Proud To Be A Mammal
  • Published: 9 July 2010
  • ISBN: 9780141193199
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

Proud To Be A Mammal

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'To talk about one's childhood usually is to tell about one's family, yet in this respect I must confess that for me adults resided in a hazy world, not my own. I was a lone child in a magic kingdom that I explored from early morning till dusk.'

Proud to be a Mammal (1942-97) is Czeslaw Milosz's moving and diverse collection of essays. Among them, he covers his passion for poetry, his love of the Polish language that was so nearly wiped out by the violence of the twentieth century, and his happy childhood. Milosz also includes a letter to his friend in which he voices his concern about the growing indifference to murder and the true value of freedom of thought, as well as a verbal map of Wilno, with each street revealing both a rich local history and intricate, poignant personal memories.
  • Published: 9 July 2010
  • ISBN: 9780141193199
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

About the author

Czeslaw Milosz

Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980. Born in Lithuania while it was still part of the Russian Empire, he lived much of his life in Poland or exiled in California. He was the author of one of the definitive books on totalitarianism, The Captive Mind, but also wrote with extraordinary vividness and moral authority on his childhood, his experiences under Nazism and on the tragedy of Central Europe.

Also by Czeslaw Milosz

Rescue
Native Realm
Selected and Last Poems 1931-2004
New And Collected Poems 1931-2001
The Captive Mind
Captive Mind
See all

Praise for Proud To Be A Mammal

Bears witness to Milosz'z lifetime of toil in the fields of memory, faith and art

Bookforum

[The series] sheds remarkable light on the literature, culture and politics of the region...anyone coming fresh to the field will be captivated by the richness, variety, humour and pathos of a classic literature that, through a shared historical experience, transcends national and linguistic boundaries.

CJ Schüler, Independent on Sunday

This [series] is a wonderful idea ... They are absurdist parables, by turns hilarious, unsettling and enigmatic.

Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

I urge you to go and read them.

Adam Thirlwell, New Statesman

This new series of Central European Classics is important well beyond simply providing 'good reads'.

Stephen Vizinczey, Daily Telegraph
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