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Rare Antique Days of Wrath Andre Malraux Novel 1st Edition First Printing Fiction [Hardcover] Andre Malraux
This rare and vintage book is a perfect addition to any bibliophile's collection
233 pages, Hardcover
First published May 14, 1935
2 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
About the author
André Malraux
272 books400 followersMalraux was born in Paris during 1901, the son of Fernand-Georges Malraux and Berthe Lamy (Malraux). His parents separated during 1905 and eventually divorced. He was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother, Berthe and Adrienne Lamy in the small town of Bondy. His father, a stockbroker, committed suicide in 1930. Andre had Tourette's Syndrome during his childhood, resulting in motor and vocal tics.
At the age of 21, Malraux left for Cambodia with his new wife Clara Goldschmidt. In Cambodia, he undertook an exploratory expedition into the Cambodian jungle. On his return he was arrested by French colonial authorities for removing bas-reliefs from one of the temples he discovered. Banteay Srei (The French government itself had removed large numbers of sculptures and artifacts from already discovered sites such as Angkor Wat around this time). Malraux later incorporated the episode into his second novel La Voie Royale.
Malraux became very critical of the French colonial authorities in Indochina, and during 1925 helped to organize the Young Annam League and founded a newspaper Indochina in Chains.
On his return to France, he published The Temptation of the West (1926) which had the format of an exchange of letters between a Westerner and an Asian comparing aspects of the two cultures. This was followed by his first novel The Conquerors (1928), then by The Royal Way (1930) which was influenced by his Cambodian experience, and then by Man's Fate (La Condition Humaine). For La Condition Humaine, a novel about the 1927 failed Communist rebellion in Shanghai, written with obvious sympathy for the Communists, he won the 1933 Prix Goncourt.
During the 1930s, Malraux was active in the anti-Fascist Popular Front in France. At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War he joined the Republican forces in Spain, serving in, and helping to organize, their small air force. His squadron, called "España", became something of a legend after his claims of nearly annihilating part of the Nationalist army at Medellín.
According to Curtis Cate, his biographer, he was slightly wounded twice during efforts to stop the Falangists' takeover of Madrid, but the British historian Hugh Thomas denies this. He also toured the United States to raise funds for the Spanish Republicans. A novel influenced by his Spanish war experiences, Man's Hope, (L'Espoir) was published during 1938.
At the beginning of the Second World War, Malraux joined the French Army. He was captured in 1940 during the Battle of France but escaped and later joined the French Resistance. He was captured by the Gestapo during 1944 and underwent a mock execution. He later commanded the tank unit Brigade Alsace-Lorraine in defence of Strasbourg and in the attack on Stuttgart (Germany). He was awarded the Médaille de la Résistance, the Croix de Guerre. He was also awarded the British Distinguished Service Order for his work with British liaison officers in Corrèze, Dordogne and Lot, and after Dordogne had been liberated, leading a battalion of former resistance fighters to Alsace-Lorraine where they fought alongside the First Army.
During the war he worked on a long novel, The Struggle with the Angel based on the story of the Biblical Jacob. The manuscript was destroyed by the Gestapo after his capture in 1944. A surviving first part titled The Walnut Trees of Altenburg, was published after the war. He would never write another novel.
Malraux and his first wife divorced during the 1940s. His daughter from this marriage, Florence (b.1933), married the filmmaker Alain Resnais.
Malraux had two sons by his second wife Josette Clotis: Pierre-Gauthier (1940-1961) and Vincent (1943-1961). During 1944, while Malraux was fighting in Alsace, Josette died when she slipped while boarding a train. His two sons were killed during 1961 in an automobile accident.
After the war, Malraux served in a variety of government p
At the age of 21, Malraux left for Cambodia with his new wife Clara Goldschmidt. In Cambodia, he undertook an exploratory expedition into the Cambodian jungle. On his return he was arrested by French colonial authorities for removing bas-reliefs from one of the temples he discovered. Banteay Srei (The French government itself had removed large numbers of sculptures and artifacts from already discovered sites such as Angkor Wat around this time). Malraux later incorporated the episode into his second novel La Voie Royale.
Malraux became very critical of the French colonial authorities in Indochina, and during 1925 helped to organize the Young Annam League and founded a newspaper Indochina in Chains.
On his return to France, he published The Temptation of the West (1926) which had the format of an exchange of letters between a Westerner and an Asian comparing aspects of the two cultures. This was followed by his first novel The Conquerors (1928), then by The Royal Way (1930) which was influenced by his Cambodian experience, and then by Man's Fate (La Condition Humaine). For La Condition Humaine, a novel about the 1927 failed Communist rebellion in Shanghai, written with obvious sympathy for the Communists, he won the 1933 Prix Goncourt.
During the 1930s, Malraux was active in the anti-Fascist Popular Front in France. At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War he joined the Republican forces in Spain, serving in, and helping to organize, their small air force. His squadron, called "España", became something of a legend after his claims of nearly annihilating part of the Nationalist army at Medellín.
According to Curtis Cate, his biographer, he was slightly wounded twice during efforts to stop the Falangists' takeover of Madrid, but the British historian Hugh Thomas denies this. He also toured the United States to raise funds for the Spanish Republicans. A novel influenced by his Spanish war experiences, Man's Hope, (L'Espoir) was published during 1938.
At the beginning of the Second World War, Malraux joined the French Army. He was captured in 1940 during the Battle of France but escaped and later joined the French Resistance. He was captured by the Gestapo during 1944 and underwent a mock execution. He later commanded the tank unit Brigade Alsace-Lorraine in defence of Strasbourg and in the attack on Stuttgart (Germany). He was awarded the Médaille de la Résistance, the Croix de Guerre. He was also awarded the British Distinguished Service Order for his work with British liaison officers in Corrèze, Dordogne and Lot, and after Dordogne had been liberated, leading a battalion of former resistance fighters to Alsace-Lorraine where they fought alongside the First Army.
During the war he worked on a long novel, The Struggle with the Angel based on the story of the Biblical Jacob. The manuscript was destroyed by the Gestapo after his capture in 1944. A surviving first part titled The Walnut Trees of Altenburg, was published after the war. He would never write another novel.
Malraux and his first wife divorced during the 1940s. His daughter from this marriage, Florence (b.1933), married the filmmaker Alain Resnais.
Malraux had two sons by his second wife Josette Clotis: Pierre-Gauthier (1940-1961) and Vincent (1943-1961). During 1944, while Malraux was fighting in Alsace, Josette died when she slipped while boarding a train. His two sons were killed during 1961 in an automobile accident.
After the war, Malraux served in a variety of government p
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 16, 2020
Λίγο πριν το δεύτερο παγκόσμιο πόλεμο υπάρχει ανοιχτή σύγκρουση ανάμεσα στο φασισμό και στην επανάσταση σε όλη την Ευρώπη. Ο Μαλρω έχει λάβει πολύ συγκεκριμένη θέση.
Παρόλα αυτά τον νοιάζει πολύ και η ασήμαντη μικροζωη των ανθρώπων
Ο άνθρωπος είχε καταφέρει να 'ναι ανθρώπος, παρ' όλα τα μπουντρούμια, παρ'όλη τη σκληρότητα και μόνο η αξιοπρέπεια μπορούσε να αντιμετωπίσει τον πόνο
Η ελπίδα και η πίστη στον ελλειπή άνθρωπο είναι το Α και το Ω
Παρόλα αυτά τον νοιάζει πολύ και η ασήμαντη μικροζωη των ανθρώπων
Ο άνθρωπος είχε καταφέρει να 'ναι ανθρώπος, παρ' όλα τα μπουντρούμια, παρ'όλη τη σκληρότητα και μόνο η αξιοπρέπεια μπορούσε να αντιμετωπίσει τον πόνο
Η ελπίδα και η πίστη στον ελλειπή άνθρωπο είναι το Α και το Ω
September 29, 2023
Malraux’s 1936 novel of the concentration camps in Nazi Germany for communist political enemies is a warning of events to come. Lacking the deep philosophical musings of his previous novel (Man's Fate), Days of Wrath is a short novel about one man’s experience facing torture and trauma.
At two points in the novel, the protagonist, Kassner, sees himself as two different people – almost as if he were experiencing events as an observer outside his own body. And one of the key plot points also involves mistaken identity. The idea that fascism, which is devoted to lock-step unity, ultimately causes fractures – of the self, of groups, of families, of regions – is contrasted with the united collective of communism, in which solidarity of the collective leads to a stronger individual spirit. Kassner faces the darkness of the prison and the darkness of the unknown during his escape in a night flight over the smoke of concentration camps below, a stark image that would only come to be more disturbing as the years revealed the extent of the atrocities within. The sense is that Kassner is like Europe itself: at a breaking point, moving from one period of darkness to another.
Although not a classic, this novel is well worth tracking down as a snapshot of the tension and sense of foreboding for the Left in the days leading up to the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War.
At two points in the novel, the protagonist, Kassner, sees himself as two different people – almost as if he were experiencing events as an observer outside his own body. And one of the key plot points also involves mistaken identity. The idea that fascism, which is devoted to lock-step unity, ultimately causes fractures – of the self, of groups, of families, of regions – is contrasted with the united collective of communism, in which solidarity of the collective leads to a stronger individual spirit. Kassner faces the darkness of the prison and the darkness of the unknown during his escape in a night flight over the smoke of concentration camps below, a stark image that would only come to be more disturbing as the years revealed the extent of the atrocities within. The sense is that Kassner is like Europe itself: at a breaking point, moving from one period of darkness to another.
Although not a classic, this novel is well worth tracking down as a snapshot of the tension and sense of foreboding for the Left in the days leading up to the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War.
January 17, 2022
داستان مردی از حزب کمونیست آلمان که توسط حزب نازی دستگیر شده ولی مدارک کامل برای اثبات هویتش وجود نداره ولی به هر حال برای مدتی زندانی میشه و داستان شرایط و فشار و هجوم افکار در زندان رو شرح میده. به نظر من داستان کشش کافی برای اون حجم از توصیفات و تمثیل ها رو نداره و یه جاهایی واقعا خسته کننده میشه. ضمن اینکه به شخصه نمیتونم برای یک کمونیست دل بسوزونم و بنابراین با داستان همراه نمیشم حالا هرچند اون کمونیست در مقابل تفکرات فاشیستی و نازیسم باشه چرا که دلیلی نداره توی هر درگیری شما طرفدار یک طرف باشی. هرچند مالرو در نوشته ای طرفداری این کتاب از کمونیسم رو رد کرده و گفته بیشتر نظرش روی بحث انسانی و ضدیت با فاشیسم و نازیسم بوده ولی تمایلات چپ گرایانه مالرو سرتاسر داستان مشهوده. در نهایت دو ستاره کافیه براش
January 29, 2022
Θεωρείται , όχι άδικα, ένα από τα πρώτα αντιφασιστικά αριστουργήματα αφού ο Μαλρό αναγνώρισε τον φασισμό ως μέγιστη απειλή και το έγραψε πριν γίνουν γνωστά τα στρατόπεδα συγκεντρώσεως και το άρχισα την Πέμπτη, Διεθνής Ημέρα Μνήμης για τα Θύματα του Ολοκαυτώματος, χωρίς να είναι εσκεμμένο.
«Η σκέψη του πιανόταν από ότι έβλεπε μπροστά του, για να ξεφύγει από καθετί άλλο. Τι να σκεφτεί; Αν τον αναγνώριζαν, δεν θα του έμενε πια παρά να αναρωτιέται αν θα έρχονταν σε λίγο να τον σκοτώσουν, να τον βασανίσουν ή απλώς να τον σπάσουν στο ξύλο, καλύτερα να σκέφτεται τις επιγραφές.
Πολλές ήταν μισοσβησμένες. Μερικές κρυπτογραφικές. ‘Αν πρόκειται να μείνω εδώ, θα ψάξω να βρω τον τρόπο να τις διαβάσω’. Κάποιες ήταν καθαρές. Ξανάρχισε να περπατά γύρω γύρω στο κελί, πολύ αργά. Ξεχώρισε με το βλέμμα τις πιο ζωηρές και διάβαζε πλησιάζοντας: ‘Δεν θέλω..’ Η συνέχεια σβησμένη. Μια άλλη : ‘Να πεθάνει κανείς μες στον δρόμο δεν είναι τόσο άσχημο όσο το να πεθάνει εδώ μέσα’»..διαβάζοντας αυτό το τελευταίο μου ήρθε στο μυαλό ο θάνατος του αστέγου προ λίγων ημερών στη Θεσσαλονίκη. Δεν συγκρίνω, δε γίνεται, αλλά να ένα παράπονο με πιάνει..
Μια εσώτερη πάλη ανάμεσα στην τρέλα και στη σκέψη τόσο όσο να διατηρήσει ένα μικρό κομμάτι που θα του επιτρέψει να μη λυγίσει και συγχρόνως ένας ύμνος προς τη μουσική ως σωτήρια, ως αγάπη.
«Οι δύο φωτεινές κλωστές που έμπαιναν απ"την πόρτα και σχημάτιζαν ορθή γωνία, σβήστηκαν. Η δύναμή του, που που τώρα κατάντησε παρασιτική, τον ροκάνιζε επίμονα. Ήταν ένα ζώο δραστήριο, και το σκοτάδι τον αποτοξίνωνε απ"τη θέληση. Έπρεπε να περιμένει. Τίποτ" άλλο. Να βαστάξει. Να ζήσει σαν το λυχνάρι, σαν τους παράλυτους, σαν τους ετοιμοθάνατους, με την ίδια επίμονη και ναρκωμένη θέληση, σαν ένα πρόσωπο μέσ" στο βάθος του σκοταδιού. Αλλιώς η τρέλα.»
Και όπως διαβάζω πέφτω πάνω σε έναν στίχο ‘Κι αν τούτη η νύχτα είναι μια νύχτα της μοίρας…’ μα κάπου τον ξέρω λέω και συνεχίζει η γυναίκα του την απάντηση ‘…Ας είναι ευλογημένη, μέχρι να χαράξει η αυγή’..αχ ω ρε Σεφέρη που δεν αναγράφεσαι πουθενά…
«..Την ώρα τούτη, αν είναι νύχτα έξω, όπως εδώ, μέσα σ’ όλα τα σπίτια κάθεται ή κοιμάται σιωπηλά ένα κατατρεγμένο πλήθος. Γιατί η αγάπη είναι επιλογή, και δεν έχεις τίποτα να διαλέξεις, άμα δεν έχεις τίποτα να δώσεις»..πάντα επιλέγω την αγάπη ακόμη και όταν νομίζω ότι έχω αδειάσει, γιατί πολλές φορές το μυαλό απλά δε ξέρει..
Οπισθόφυλλο:
«Γερμανοί σύντροφοι, εσείς που έχετε αδέρφια ή παιδιά στο στρατόπεδο συγκέντρωσης, τούτη τη στιγμή, απ’ αυτή την αίθουσα ως την Ισπανία κι ως τον Ειρηνικό, πλήθη όμοια με μας είναι μαζεμένα και το νυχτέρι απλώνεται απ’ τη μια άκρη του κόσμου ως την άλλη…»
Ο κόσμος είχε έρθει εδώ μόνο και μόνο επειδή υμνούσε τον λαό που βρισκόταν θαμμένος μες στις φυλακές της Γερμανίας. Ήρθε εδώ γι’ αυτό που ήξερε και γι’ αυτό που αγνοούσε. Μέσα απ’ τον λόγο του ομιλητή, ο ανθρώπινος πόνος άπλωνε αστείρευτα τη δυνατή, υπόγεια φωνή του. Όλοι περίμεναν τα συνθήματα.
Ο Κάσνερ αναρωτιόταν πολλές φορές τι αξία είχε η σκέψη μπροστά στα δύο πτώματα της Σιβηρίας με τα συντριμμένα γεννητικά όργανα και τις πεταλούδες γύρω από το πρόσωπο. Καμία λέξη δεν είχε τόσο βάθος όσο η απανθρωπιά. Μα η αντρίκεια αδερφοσύνη την αντιμετώπισε μέσα στα τρίσβαθα του αίματος, μέσα στα πιο σκοτεινά μέρη της καρδιάς, όπου παραμονεύουν τα βασανιστήρια κι ο θάνατος…
«Η σκέψη του πιανόταν από ότι έβλεπε μπροστά του, για να ξεφύγει από καθετί άλλο. Τι να σκεφτεί; Αν τον αναγνώριζαν, δεν θα του έμενε πια παρά να αναρωτιέται αν θα έρχονταν σε λίγο να τον σκοτώσουν, να τον βασανίσουν ή απλώς να τον σπάσουν στο ξύλο, καλύτερα να σκέφτεται τις επιγραφές.
Πολλές ήταν μισοσβησμένες. Μερικές κρυπτογραφικές. ‘Αν πρόκειται να μείνω εδώ, θα ψάξω να βρω τον τρόπο να τις διαβάσω’. Κάποιες ήταν καθαρές. Ξανάρχισε να περπατά γύρω γύρω στο κελί, πολύ αργά. Ξεχώρισε με το βλέμμα τις πιο ζωηρές και διάβαζε πλησιάζοντας: ‘Δεν θέλω..’ Η συνέχεια σβησμένη. Μια άλλη : ‘Να πεθάνει κανείς μες στον δρόμο δεν είναι τόσο άσχημο όσο το να πεθάνει εδώ μέσα’»..διαβάζοντας αυτό το τελευταίο μου ήρθε στο μυαλό ο θάνατος του αστέγου προ λίγων ημερών στη Θεσσαλονίκη. Δεν συγκρίνω, δε γίνεται, αλλά να ένα παράπονο με πιάνει..
Μια εσώτερη πάλη ανάμεσα στην τρέλα και στη σκέψη τόσο όσο να διατηρήσει ένα μικρό κομμάτι που θα του επιτρέψει να μη λυγίσει και συγχρόνως ένας ύμνος προς τη μουσική ως σωτήρια, ως αγάπη.
«Οι δύο φωτεινές κλωστές που έμπαιναν απ"την πόρτα και σχημάτιζαν ορθή γωνία, σβήστηκαν. Η δύναμή του, που που τώρα κατάντησε παρασιτική, τον ροκάνιζε επίμονα. Ήταν ένα ζώο δραστήριο, και το σκοτάδι τον αποτοξίνωνε απ"τη θέληση. Έπρεπε να περιμένει. Τίποτ" άλλο. Να βαστάξει. Να ζήσει σαν το λυχνάρι, σαν τους παράλυτους, σαν τους ετοιμοθάνατους, με την ίδια επίμονη και ναρκωμένη θέληση, σαν ένα πρόσωπο μέσ" στο βάθος του σκοταδιού. Αλλιώς η τρέλα.»
Και όπως διαβάζω πέφτω πάνω σε έναν στίχο ‘Κι αν τούτη η νύχτα είναι μια νύχτα της μοίρας…’ μα κάπου τον ξέρω λέω και συνεχίζει η γυναίκα του την απάντηση ‘…Ας είναι ευλογημένη, μέχρι να χαράξει η αυγή’..αχ ω ρε Σεφέρη που δεν αναγράφεσαι πουθενά…
«..Την ώρα τούτη, αν είναι νύχτα έξω, όπως εδώ, μέσα σ’ όλα τα σπίτια κάθεται ή κοιμάται σιωπηλά ένα κατατρεγμένο πλήθος. Γιατί η αγάπη είναι επιλογή, και δεν έχεις τίποτα να διαλέξεις, άμα δεν έχεις τίποτα να δώσεις»..πάντα επιλέγω την αγάπη ακόμη και όταν νομίζω ότι έχω αδειάσει, γιατί πολλές φορές το μυαλό απλά δε ξέρει..
Οπισθόφυλλο:
«Γερμανοί σύντροφοι, εσείς που έχετε αδέρφια ή παιδιά στο στρατόπεδο συγκέντρωσης, τούτη τη στιγμή, απ’ αυτή την αίθουσα ως την Ισπανία κι ως τον Ειρηνικό, πλήθη όμοια με μας είναι μαζεμένα και το νυχτέρι απλώνεται απ’ τη μια άκρη του κόσμου ως την άλλη…»
Ο κόσμος είχε έρθει εδώ μόνο και μόνο επειδή υμνούσε τον λαό που βρισκόταν θαμμένος μες στις φυλακές της Γερμανίας. Ήρθε εδώ γι’ αυτό που ήξερε και γι’ αυτό που αγνοούσε. Μέσα απ’ τον λόγο του ομιλητή, ο ανθρώπινος πόνος άπλωνε αστείρευτα τη δυνατή, υπόγεια φωνή του. Όλοι περίμεναν τα συνθήματα.
Ο Κάσνερ αναρωτιόταν πολλές φορές τι αξία είχε η σκέψη μπροστά στα δύο πτώματα της Σιβηρίας με τα συντριμμένα γεννητικά όργανα και τις πεταλούδες γύρω από το πρόσωπο. Καμία λέξη δεν είχε τόσο βάθος όσο η απανθρωπιά. Μα η αντρίκεια αδερφοσύνη την αντιμετώπισε μέσα στα τρίσβαθα του αίματος, μέσα στα πιο σκοτεινά μέρη της καρδιάς, όπου παραμονεύουν τα βασανιστήρια κι ο θάνατος…
December 25, 2012
Malraux is a good writer but sometimes his work reads too much like propaganda (for the communist party). The characters only seem to have feelings, emotion and thoughts to the extent of what a good (selfless) comrade would think or do, not what would be most human or interesting. Characters as vehicles for a cause sometimes work, but not very well in this story.
November 22, 2015
το ζοφερό παραλήρημα ενός φυλακισμένου μέσα στην λαίλαπα του ναζισμού...δυνατές εικόνες,έντονες αντιθέσεις και τα συστατικά της συντροφικότητας...ωστόσο παραήταν μαύρο για μένα...
April 11, 2020
Nothing much happens in this elongated story (not really a novel) about several days in the life of Kassner, a Communist organizer trying to survive in mid-1930s Nazi Germany. His experiences in this short span see him, if anything, become even more committed to the cause of collective humanism as interpreted by his party. Many passages read like stereotypes of French intellectualism, especially in Malraux's elliptical preface. But a few stretches of elegant writing deliver sentiment and atmosphere rather than obscurity, and the whole story is a reminder that the Second World War, just over the horizon at the time of writing and publishing, was for many Europeans very much a civil war.
March 25, 2023
This short novel vividly compares the dark world of totalitarianism, fascist or communist, with the potentially brighter world of a free society. A long section is set in a Nazi prison, anti-Fascist men in their cells either shouting with pain or trying discretely to communicate with other prisoners.
gone-gave-away
March 21, 20241936 hardback. Donating.
Was a lifelong communist.
We got assigned his Mans Fate when I was in college. Don't like his ideas or his influence.
He was captured by the Gestapo in 1944 and survived it. They banned his books but he was free to publish in the non-Nazi West.
Was a lifelong communist.
We got assigned his Mans Fate when I was in college. Don't like his ideas or his influence.
He was captured by the Gestapo in 1944 and survived it. They banned his books but he was free to publish in the non-Nazi West.
November 10, 2018
کاسنر حس میکرد آنا به حرفهای او همانقدر با بدنش گوش میدهد که با شعورش. یعنی مثل مادری به حرفها گوش میداد و آنها را بهتر از آنچه او میگفت، درک میکرد.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 4, 2020
انسان بودن دشوار است. اما نه دشوارتر از انسان شدن با تعمیق وابستگی و همبستگی خود با دیگران، به جای تشدید تفاوتهای خود با آنها.
October 16, 2022
[...]Επρεπε μόνο να κατορθώσει να σωπάσει. Δεν ωφελούσε σε τίποτα να απαντήσει στα χτυπήματα με ιστορικές φράσεις, χρέος είχε να το σκάσει για να συνεχίσει την επαναστατική του δουλειά. [...]
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December 8, 2023So this novel feels so much like a French novel of the 1930s. And it is. It’s ruminative and thoughtful and harrowing in it’s own right. It also feels like a slightly juvenile novel, not really in it’s idea or in it’s execution, but in that way that socialist novels can often feel…politics upfront, narrative second.
So I decided to read this because while reading the Ralph Ellison collection of essays he mentions Malraux many times as one of the transformative writers he discovered in his youth that guided his thinking and his ideas. And I get that and respect that; in fact, I would have been equally as enamored when I was 20 if I found it then. It’s erudite but accessible, and it’s politics are attractive, if glaring.
The novel itself is about a German Communist revolutionary who is captured by the Nazis and placed in a concentration camp in the early 1930s. While there he is kept in solitude, which gives him time to think about the consider his condition. He does so, and then as he gets out he considers his life after.
It’s interesting to consider how his revolutionary thinking dictates his life and his actions. He has that kind of drive (especially away from a suicidal impulse) to stay alive to keep up his revolutionary practice. This also would have been very vivifying for me when I was younger: external purpose.
Interestingly to me this feels like a counternarrative to the Arthur Koestler novel “Darkness at Noon” which sort of tells the opposite story of a fallen Communist arrested by his party.
So I decided to read this because while reading the Ralph Ellison collection of essays he mentions Malraux many times as one of the transformative writers he discovered in his youth that guided his thinking and his ideas. And I get that and respect that; in fact, I would have been equally as enamored when I was 20 if I found it then. It’s erudite but accessible, and it’s politics are attractive, if glaring.
The novel itself is about a German Communist revolutionary who is captured by the Nazis and placed in a concentration camp in the early 1930s. While there he is kept in solitude, which gives him time to think about the consider his condition. He does so, and then as he gets out he considers his life after.
It’s interesting to consider how his revolutionary thinking dictates his life and his actions. He has that kind of drive (especially away from a suicidal impulse) to stay alive to keep up his revolutionary practice. This also would have been very vivifying for me when I was younger: external purpose.
Interestingly to me this feels like a counternarrative to the Arthur Koestler novel “Darkness at Noon” which sort of tells the opposite story of a fallen Communist arrested by his party.
June 13, 2012
I read Man's Fate in the past year - Malraux's most famous book - and loved it. Unfortunately I cannot find any reviews of his other books, and all of them seemed to be out of print. When I stumbled across Days of Wrath in a used book store, I figured it had to be comparable. I was wrong.
If you've ever read The Wall by Sartre, this will feel like the annoying, taciturn, cousin, in the genre of World War prisoner stories. Sartre's book said so much more, with less (e.g., pages, words, sentences, etc). This book is often desultory and guided along a trajectory to nonsense. The only reason I even feel compelled to give it two stars, is due to the historical insight I garnered, and the old commie devotion underground rebels used to have. Did you know that ambiguous prisoners the SS picked up were treated more humanely than Guantanamo prisoners!? Neither did I!
If you want to read an interesting prisoner tale, dealing with existential themes, read Sartre, and if you want to read a good commie book by Malraux, read Man's Fate. I should have skipped this book; everyone else seems to have skipped it too.
If you've ever read The Wall by Sartre, this will feel like the annoying, taciturn, cousin, in the genre of World War prisoner stories. Sartre's book said so much more, with less (e.g., pages, words, sentences, etc). This book is often desultory and guided along a trajectory to nonsense. The only reason I even feel compelled to give it two stars, is due to the historical insight I garnered, and the old commie devotion underground rebels used to have. Did you know that ambiguous prisoners the SS picked up were treated more humanely than Guantanamo prisoners!? Neither did I!
If you want to read an interesting prisoner tale, dealing with existential themes, read Sartre, and if you want to read a good commie book by Malraux, read Man's Fate. I should have skipped this book; everyone else seems to have skipped it too.
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December 13, 2024i'm not sure which came first, le temps du mépris or sartre's no exit but in any event they're two structurally analogous, yet distinctly opposed views of man's place in community. the preface is of more interest than the text (which is ordinary as far as postwar french novels are concerned), and seems modelled on some hodge-podge of marx's preface to the contribution and the '44 manuscripts, which would have been newly available to malraux after its discovery at the marx-engels-lenin institute in the early thirties. the contradictions between malraux's art and his political life make him one of the more unusual characters in the immediate postwar.
January 14, 2015
The story of a communist prisoner jailed in a pre WWII Nazi camp. Along with the torture administered by the Nazi guards he must also endure his own visions, despair, and solitude.
This book is just o.k. Good story but fairly poor writing or translation throughout. Really, there wasn't much of a conclusion or point to the book other than a little communist propaganda thrown in. Not bad, but there are better books that are similar that have since been written.
This book is just o.k. Good story but fairly poor writing or translation throughout. Really, there wasn't much of a conclusion or point to the book other than a little communist propaganda thrown in. Not bad, but there are better books that are similar that have since been written.
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