Geboortegrond

by Czeslaw Milosz

Paper Book, 1982

Status

Available

Call number

891.858709

Collection

Publication

Amsterdam De Arbeiderspers cop. 1982

Description

The autobiography of the Nobel laureate Before he emigrated to the United States, Czeslaw Milosz lived through many of the social upheavals that defined the first half of the twentieth century. Here, in this compelling account of his early life, the author sketches his moral and intellectual history from childhood to the early fifties, providing the reader with a glimpse into a way of life that was radically different from anything an American or even a Western European could know. Using the events of his life as a starting point,Native Realm sets out to explore the consciousness of a writer and a man, examining the possibility of finding glimmers of meaning in the midst of chaos while remaining true to oneself. In this beautifully written and elegantly translated work, Milosz is at his very best.… (more)

Media reviews

New York Review of Books
Native Realm: A Search for Self-Definition—which has just been reissued—is an autobiography with a real title, and not just a fashionable quest for roots. The genius of Milosz is far too confident for him to wish to “rediscover” himself: it is a question of seeking to embody in
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consciousness and in poetry the individual’s complex and precious sense of itself. Looking back in 1968, when the book was first published in both Polish and English, he saw the forests and swamps of Lithuania as a rich manure heap out of which grows the butterfly of a detached and poetical awareness. With his secret fastidious humor, his natural delicacy, Milosz is fascinated by the vagaries of class in such a situation, no less than by those of race and language.
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User reviews

LibraryThing member thorold
This is a kind of political and historical autobiography in which Miłosz looks at his own life in the context of what was going on in Lithuania and Poland at the time. Although it is quite subjective here and there, and we get some engaging anecdotes from his school and student days, a lot of the
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time Miłosz himself seems to disappear from view as we get his detailed analysis of the complex historical situation of Wilno/Wilna/Vilnius and the surrounding area, and of Poland and Lithuania in general. Occasionally a little dry when it gets deep into political philosophy, but also quite fascinating, and of course also very disturbing when we move into his first-hand account of occupied Poland during World War II, when he had to survive by every means available, most of them illegal — since effectively nothing was legal.

Powerful stuff.
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Language

Original language

Polish

Original publication date

1959

ISBN

9029531312 / 9789029531313

Library's rating

Pages

337
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