The Oak And The Calf: Sketches Of Literary Life In The Soviet Union
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
A landmark work of literary memoir and political testimony, The Oak and the Calf chronicles Alexander Solzhenitsyn's harrowing struggle to write and publish truthful literature under the crushing weight of the Soviet censorship apparatus. With unflinching candor, it details his decades-long battle against the Soviet Writers' Union, the KGB, and the Kremlin itself, painting a vivid portrait of what it meant to be an artist of conscience in a totalitarian state. The title draws on a Russian proverb — the calf butting its head against the oak — to illustrate the seemingly impossible defiance of one man's pen against the immovable machinery of state power, yet Solzhenitsyn's account is anything but defeated in tone. Written with fierce moral clarity and at times sardonic wit, it presents intimate sketches of fellow writers, editors, and dissidents, revealing the compromises, betrayals, and rare acts of courage that defined Soviet literary life. An indispensable document of 20th-century history, it stands as both a personal testament and a searing indictment of ideological tyranny's war on truth.
Author: Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Format: Paperback
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
A landmark work of literary memoir and political testimony, The Oak and the Calf chronicles Alexander Solzhenitsyn's harrowing struggle to write and publish truthful literature under the crushing weight of the Soviet censorship apparatus. With unflinching candor, it details his decades-long battle against the Soviet Writers' Union, the KGB, and the Kremlin itself, painting a vivid portrait of what it meant to be an artist of conscience in a totalitarian state. The title draws on a Russian proverb — the calf butting its head against the oak — to illustrate the seemingly impossible defiance of one man's pen against the immovable machinery of state power, yet Solzhenitsyn's account is anything but defeated in tone. Written with fierce moral clarity and at times sardonic wit, it presents intimate sketches of fellow writers, editors, and dissidents, revealing the compromises, betrayals, and rare acts of courage that defined Soviet literary life. An indispensable document of 20th-century history, it stands as both a personal testament and a searing indictment of ideological tyranny's war on truth.