The highest virtue

by Alan Stang

Book Overview

"The Highest Virtue is a story of madness. It is a story of Russia during the Revolution, when people went mad with fear, with hate, with hunger and power- as the communists took over. It is the story... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0006CE55S
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Western Islands
• Length: 497 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Superb Work of Fiction

This novel is truly a Jewel. Ornate, elegant and superbly written by a true master. SO few American writers have a true realization of history or the culture of other nations. "The American," wrote Daniel Boorstin in "The Image" (1962) "lives in a world where fantasy is more real than reality, where the image has more dignity than its original. We hardly dare face our bewilderment, because our ambiguous experience is so pleasantly iridescent, the solace of belief in the contrived reality is so thoroughly real." Stang however, has captured reality, the desperation, the mind of both pre-Soviet, and early Soviet Russia, is this novel of the Russian Revolution. The plot follows several central character in an instinsic fashion, Michael is the young aspiring engineer, framed and sent to Siberia for corraborating with communists. Danilov, the industrialist who funds the communists rise to power, hoping for a better state for his business. His daughter Maria, is a ballerina, spoiled, petulant and perfect, brought face to face with brutal reality during the revolution. This fascinating study of human lives in war, communism and peace is up there with Kafka.