Talk:In the First Circle

Infobox

Should the infobox contain data on the newly published full version?

sharashka conditions

Inhumane conditions? They were pampered for zeks, eating bread with butter and reading books, in return for their technical skills. They had a Christmas tree. That's the whole point of the book--it's the "first" circle of hell, the least awful. I mean, it wasn't a tea party, but it's somewhat inaccurate to call the conditions inhumane as compared to the general reality of the Gulag. Fearwig 19:31, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

I agree, Fearwig. And that is part of the moral dilemma that some felt, their technical work was a real contribution to the system that was oppressing so many, could they remain in the sharashka and remain human 199.232.10.134 01:06, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Stalin not portrayed as evil in the book?

That paragraph had to go. The Stalin section of the novel (chapters 18-21) depicts Stalin remembering with pleasure beating Traicho Kostov to death before his birthday, how his underlings went in daily fear of their lives, and how he looked on Abakumov wondering 'is it time to shoot him yet?', how he tells Abakumov to prepare for another purge as great as 1937, in preparation for the coming world war. 199.232.10.134 01:19, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Film

A motion picture (series) has been created in 2005 and first aired in Russia in late January 2006 featuring some of the best Russian actors.

Is this correct? IMDB has the date as 1991. [1] - FrancisTyers 20:09, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

The First Circle is no holiday camp

Just finished reading this great novel, which won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Humane, passionate, large in soul, in ambition, in importance, it must be one of the greatest novels of all time, and stands with the best of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. Yes, fearwig et al, it IS only the "first circle of Hell" but that doesn't make it Club Med. The lower levels of Hell might be just too grim and horrifying to serve as background to a human drama. After finishing this wonderful book, I felt I knew all the characters and had lived with them, laughed and wept with them. It's a truly epic and conciousness - expanding work, and despite the pathos and misery, it has many laugh out loud moments. I wrote these words just after I read the last page.

God bless the mind that cradled these scenes,

God bless the hand that wrote them,

So too the soul that showed us past the mire,

The human heart in love, in snow, in fire.

Myles325a (talk) 03:57, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

cleanup

Inspired by User:Myles325's hint, gave it references, fixed sources and expand. Does extra cred boost it to more than start class? Any tips on what else it needs? Julia Rossi (talk) 04:14, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Title of New Edition

Should the page be renamed to "In the First Circle", as per the new edition? The Foreword states that the omission of "In" was never intended by Solzhenitsyn, and he himself considered this new edition to be the "definitive" English translation, it also being a translation of what he considered the definitive Russian manuscript. – mpdimitroff (talk) 03:04, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

Three years on, and the answer is Yes. I've moved the article. -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 06:46, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

but enjoy a small space of relative freedom in the heart of Hell

This phrase in the opening is confusing. Is there a section of Hell outside of the circles? Even if there is, would it be proper to say that the first circle is in the 'heart' of Hell?--Slowlikemolasses (talk) 01:54, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

First edition

This is the cover the first edition, published by YMCA in Paris. [2] It is not the one recently added. Graham Beards (talk) 06:09, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

First edition now added GrahamHardy (talk) 22:42, 10 September 2020 (UTC)