Levi. 2002 saw
two lives, by Ian Thomson and Carole Angier.
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作者: bucklee (alessio) 看板: Italiano
標題: Re: 李維的週期表 PRIMO LEVI:Levi's memoir beats Darwin to wi …
時間: Mon Oct 23 23:01:20 2006
關於此篇報主要是要介紹Prmio Levi的Periodic Table週期表成為
英國皇家學院選出受歡迎的科學書。根據報導指出，這本屬於融合化
學元素以及個人在墨索里尼時代下猶太裔義大利人的困境的回憶錄。
不只是一個化學家，同時把自己在納粹集中營的經歷寫成傳記，
也讓成為聞名世界的作家。在戰後回到義大利，但不幸地最終以自殺
結束他悲苦的一生。
相關介紹 (英文)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primo_Levi
(義文介紹)
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primo_Levi
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※ 編輯: bucklee 來自: 61.216.44.38 (10/23 23:01)
※ 編輯: bucklee 來自: 61.216.44.38 (10/23 23:01)