The Periodic Table
  • Published: 23 October 2000
  • ISBN: 9780141185149
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $24.99

The Periodic Table

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Paperback
12 Jun 2012
Paperback
28 Jun 2010
Paperback
23 Oct 2000
Paperback
4 Apr 1995
Hardback
27 Oct 1995
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'So it happens, therefore, that every element says something to someone'

A chemist by training, Primo Levi became one of the supreme witnesses to twentieth-century atrocity. In these haunting reflections inspired by the elements of the periodic table, he ranges from young love to political savagery; from the inert gas argon - and 'inert' relatives like the uncle who stayed in bed for twenty-two years - to life-giving carbon. 'Iron' honours the mountain-climbing resistance hero who put iron in Levi's student soul, 'Cerium' recalls the improvised cigarette lighters which saved his life in Auschwitz, while 'Vanadium' describes an eerie post-war correspondence with the man who had been his 'boss' there. All are written with characteristically understated eloquence and shot through with deep humanity.
  • Published: 23 October 2000
  • ISBN: 9780141185149
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $24.99
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About the author

Primo Levi

Primo Levi was born in Turin in 1919. The son of an educated middle-class Jewish family, he graduated with a degree in chemistry and found a job as a research chemist in Milan. In December 1943, he was arrested as part of the anti-fascist resistance and deported to Auschwitz. After the war, Levi resumed his career as a chemist, retiring only in 1975.

His graphic account of his time in Auschwitz, If This Is a Man, was published in 1947 and he went on to write many other books, including If Not Now, When? and The Periodic Table, emerging not only as one of the most profound and haunting commentators on the Holocaust, but as a great writer on many twentieth-century themes. In 1987, Primo Levi died in a fall that is widely believed to have been suicide.

Also by Primo Levi

The Survivor
Primo Levi's The Periodic Table
The Magic Paint
A Tranquil Star
A Tranquil Star
Moments Of Reprieve
If Not Now, When?
See all
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