Books : To the Finland Station (New York Review Books Classics)
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by: Edmund Wilson
List Price: $18.95Amazon.com's Price: $12.89 You Save: $6.06 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 335.4
EAN: 9781590170335
ISBN: 1590170334
Label: NYRB Classics
Manufacturer: NYRB Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 544
Publication Date: April 30, 2003
Publisher: NYRB Classics
Release Date: April 30, 2003
Sales Rank: 233195
Studio: NYRB Classics
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Edmund Wilson's magnum opus, To the Finland Station, is a stirring account of revolutionary politics, people, and ideas from the French Revolution through the Paris Commune to the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917. It is a work of history on a grand scale, at once sweeping and detailed, closely reasoned and passionately argued, that succeeds in painting an unforgettable picture--alive with conspirators and philosophers, utopians and nihilists--of the making of the modern world.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Takes time to read it, but pays off tremendously
It has been several months since I finished To the Finland Station, and I'm still in awe of the scope of this book and its sensitive author. To the Finland Station is a world-class work of scholarly non-fiction. It reads like a novel partly because there are no endnotes or footnotes--though a handy index--but largely because the highly-perceptive writer, Edmund Wilson (1895-1972), mastered three elements of the novelist's craft: the narrative arc or rising and falling action, the reader's need ... Read More
Rating:  - At once an excellent and dismal overview of socialism
The American critical writer Edmund Wilson attempted in this book to give an overview of the historical development of socialism, or rather the many socialisms, until the 1930s. However, the result is a very mixed bag: sometimes Wilson reaches great heights, but sometimes it is bare nonsense too.
The best description I can give of the nature of the work is that it is very much a literary overview of socialism rather than a political-historical one. Wilson concentrates in all mini-biographies ... Read More
Rating:  - Interesting perspective on the Marx/Engels relationship
I didn't make it the whole way through this densely written and intimidating book, but I was absorbed by one aspect: its portrayal of the human interaction between Marx and Engels.
Karl Marx was a psychologically warped semi-genius who continually begged money and favors from his hardworking and enabling friend Friedrich Engels. Sometimes Marx would agree to write articles or essays that he couldn't produce - he manipulated Engels into ghostwriting, and still collected the pay himself.
... Read More
Rating: - Become a fly on the wall
of Marx's study. That's how this book makes you feel. Wilson's mastery of prose, artistry of language and clarity of vision draws you into the lives of his subjects so you feel you're there. You can almost smell the smoke from Marx's pipe as he writes, feel the boils on his butt, and hear his grandkids whinning on his knee as he plugs away at Kapital.
And this is just one of his subjects. Wilson has given us a living, breathing history that reads like an epic novel. One of the, if no THE best histories ... Read More
Rating: - Overrated 'great man history', fun, not useful for activists
For a reader looking for insight into the nature of revolutionary struggle, this widely-touted book was disappointing. The interlaced series of biographical sketches of communist and socialist figures of the late 19th and early 20th century are engaging, thoroughly researched, and well-written, but often border on caricature. Lenin is painted as a saint, and the anarchists are given short shrift, represented only by a sketch of Bakunin as a vicious nihilist. Wilson gives voice in analyzing his characters to form of ... Read More
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