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One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: (50th Anniversary Edition) (Signet Classics) Mass Market Paperback – August 6, 2008

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 5,365 ratings

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The first published novel from the controversial Nobel Prize winning Russian author of The Gulag Archipelago.

In the madness of World War II, a dutiful Russian soldier is wrongfully convicted of treason and sentenced to ten years in a Siberian labor camp. So begins this masterpiece of modern Russian fiction, a harrowing account of a man who has conceded to all things evil with dignity and strength.
 
First published in 1962,
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is considered one of the most significant works ever to emerge from Soviet Russia. Illuminating a dark chapter in Russian history, it is at once a graphic picture of work camp life and a moving tribute to man’s will to prevail over relentless dehumanization.

Includes an Introduction by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
and an Afterword by Eric Bogosian
"All the Little Raindrops: A Novel" by Mia Sheridan for $10.39
The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A masterpiece...Squarely in the mainstream of Russia’s great literary traditions.”—The Nation
 
“An extraordinary human document.”—
Moscow’s Daily Mail

“Cannot fail to arouse bitterness and pain in the heart of the reader. A literary and political event of the first magnitude.”—
New Statesman

“Stark...the story of how one falsely accused convict and his fellow prisoners survived or perished in an arctic slave labor camp after the war.”—
Time

“Both as a political tract and as a literary work, it is in the Doctor Zhivago category.”—
Washington Post

“Dramatic...outspoken...graphically detailed...a moving human record.”—
Library Journal

About the Author

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was born in 1918, a year after the Bolsheviks stormed to power throughout Russia. He studied at the University of Rostov and served with distinction in the Russian Army during World War II. In 1945, he was arrested and imprisoned in a labor camp for eight years because he had allegedly made a derogatory remark about Stalin. Released in 1953 after the death of Stalin, he was forced to live in Central Asia, where he remained until Premier Khrushchev’s historic “secret speech” denouncing Stalin in 1956. Rehabilitated in 1957, Solzhenitsyn moved to Ryazin, married a chemistry student, and began to teach mathematics at the local school. In his spare time he started to write. In 1970, Solzhenitsyn received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Four years later the Soviet Union revoked his citizenship, and he was deported. Solzhenitsyn settled in Vermont in 1984, but eventually returned to Russia in 1994, after the collapse of communism. He died in 2008.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0451531043
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Signet; 1st edition (August 6, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780451531049
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0451531049
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 900L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.13 x 0.46 x 6.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 5,365 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
5,365 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book easy to read and gripping. They appreciate the insightful narrative style and clear language. The story is described as compelling and powerful, with vivid illustrations and realism that put into perspective the events of history. Readers also mention that the pacing is interesting and eye-opening, putting into perspective a very real ordeal.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

199 customers mention "Readability"169 positive30 negative

Customers find the book easy to read. They describe it as an interesting and great novella, a great entry in the canon of literature, and a short read. Many consider it an important book in Russian history and say it's a must-read.

"...abuses, does not sensationalize the terror of the Gulag, does not dwell on despair, fear, hope, or pain...." Read more

"...ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH is one of the handful of classics of literature that are well suited for high school students...." Read more

"...that I read, after his Cancer Ward, which I found to be more interesting to read than this dreary, yet, important first novel he wrote to bring to..." Read more

"great book" Read more

111 customers mention "Insight"101 positive10 negative

Customers appreciate the book's insights into life in a Soviet work camp. They find the narrative style straightforward and informative, with details about real experiences. The story is described as gripping and well-written, offering an easy read that provides good context for the events.

"...The fact that this book was published at all is a historical anomaly, induced by a strange confluence of events that resulted, incredibly, in one of..." Read more

"...--it is also a historical document, one of the most important books of the twentieth century and essential for understanding the corruption of the..." Read more

"...Especially notable is Solzhenitsyn's low-key, matter-of-fact narrative style, which conveys the banality of the evil of the Soviet Gulag more..." Read more

"...the foreword and afterword are lagniappes that were helpful to cotton on to the actual novel...." Read more

63 customers mention "Language"47 positive16 negative

Customers find the book well-written and easy to read. They appreciate the clear translation with appropriate footnotes. The novel is not overly demanding for inexperienced readers and would constitute a good introduction to the Soviet Union. It is richly detailed and humanely simple, making it a true literary classic.

"...The novel is not overly demanding of the inexperienced reader and it would constitute a good introduction to the realm of "literature."..." Read more

"...DAY IN THE LIVE OF IVAN DENISOVICH if only to get exposure to good written expression...." Read more

"...huge critical success in the Soviet Union due to its nuanced integration of peasant vernacular and prison slang into its narrative structures...." Read more

"...The translation is an extreme disappointment - bad choice of words, which does not just limit understanding, but actually change the tone of the book..." Read more

43 customers mention "Story length"43 positive0 negative

Customers find the story compelling and engaging. They describe it as a powerful survival story with interesting details. The book is described as an interesting and revealing short novella.

"...started ...have read it before but wanted to read it again....book is in good shape and arrived promptly" Read more

"...I found to be more interesting to read than this dreary, yet, important first novel he wrote to bring to light the lingering evils of "the Terror"..." Read more

"...The book is solid and "food for thought."..." Read more

"...character's humanity, sense of morality, generosity, kindness, and integrity - his ability to find joy in the little treasures of his day - are..." Read more

21 customers mention "Visual style"21 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's visual style engaging. It provides a vivid illustration of the consequences of collectivist systems and its realism. They describe the depiction of prison camps in the Stalin years as clear and realistic. The book paints an upbeat and humorous view of political life with rich detail.

"...The utter horror of this book is contained in the rich detail with which the author conveys life inside these camps..." Read more

"Wow. Just - WOW. What a beautiful book!..." Read more

"...a few hours to really realize the significance of it, but it is truly a work of art...." Read more

"Book arrived in very good shape. Short read. A very real picture of those days." Read more

16 customers mention "Pacing"16 positive0 negative

Customers find the book engaging and eye-opening. It puts into perspective a very real ordeal that most of us never understand. The simple pleasures and hardships are described in an uplifting manner. The format is pleasant and pleasing to them. Overall, readers describe the book as moving, inspiring, touching, and captivating.

"...Soviet gulag by someone who actually survived the experience to be quite inviting...." Read more

"...This book really puts into perspective a very real ordeal most of us could never understand. Hopefully never have to & only learn from it in books." Read more

"This is a short, engaging and beautifully written book about the horrors of life in a Siberian Gulag...." Read more

"...The typescript is a large-font. Neat and easy to read, though this leaves the ratio of content:page a little small for my taste...." Read more

14 customers mention "Value for money"14 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's value for money. They find it a nice buy at a good price, with a compelling story and page-turning narrative. It's described as a great product for a literary classic.

"Great price for a literary classic. Compelling story and a page turner. My favorite novella in the world." Read more

"A very politically important and clever book...." Read more

"I read this book in a couple days. Definitely worth it!" Read more

"Great product, excellent service." Read more

10 customers mention "Pace"7 positive3 negative

Customers appreciate the book's fast pace and detailed time frame.

"...It's a quick and easy read. The other reviews provide the basics of the book, so I'll spare you the extra verbiage." Read more

"This should be required for our youth to get in to college. It is a fairly quick, easy read that is informative and entertaining as well...." Read more

"...Personally, I thought the book moved really slow and I felt like I had to force myself to read it. Finally gave up half was through...." Read more

"...the optimistic perspective of the protangonist and short, detailed time frame. Great symbolism for the Soviet Union and humanity as a whole...." Read more

Great book by great author
3 out of 5 stars
Great book by great author
The book is a great entry in the canon of literature.Unfortunately, Amazon chose to send a severely water damaged and clearly dirty copy. They should be ashamed to have put this in a box for a customer.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2013
    Groundbreaking at the time of its publication, "One Day in the Life" was the first work on the Gulag to be published in the USSR. The fact that this book was published at all is a historical anomaly, induced by a strange confluence of events that resulted, incredibly, in one of the most repressive regimes not censuring a work which exposed one of its deepest secrets. Some contributing factors were Solzhenitsyn's own background (he had been a captain in the USSR army during WWII, and was not a member of the intelligentsia), the "Great Thaw" (a period from the mid 1950s through the early 1960s, during "de-Stalinization," during which censorship was drastically reduced), and Khrushchev's role in allowing the publication of "A Day in the Life" (he wanted to expose Stalin's crimes and the predicted fallout).

    "A Day in the Life" is just that: the minutely detailed description of one day during political prisoner Shukhov's (Ivan) internment in the Gulag. Solzhenitsyn takes us through the coveted morning hour which a prisoner has to himself if he wakes up earlier than the bell, endless "prisoner counts" starting right after, horrifically deficient meals, an arduously demanding construction job, and finally, to the day's end, when all one can do is thank his lucky stars for still being alive, for still not being ill, and for thinking that perhaps, this experience might just be survivable.

    This work does not describe horrific abuses, does not sensationalize the terror of the Gulag, does not dwell on despair, fear, hope, or pain. In fact Solzhenitsyn's account is most disturbing because of the protagonists' quiet acceptance and concrete, practical orientation. Unlike others in the camp, Ivan is neither an intellectual nor a spiritual man; he does not find peace in salvation through Christianity (as Alyosha), he does not seek slivers of hope and meaning in discussions with other political prisoners about literature and film. Instead, Ivan focuses on survival: on procuring an extra portion of oats for breakfast, on smuggling in a bit of a rusted blade into his barracks to build a knife, on staying warm in the Siberian winter. He "does not have time" to contemplate the beauty of stars and of its promise, to engage in conversation with other members of his squad, to think about his past and present, to philosophize about his condition.

    This seems perhaps as the scariest condition of all, essentially indicating a loss of humanity, a return to the most animalistic, basic survivalist mode of being. For after all, what separates us from animals other than the power of human hope, thought, passion? Indeed, the aims of the Gulag, and of communism itself, were to reduce human beings into mere unthinking animals, instinctually scavenging for food and other necessities while loosing sight of the powers of human intellect, artistic impulse, and initiative.

    Even more disturbing is Ivan's complacent acceptance. In fact, "A Day in the Life" is a good day for Ivan, he is "almost happy" by the end of the short story: that night, he "went to sleep fully content. He'd had many strokes of luck that day: they hadn't sent his squad to the settlement; he'd swipe a bowl of kasha at inner; the quad leader had fixed the rates well; he' built a wall an enjoyed doing it; he'd smuggled that bid of hacksaw blade through; he'd earned a favor from Tsezar that evening; he'd bought that tobacco. And he hadn't fallen ill." (last page).

    In an ironic twist, Ivan is thus born into a new humanity, one that has learned to live in, and almost find happiness, under the most brutal, demoralizing, repressive, tortuous conditions imaginable. The proof is his Survival.

    Born and raised in Communist Romania, Solzhenistyn's world is a familiar, disturbingly dark, and utterly tragic one for me; the existential structures of eastern block consciousness, even outside of the Gulag, are eerily similar to those of the imprisoned in "One Day in the Life": the appreciation for every small detail of subsistence related pursuits, such as scrounging for a bit of extra sugar or butter, the ways in which people are turned against their neighbors through carefully articulated and craftily schemed policies and rules, the extensive bribery system/underground economy without which no one would survive, learning how to live in silence, barricading the soul/heart in an attempt at survival.

    A "Day in the Life" is not only as a fictionalized memoir of Solzhenitsyn's own Gulag experience and a detailed account of the impossible life of prisoners in these camps, but may also be read as a broader metaphor for the ways in which eastern-block consciousness was shaped by state mechanisms during the communist era.

    A personal note: If I was rating this book based on how much I enjoyed it, the rating would stand somewhere around a 2. It's filled with details on construction work, much of it was inscrutable to me (there were many terms that as a laywoman, I had to look up, and it was difficult to visualize such details as the configuration of the space, the usage of tools, the process of building, etc, without extensive knowledge of the field).

    But more importantly, I don't understand, and am quite disturbed, at Ivan's path to survival. I clearly have never suffered a Gulag (though my family underwent its own tribulations under Ceausescu/the Securiatate), but I'd like to imagine I'd find my hope in dreams/philosophy/art if I was in Ivan's place, like the Captain, and, if one were to go by popular lore, as most political prisoners did. There were very few ways to escape communism's deep reaches into daily life back in this era, and the main route was through art and soulful expression in the absurd, satires, poetry, and a dark humor which is impossible to understand without having lived in such a repressive society. People read books voraciously, there was an entire culture built around going to art galleries, the opera & theater, around discussing important books (non political on the surface, usually, but of course, always subversively all political).

    The Gulags were filled with members of the intelligensia: in Romania, there were even jokes (again, the dark humor) about how the masters of Romanian political philosophy, art, and history enjoyed the prison camps because they got to meet each other and philosophize all day: what could be so bad about that, after all? Personally, that (obviously romanticized) version of survival sounds much more appealing & humanizing than Ivan's, with which I do not personally identify. Then again, what would I know? I've never laid bricks in the cold for 14 hour days in the Siberian winter.
    34 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2019
    One assumes that those who have stumbled across this review are probably already somewhat familiar with the work Solzhenitsyn so this review can be brief. It would be difficult to overstate the importance of this novel because, though it is a novel--a work of fiction--it is also a historical document, one of the most important books of the twentieth century and essential for understanding the corruption of the Soviet system.

    The novel literally does bring the reader along for the ride during one day in the life of the titular character, a soldier falsely accused of treason and sentenced to a term of hard labor in the Gulag system of Siberian prison camps. The utter horror of this book is contained in the rich detail with which the author conveys life inside these camps (a life the author lived for himself), not only in the extremes of their abuses but in the minutiae of everyday life. The day described is not one of the most horrifying days--to fully grasp the horror of the Gulag, one needs to read other books including Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago. Indeed, the "one day" described is portrayed as a relatively good day, a perspective which forces the reader to confront the inhumanity of a system whose good days make for a bleak and depressing read.

    But the book is not merely a fictionalized documentary concerning what life was like in the prison camps, it is a historical document in its own right. It was this novel that (finally) brought the evils of the Gulag system into open discussion. Imagine the experience it must have been to read such a book upon its publication in 1962 and to realize that the events it described not only *did* happen but were *still* happening to the millions of prisoners who inhabited the prison camps that dotted the bleak Siberian landscape (which existed in modified form as late as the 1980s). While it would be folly to credit Solzhenitsyn with the fall of the Soviet Union (as some writers given to hyperbole have done), it would be equally unwise to discount the impact this book's revelations had on Russian history. In that way, reading this book is necessary not only to understand the nature of life inside the forced labor camps but to understand the course of Russian history in the 20th century.

    From a literary perspective, this is an odd work. With few events described in excruciating detail, the novel doesn't leave much room for the expected conflict/resolution or character arc. Instead, the novel presents a snapshot of an unchanging life. Combined with the dispiriting description of the lives of political prisoners, this makes for a less-than-enjoyable yet incredibly thought provoking and intellectually stimulating read. Upon finishing, the reader is left feeling quite glad to have read the book but perhaps equally glad that it's mercifully short. A longer book with the same subject matter could easily send the reader into a deep depression.

    In sum, you owe it to yourself to read this book, but you would be well-advised to save it for a day when you're more in the mood for intellectual stimulation than mere entertainment.
    61 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2024
    just started ...have read it before but wanted to read it again....book is in good shape and arrived promptly
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Stew...
    5.0 out of 5 stars good read
    Reviewed in Canada on January 19, 2025
    they way it was in the prisons
  • Aditya kumar
    5.0 out of 5 stars आजादी से ज्यादा जरूरी क्या
    Reviewed in India on November 10, 2024
    यह किताब आपको बताती हैं, की आजादी से भी ज्यादा क्या जरूरी होता हैं।
    Must read
  • Diego Martell
    5.0 out of 5 stars Lectura obligada
    Reviewed in Mexico on September 24, 2020
    La edición es sencilla, papel rugoso, oscuro, letra pequeña, pero cómoda para la lectura, nada se transparenta. Cuenta con una introducción, prólogo y epílogo que enriquecen la obra. En definitiva una historia que todos debemos leer, al describir solamente un día en la vida del personaje, la obra es sumamente descriptiva, te sientes parte del campo de concentración y empatizas con los personajes. Además sirve para practicar tu inglés.
    Customer image
    Diego Martell
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Lectura obligada

    Reviewed in Mexico on September 24, 2020
    La edición es sencilla, papel rugoso, oscuro, letra pequeña, pero cómoda para la lectura, nada se transparenta. Cuenta con una introducción, prólogo y epílogo que enriquecen la obra. En definitiva una historia que todos debemos leer, al describir solamente un día en la vida del personaje, la obra es sumamente descriptiva, te sientes parte del campo de concentración y empatizas con los personajes. Además sirve para practicar tu inglés.
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  • Sebastià Novella
    4.0 out of 5 stars Valoració dels productes adquirits a Amazon.
    Reviewed in Spain on October 2, 2017
    Tots els productes que he adquirit a Amazon (excepte un el preu del qual em va ser retornat just al mateix moment en què en van rebre la notificació de devolució) han complert amb les meves expectatives. N'estic molt content i hi continuaré comprant encantadíssim.
  • Jason Annand
    5.0 out of 5 stars A great book
    Reviewed in Australia on March 22, 2021
    Complex and brilliant.