
- 784 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
The thrilling Cold War masterwork by the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Gulag Archipelago, published in full for the first time.
"Solzhenitsyn's best novel. . . . A great and important book, whose qualities are finally fully available to English-speaking readers.” —Washington Post
Moscow, Christmas Eve, 1949.The Soviet secret police intercept a call made to the American embassy by a Russian diplomat who promises to deliver secrets about the nascent Soviet Atomic Bomb program. On that same day, a brilliant mathematician is locked away inside a Moscow prison that houses the country's brightest minds. He and his fellow prisoners are charged with using their abilities to sleuth out the caller's identity, and they must choose whether to aid Joseph Stalin's repressive state—or refuse and accept transfer to the Siberian Gulag camps . . . and almost certain death.
First written between 1955 and 1958, In the First Circle is Solzhenitsyn's fiction masterpiece. In order to pass through Soviet censors, many essential scenes—including nine full chapters—were cut or altered before it was published in a hastily translated English edition in 1968. Now with the help of the author's most trusted translator, Harry T. Willetts, here for the first time is the complete, definitive English edition of Solzhenitsyn's powerful and magnificent classic.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Cast of Characters
- Authorâs Note
- Chapter 1 - Torpedo
- Chapter 2 - A Miscue
- Chapter 3 - Sharashka
- Chapter 4 - A Protestant Christmas
- Chapter 5 - Boogie-Woogie
- Chapter 6 - A Peaceful Existence
- Chapter 7 - A Womanâs Heart
- Chapter 8 - âOh, Moment, Stay!â
- Chapter 9 - The Fifth Year in Harness
- Chapter 10 - The Rosicrucians
- Chapter 11 - The Enchanted Castle
- Chapter 12 - Number Seven
- Chapter 13 - He Should Have Lied
- Chapter 14 - The Blue Light
- Chapter 15 - A Girl! A Girl!
- Chapter 16 - A Troika of Liars
- Chapter 17 - Hot Water
- Chapter 18 - âOh, Wonder-Working Steedâ
- Chapter 19 - The Birthday Hero
- Chapter 20 - A Study of a Great Life
- Chapter 21 - Give Us Back the Death Penalty!
- Chapter 22 - The Emperor of the Earth
- Chapter 23 - Language as an Instrument of Production
- Chapter 24 - The Abyss Beckons Again
- Chapter 25 - The Church of Nikita the Martyr
- Chapter 26 - Sawing Wood
- Chapter 27 - A Bit of Methodology
- Chapter 28 - The Junior Lieutenantâs Job
- Chapter 29 - The Lieutenant Colonelâs Job
- Chapter 30 - A Puzzled Robot
- Chapter 31 - How to Darn Socks
- Chapter 32 - On the Path to a Million
- Chapter 33 - Penalty Marks
- Chapter 34 - Voiceprints
- Chapter 35 - Kissing Is Forbidden
- Chapter 36 - Phonoscopy
- Chapter 37 - The Silent Alarm
- Chapter 38 - Be Unfaithful to Me!
- Chapter 39 - Fine Words, Those, âTo the Taiga!â
- Chapter 40 - A Rendezvous
- Chapter 41 - And Another One
- Chapter 42 - And Among the Kids
- Chapter 43 - A Woman Was Washing the Staircase
- Chapter 44 - Out in the Open
- Chapter 45 - The Running Dogs of Imperialism
- Chapter 46 - The Castle of the Holy Grail
- Chapter 47 - Top-Secret Conversation
- Chapter 48 - The Double Agent
- Chapter 49 - Life Is Not a Novel
- Chapter 50 - The Old Maid
- Chapter 51 - Fire and Hay
- Chapter 52 - To the Resurrection of the Dead!
- Chapter 53 - The Ark
- Chapter 54 - Leisure Amusements
- Chapter 55 - Prince Igor
- Chapter 56 - Winding Up the Twentieth
- Chapter 57 - Prisonersâ Petty Matters
- Chapter 58 - A Banquet of Friends
- Chapter 59 - The Buddhaâs Smile
- Chapter 60 - But We Are Given Only One Conscience, Too
- Chapter 61 - The Uncle at Tver
- Chapter 62 - Two Sons-in-Law
- Chapter 63 - The Diehard
- Chapter 64 - Entered Cities First
- Chapter 65 - A Duel Not by the Rules
- Chapter 66 - Going to the People
- Chapter 67 - Spiridon
- Chapter 68 - Spiridonâs Criterion
- Chapter 69 - Behind a Closed Visor
- Chapter 70 - Dotty
- Chapter 71 - Letâs Agree That This Didnât Happen
- Chapter 72 - Civic Temples
- Chapter 73 - A Circle of Wrongs
- Chapter 74 - Monday Dawn
- Chapter 75 - Four Nails
- Chapter 76 - Favorite Profession
- Chapter 77 - The Decision Taken
- Chapter 78 - The Professional Party Secretary
- Chapter 79 - The Decision Explained
- Chapter 80 - One Hundred Forty-Seven Rubles
- Chapter 81 - The Scientific Elite
- Chapter 82 - Indoctrination in Optimism
- Chapter 83 - The King of Stool Pigeons
- Chapter 84 - As for Shooting . . .
- Chapter 85 - Prince Kurbsky
- Chapter 86 - No Fisher of Men
- Chapter 87 - At the Fount of Science
- Chapter 88 - The Leading Ideology
- Chapter 89 - Little Quail
- Chapter 90 - On the Back Stairway
- Chapter 91 - Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here
- Chapter 92 - Keep Forever
- Chapter 93 - Second Wind
- Chapter 94 - Always Caught Off Guard
- Chapter 95 - Farewell, Sharashka
- Chapter 96 - Meat
- About the Author
- Also by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
- Credits
- Copyright
- About the Publisher