- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: OUP Oxford; New edition edition (13 Mar 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0192801716
- ISBN-13: 978-0192801715
- Product Dimensions: 19 x 13 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 907,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Under Western Eyes (Penguin Classics)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
|
There is a newer edition of this item:
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
'Whenever two Russians come together, the shadow of autocracy is with them...haunting the secret of their silences.' First published in 1911, Under Western Eyes traces the experiences of Razumov, a young Russian student of philosophy who is uninvolved in politics or protest. Against his will he finds himself caught up in the aftermath of a terrorist bombing directed against the Tsarist authorities. He is pulled in different directions - by his conscience and his ambitions, by powerful opposed political forces, but most of all by personal emotions he is unable to suppress. Set in St Petersburg and Geneva, the novel is in part a critical response to Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment but it is also a startlingly modern book. Viewed through the 'Western eyes' of Conrad's English narrator, Razumov's story forces the reader to confront the same moral issues: the defensibility of terrorist resistance to tyranny, the loss of individual privacy in a surveillance society, and the demands thrown up by the interplay of power and knowledge. This new edition is based on the first English edition text, and has a new chronology and bibliography.
About the Author
Joseph Conrad was a Polish novelist who lived most of his life in Britain and didn't learn English until age 21. The young Conrad lived an adventurous life involving gunrunning and political conspiracy, and apparently had a disastrous love affair that plunged him into despair. He served 16 years in the merchant navy.In 1894, at age 36, Conrad reluctantly gave up the sea, partly because of poor health and partly because he had decided on a literary career.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Influenced by Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", also a gripping pyschological study of an aloof, "guilty" man, but with a new twist: this is a searing indictment of cynical Russian autocracy (so timeless!) - and of police states in general. And it also vividly illustrates Conrad's famous (and wise) scepticism about the effectiveness of violent revolutionary action. The hero Mr Razumov, and his associates, are oppressed human victims of these two great opposing forces. This is one of Conrad's very best works - better I think than "The Secret Agent" - and is also one of the best (and politically phrophetic) novels of the early 20th century.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Apart from being a gripping story, Under Western Eyes is one of best portrayals of the turn-of-the-century Russian mind that you will come across. Some of the characters, notably Razumov and the main exiled revolutionaries, could come straight out of Dostoyevsky. The dialogue is abstract, halting and slightly sinister, mixing intolerance, fear and semi-hysteria. Crucial to the atmospherics is the depiction of Geneva as a dull, smug, ugly city where freedom is taken for granted in a way that sets it a world apart from Russia. It may not quite be as good as Nostromo or Heart of Darkness, but it is well up there as one of the early 20th century's great novels.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I strongly recomend this book especially for people who have not read Conrad before: it is the easiest Conrad book to "get into" because the plot begins straight away and is imediately interesting. Through no fault or his own, through another person's misunderstanding the main character finds himself involved in a situation which changes his life and where he has to act in the face of moral dilemnas.There is no other writer like Conrad: the continual depths conveyed in all his books I have not encounted before in this way. This particular book is different from his others in subject matter - I have heard it said that it is more intellectual; you could say perhaps that it's subject is more intellectual and you would not be wrong. Still it is easy to read and compelling. I wish there were more writers like Joseph Conrad.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Beyond a heart most dark...
In ways almost all students, and certainly their teachers also, are hard-pressed to explain, one particular work of an author becomes the one "assigned," and the others are... Read more
Published 2 months ago by John P. Jones III
Comrade Conrad
This I believe is one of Conrad's later works and is bereft of the rampant descriptive verbosity that added an almost manic quality to the narrative of his earlier works. Read more
Published 12 months ago by nicholas hargreaves
Impressive
This is a beautifuuly written, well-told story by an under-rated author. Despite being written a century ago, it still has a very modern feel. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Donald Hughes
Revolution in Russia
Caught up in the aftermath of a terrorist bombing against the Tsarist authorities, Razumov, a young student uninvolved in politics or protest, finds himself trapped in a web of... Read more
Published on 20 Feb 2010 by Silvanus
Words are the greatest foes of reality
An English teacher (the 'Western Eyes') tries to find the truth behind the autobiography of a Russian agent, for 'words are the greatest foes of reality', and 'speech has been... Read more
Published on 22 May 2006 by Luc REYNAERT
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
