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The Periodic Table

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The Periodic Table

By: Primo Levi
Narrated by: Neville Jason
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About this listen

The Periodic Table by Primo Levi is an impassioned response to the Holocaust: Consisting of 21 short stories, each possessing the name of a chemical element, the collection tells of the author's experiences as a Jewish-Italian chemist before, during, and after Auschwitz in luminous, clear, and unfailingly beautiful prose. It has been named the best science book ever by the Royal Institution of Great Britain and is considered to be Levi's crowning achievement.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©1898 1975, 1982, 1994 & 2014 Giulio Einaudi editore s.p.a., Torino; Translation © Schocken Books, an imprint of The Knopf Doubleday Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC (P)2015 Naxos AudioBooks Essays Nonfiction

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All stars
Most relevant  
Slowly gripping. great for long commute. 'short stories') most autobiographical cleverly related to PT (elements).

slowly gripping. great for long commute.

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A wonderfully and cleverly written , with brilliant narration.
I completely recommend to all scientists and historians. What a shame he is no longer with us. I shall be listening or reading to his other accomplishments

Poinient stimulating and gripping

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This book was described to me as a popular science book, but this is wildly inaccurate, it's the memoir of a chemist with stories linked to individual elements of the periodic table.

As someone who never reads biographies autobiographies and memoirs I was initially disappointed and nearly gave up, but I'm glad I didn't as the book gets better and better and ends with a chapter that is one of the finest things I've ever read.

There's bits of the book that are a bit odd, it gets off to a rather weak start and is somewhat disjointed, as each chapter is really a short story and often unrelated to the previous one.

Even if you can't get into the book as a whole, read the last chapter - carbon - it is superb.

Odd but compelling and what a final chapter

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This book is a highly original autobiography of a dedicated carrer chemist who also happens to be a great writer. The author uses the elements of the periodic table to relate episodes of his life either because the element itself formed part of an incident, or because the way in which an element behaves reminded him of a character. You do not need to know any chemistry to love this book (I am the world’s greatest ignoramus about science, something I greatly regret). It is beautifully and amusingly written and keeps you interested at all times. I am reading it again.

A charming and highly unusual autobiography of a wonderful man.

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For me this was an absolutely delightful book! In fact in 2006 the Royal Institution nominated this book "The Best Science Book Ever". Though I think their accolade is a little OTT, this whimsical, imaginative, autobiographical book is a little gem. I bought it after the BBC played extracts as their "Book of the Week". Don't be put off if you are not a huge fan of science! It is not a science book, but simply Levi's passion for chemistry expressed in the clever device of naming each chapter with one of the chemical elements which are sometimes central, sometimes incidental to the plot of the subsequent anecdote, imagining and/or autobiographical tale.

I initially struggled to get into the style of the book. The first chapter, "The Noble Gasses", relates the quirks & idiosyncrasies of Levi's forebears, and the casual anti-semitism by ignorant 'goyim' they routinely encountered. The range of uncles, aunts, cousins etc. is exhaustive, and the language is at times elaborate, but as the chapter progresses the charm and character of his affectionate observations on human nature shines through. The rest of the book is more earthy.

One of the most moving tales for me was "Vanadium", where he encounters once again the German SS head of the lab at Auschwitz where he was a prisoner, his skill as a chemist exploited as slave labour. This contrasts with an imaginative story like "Carbon", where he traces the multifarious existences of an individual atom of carbon as it passes from limestone to air, to leaf to grape to person to ground etc.

It is beautifully narrated by Neville Jason, who in my imagination became Levi himself as an older man looking back. There was never any pronunciation difficulty with the German, Italian or French phrases, nor with the technical or chemical names.

Overall, a very pleasing audiobook.

Delightful! Elements of a Life Well Lived.

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The elements of this collection are separate but overlap and combine in ways which are fascinating and at time deeply moving.

Worth it for the last story alone. Carbon can be read in isolation but has much more impact after all the others.

Excellent collection

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I loved the whole premise and the stories both fantastical and mundane were beautifully conveyed by the narrator. If i were to encourage any one to read a part of it go to the last chapter on the life of a single cartoon element. Thought provoking and wonderful.

Chemistry

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With a fifty minute bus journey each way and the prospect of a couple of hours to kill on Tuesdays and Thursdays between the end of Business Studies and the start of night school, the colourful cover of a 1977 paperback purchased from a now-gone bookshop on Nolton Street, Bridgend was my first encounter with this book. I’d forgotten what first fascinated me with Turin when I made a longed-for visit to that city, remembered some of the names and the streets and a general feeling.

Primo Levi’s writings are distinguishably Northern Italian, industrial, technical, chemical nuts and bolts - it is an Italy that makes things, that prides itself on calling itself an engineering nation and which looks for echoes of itself in the Works and workings of the Germany machine. The same as the South but different. Similar to the North, but again crucially different. Jewish, of course, and tragically and sickeningly apart from those Wartime neighbours - and there is no better or more arresting description of what it was to be alone as a group in a Europe that does not seem to want you and offers no respite. Poetical, by discovery, the exegesis of any atom of Carbon in Expressionist-standing for the whole of the living and dead world down to the final full stop.

Re-read forty years there is enough that is pedestrian in the prose to confirm that others, such as Eco and Tabucchi have surpassed in style - however, the ability to reach across the years with an undimmed bridge to the central humanity of this man. One of the essential writers of late twentieth century European literature, deserves always to be read.

Returno to Torino

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Fascinating book, elegantly translated, warmly and wonderfully read, an Italian, Jewish memoir of wartime and postwar life. just occasionally prolix, but thoughtful and luminous.
I will look out for more titles read by this narrator. He is one of the very best

Excell ent

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This is neither a conventional autobiography nor a simple collection of short stories. Primo Levi was a talented chemist, from an Italian Jewish family, who was imprisoned in Auschwitz and was one of the few to survive. The Periodic Table covers important incidents in his life and/or imagination and influences. Each story is inspired by an element from the Periodic Table. It is a fascinating reflection of the pre and post World War Two periods and how Jews were viewed and treated but, more importantly, it is a reflection by an intelligent scientist who is an observant and sensitive wordsmith. He gives little away about his inner thoughts and feelings but they shine through his observations and reactions. Levi's stories reflect the environment and times in which he lived. A thought provoking read in so many ways.

Extraordinary on so many levels

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