Legends of Modernity (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780374530464)

Legends of Modernity, now available in English for the first time, brings together some of Czeslaw Milosz's early essays and letters, composed in German-occupied Warsaw during the winter of 1942-43.

Why did the European spirit succumb to such a devastating fiasco? the young Milosz asks. Half a century later, when Legends of Modernity saw its first publication in Poland, Milosz said: If everything inside you is agitation, hatred, and despair, write measured, perfectly calm sentences... While the essays here reflect a perfect calm, the accompanying contemporaneous exchange of letters between Milosz and Jerzy Andrzejewski express the raw emotions of agitation, hatred and despair experienced by these two close friends struggling to understand the proximate causes of this debacle of western civilization, and the relevance, if any, of the teachings of the Catholic church.

Passionate, poignant, and compelling, Legends of Modernity is a deeply moving insight into the mind and emotions of one of the greatest writers of our time.

Author: Czeslaw Milosz
ISBN-10: 0374530467
ISBN-13: 9780374530464
Publisher: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux-3pl
Language: English
Published: 10/03/2006
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.66lbs
Size: 8.04h x 5.22w x 0.74d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 12/17/2006 pg. 28