First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

At the height of Stalin's postwar terror, Innokenty, a young diplomat and scion of a corrupt ruling class, discovers an earlier and more spiritual tradition than that adopted by the October Revolution, the beginning of a process which is Solzhenitsyn's basic theme: the individual's experience of acquiring an immortal soul. Unwisely but generously, Innokenty helps a friend in danger of arrest, only to be arrested himself and sent to a special prison. This, the archetype of the Gulag, is described with masterful psychological insight. There are no heroes and hardly any villains; oppressors are no less victims then the oppressed. In the great tradition of the Russian novel, The First Circle is both a brooding account of human nature and a scrupulously exact description of a historical period.

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The 657th greatest fiction book of all time


This book is on the following lists:

  1. - The New Lifetime Reading Plan (The New Lifetime Reading Plan)
  2. - 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (The Book)

Buy This Book

Name Binding Sales Rank Lowest New Lowest Used Published
The First Circle (English and Russian Edition) Hardcover 1178487 $44.98 $5.00 1969
The First Circle Paperback 4602782 $8.24 $0.01
The First Circle Paperback 9987636 $0.01
The First Circle (European Classics) Paperback 1601087 $14.42 $1.59 1997
The First Circle Mass Market Paperback 1348515 $29.95 $0.01
First Circle Paperback 2473986 $132.90 $0.01
The first circle Hardcover 4333914 $0.80
First Circle Hardcover 3032514 $1.62
In the First Circle: The First Uncensored Edition Kindle Edition 89149 $15.49 2012
In the First Circle: (Complete Edition - Uncensored Translation) Kindle Edition 332571 $4.99 2020
The First Circle Paperback 10388340 $17.49 $3.36 1988
In the First Circle Paperback 253080 $15.40 $8.34 2009