To the Finland Station (New York Review Books Classics) [Paperback]

Edmund Wilson (Author), Louis Menand (Introduction) (Author)

Book Description

Series: New York Review Books Classics | Publication Date: April 30, 2003

Edmund Wilson's magnum opus, To the Finland Station, is a stirring account of revolutionary politics, people, and ideas from the French Revolution through the Paris Commune to the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917. It is a work of history on a grand scale, at once sweeping and detailed, closely reasoned and passionately argued, that succeeds in painting an unforgettable picture--alive with conspirators and philosophers, utopians and nihilists--of the making of the modern world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Critical and historical study of European writers and theorists of socialism who set the stage for the Russian Revolution of 1917, by Edmund Wilson. It was published in book form in 1940 although much of the material had previously appeared in The New Republic. The work discusses European socialism, anarchism, and various theories of revolution from their origins to their implementation. It presents ideas and writings of political theorists representing all aspects of socialist, anarchist, and what would later be known as communist thought, among them Jules Michelet, Henri de Saint-Simon, Robert Owen, Mikhail Bakunin, Anatole France, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Leon Trotsky, and Vladimir Ilich Lenin--who arrived at Petrograd's (St. Petersburg's) Finland Station in 1917 to lead the Bolshevik revolution. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

EDMUND WILSON (1895–1972) is widely regarded as the preeminent American man of letters of the twentieth century. Over his long career, he wrote for Vanity Fair, helped edit The New Republic, served as chief book critic for The New Yorker, and was a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. Wilson was the author of more than twenty books, including Axel’s Castle, Patriotic Gore, and a work of fiction, Memoirs of Hecate County.

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: NYRB Classics (April 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590170334
• ISBN-13: 978-1590170335
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 1.1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > History > Europe > Finland
  • #59 in Books > History > Historical Study > Historiography

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars grand intellectual history of an idea for action, May 20, 2003

By 

Robert J. Crawford (Balmette Talloires, France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To the Finland Station (New York Review Books Classics) (Paperback)

This is the story of the journey of an idea - that of engineering a society conceived as an organism - from its roots in the romantic movement with Michelet to Lenin, the ultimate man of action, on the threshold of power. Only Edmund Wilson, whose erudition as an autodidact was unsurpassed in his time, could have pulled this off: the ideas and inspiration pulse with life on every page. You get to know Marx, ENgels, and scores of other characters intimately as they dream of building a socialist order that would fundamentally re-order society and its economy. WHile I was never a sympathiser for communism, this most certainly gave me a feeling for the seductive beauty of the dream. THere is even a forward by Wilson, who admits to being overly optimistic, that what he chronicled with such excitment actually led to "one of the most horrible tyrannies in the history of mankind." THis is intellectual history at its very best, freed in the hands of a master writer from the pedantry and puffery of academia, and unflinching in the audacity of its partisan interpretations. Also beautifully written, it is a window into the hopes and dream of the 20C.

Warmly recommended.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best written by the great Edmund Wilson., November 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: To the Finland Station (Library Binding)

Edmund Wilson has undeservingly fallen into obscurity, but in the 21st century I have no doubt that he'll be recognized as one of the greatest of writers in English, and especially important to understanding the 20th century.The title of his book, _To the Finland Station_ refers to Lenin's trip to Russia, financed by the German government. It is a history of religious and secular communalist movements in America, and surprisingly humorous. Starting from the early 1800's to the Communist Party of 1917, Wilson's elegant study remains ever relevant.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great historical work that reads like a novel, October 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: To the Finland Station (Library Binding)

Wilsons examination of Lenin is valuable even though it's too sympathetic. This is because at the time he wrote it (1930's) he wasn't afforded the needed documentation of Lenins murderous misdeeds...Wilsons portrait of Marx however, is without peers. He makes you feel like you're a fly on the wall of Marx's smoke filled study. He makes you feel like you're a witness to history. He makes complicated philosophic and economic issues understandable for the layperson. He gives you a roadmap as to how modern socialist/utopian thought developed, he traces it back to its source and he does it in such a way as to make the reader feel like an explorer. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It saddens me to see that it's out of print. This book is far too important to be out of print.