NATIVE REALM: A Search for Self-Definition

by Czeslaw Milosz ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 5, 1968

The first germ of this book. . . was the desire to bring Europe closer to the Europeans,"" says the author, who embarks on ""a voyage into my own, yet not only my own, past"" in order to bring this about Milsz grew up in the region where the Duchy of Lithuania and the Commonwealth of Poland had met, now under Russian dominion. In the interests of historical experience, he delineates the nature of the region's life, the relations of Poles and Russians, the attitudes, toward ""nationalities"" (the ""Jewish question"") alongside the description of his own career. Catholic education, Marxism (""For me the Russian Revolution was personified not by Lenin but by Mayakovsky""), an introduction to apocalyptic mysteries through cousin Oscar Milosz in Paris were succeeded by poetizing and politics. Neither a German Ordng nor a Russian ame slave, he fled from Wilna to Warsaw during the war, proceeded to the United States as Second Secretary of the Polish Embassy. Einstein told him to go home; he was not welcomed, came to rest in Paris, is currently teaching at Berkeley. He came at last to feel that all his native Europe dwelt inside of him; he knew peace and his place in the, or aside from the, historical process. A distinctly European book, poetic, pensive, with an appeal for a limited intellectual stratum. Professor Milosz also wrote The Captive Mind.

Pub Date: July 5, 1968

ISBN: 0374528306

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION