What do you all think of Alexander Solzhenitsyn? I know he was orthodox and not Catholic. Have you read any of his books and would you recommend reading him?

One of the giants of the 20th century! He was a Communist who returned to his Orthodox roots. He was a profound writer and critic of the modern world. Dr. David Allen White has spoken about him many times.

Read whatever you can get your hands on but perhaps you should start with "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich."

Expecting Solzhenitsyn to embrace the "Amerocentric" view of the world, he was not embraced by the Western intelligentsia after his famous Harvard speech. He gave very few interviews after this episode and spent a great many years in Vermont, isolated, secluded, raising his children (one son is a great pianist while the other's occupation escapes me) and writing. He was a very devout Orthodox believer.

If you want a good biography of his life read Joseph Pierce's "A Soul in Exile." It is a wonderful book. If you want more of a literary artistic insight into his life watch these videos "The Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn" on YouTube which was produced towards the end Solzhenitsyn's life when he had returned to Russia the land he always loved. There are 19 parts...here is part 1:



Here is a link to his Harvard Address (1978): http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/solzhenitsyn/harvard1978.html
Video:

Here is a link to his Nobel Lecture in 1970 titled "Beauty Will Save the World":
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/solzhenitsyn/nobel-lit1970.htm





 

Quote from: Matto

What do you all think of Alexander Solzhenitsyn? I know he was orthodox and not Catholic. Have you read any of his books and would you recommend reading him?

One of the giants of the 20th century! He was a Communist who returned to his Orthodox roots. He was a profound writer and critic of the modern world. Dr. David Allen White has spoken about him many times.

Read whatever you can get your hands on but perhaps you should start with "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich."

Expecting Solzhenitsyn to embrace the "Amerocentric" view of the world, he was not embraced by the Western intelligentsia after his famous Harvard speech. He gave very few interviews after this episode and spent a great many years in Vermont, isolated, secluded, raising his children (one son is a great pianist while the other's occupation escapes me) and writing. He was a very devout Orthodox believer.

If you want a good biography of his life read Joseph Pierce's "A Soul in Exile." It is a wonderful book. If you want more of a literary artistic insight into his life watch these videos "The Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn" on YouTube which was produced towards the end Solzhenitsyn's life when he had returned to Russia the land he always loved. There are 19 parts...here is part 1:



Here is a link to his Harvard Address (1978): http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/solzhenitsyn/harvard1978.html
Video:

Here is a link to his Nobel Lecture in 1970 titled "Beauty Will Save the World":
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/solzhenitsyn/nobel-lit1970.htm





 

I could not have said this better.  He was a great man indeed, and his writing is worth attention.

I haven't either. But it's what he doesn't say that's a problem.

He waited till he was at death's door to talk about the Jєωs.

I'll take someone like Robert Faurisson over this guy any day.

I highly recommend the Gulag Archipelago  It is a story of the prison camps.

I second!

I have heard that some of his works have not been translated into English. Could this be making it appear that he did not talk about them until the end of his life?

You've hit the nail on the head. Every important (i.e., well-off) publishing operation in the English-speaking world is run by members of a certain Tribe. They have decided that Solzhenitsyn's last book, Two Hundred Years Together—a work of history, not fiction—should not be allowed to see the light of day in English translation.

Starting in 2009, a great many people contributed substantial sums of money to sponsor a chapter-by-chapter translation of the book to appear, first, online and then, if possible, in print. Fully two-thirds (18 of 27) of the chapters were excellently translated and posted one after another. The web site sponsoring the project, however, pulled all the chapters offline back in 2011, claiming that print publication was imminent. So is the Parousia, of course, at least in a certain sense.

Whether the site owner was a plant from the word go or was simply bought off or hounded off the Web by the usual suspects—the crowd David Irving has long called "the traditional enemies of free speech"—hardly matters. Many of the translated chapters are simply gone—for how long is anyone's guess.

This site, about which I know nothing, still has active links to some of the chapters, and other chapters may possibly turn up here and there if you search assiduously. There are also quite a few interesting articles reflecting on the contents of the chapters posted at the Occidental Observer. This is a very interesting site but by no means a Catholic one.

An update. Sixteen translated chapters of Two Hundred Years Together may still be found here.

An update. Sixteen translated chapters of Two Hundred Years Together may still be found here.

Thanks!