{"product_id":"past-and-thoughts-by-alexander-herzen-an-annotated-critical-edition-edited-by-robert-n-harris","title":"Past and Thoughts by Alexander Herzen; An Annotated Critical Edition edited by Robert N. Harris","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn annotated translation of Alexander Herzen’s monumental memoir \u003cem\u003ePast and Thoughts\u003c\/em\u003e—the first new English-language edition in a century—captures the tumultuous life and penetrating cultural and political insights of the writer widely regarded as the founder of Russian socialism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIsaiah Berlin called Alexander Herzen’s magnum opus “a literary masterpiece worthy to be placed by the side of the novels of . . . Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky.” It was the most influential memoir published in nineteenth-century Russia, and its impact extended far beyond the tsarist era and the empire’s borders, inspiring generations of thinkers, leaders, and dissidents struggling against authoritarian regimes. This landmark English-language translation, thoroughly annotated with a new introduction, shows why \u003cem\u003ePast and Thoughts\u003c\/em\u003e is considered a great classic.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAgainst a dramatic backdrop of war, revolution, and exile, Herzen tells a stirring story of political agitation, marital scandal, betrayal, and despair. \u003cem\u003ePast and Thoughts \u003c\/em\u003ebegins with Napoleon’s invasion of Moscow during Herzen’s infancy, then follows the author’s central role in Russia’s emerging intelligentsia, his imprisonment and exile in the frozen north, his adventures across a mid-century Europe undergoing the turbulence of revolution and unification, and his founding of the first uncensored Russian-language press. We see the Paris revolts of 1848 and the flamboyant swashbucklers of Italy’s Risorgimento through Herzen’s sharp eyes, alongside his bold journalism, which reached both the tsar’s prisoners and the Winter Palace.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis edition restores a key section on the tragic denouement of Herzen’s marriage—omitted from previous abridged versions—and includes notes offering critical insight into Herzen’s historical sketches, travelogues, satire, poetry, philosophical excursions, and polemics. Tolstoy remarked that “Herzen awaits his readers in the future.” A piercing investigation of the human spirit and its enemies, \u003cem\u003ePast and Thoughts\u003c\/em\u003e is indeed a work for our time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHardback\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pushkin House Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57511483539834,"sku":null,"price":29.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/3406\/3009\/files\/9780674495104.jpg?v=1793636262","url":"https:\/\/shop.pushkinhouse.org\/products\/past-and-thoughts-by-alexander-herzen-an-annotated-critical-edition-edited-by-robert-n-harris","provider":"Pushkin House Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}