This book comprises the first two parts of Herzen's autobiography, My Past and Thoughts, one of the greatest monuments of Russian iterature, comparable to the major works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Turgenev.
Herzen begins with his nurse's account of Napoleon's occupation of Moscow in 1812. He tells of his solitary boyhood and his romantic friendship with his cousin Nick Ogarev - how they stood together on the Sparrow Hills overlooking Moscow and swore a solemn oath to devote their lives to their struggle to better the lot of humanity. He goes to Moscow University, whose atmosphere at the time he captures exquisitely. He is sent to prison, and eventually into exile, for his socialist beliefs.
His adventures in exile are extraordinarily vividly recounted, and indeed all the stages of Herzen's story are brilliantly perceptive about himself and others. He is a writer of unequalled vitality and wit.
