The Periodic Table (book)

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The elements that are titles of the stories.

The Periodic Table (Italian: Il Sistema Periodico) is a collection of short stories by Primo Levi, published in 1975.

The stories have various themes: the experiences of life in Nazi concentration camps, legacies from the profession of chemistry, tales both true and with his own fantasy, creating a vision of the synthesis of the life of the author seen through the kaleidoscope of chemistry. Every story, 21 in total, has the name of a chemical element and is connected to it in some way.

[edit] Contents

"argon" - infancy of the author, the community of Piedmontese Jews and their language
"hydrogen" - two kids experiment with electrolysis
"zinc" - laboratory experiments in a university
"iron" - the adolescence of the author, between the racial laws and the Alps
"potassium" - an experience in the laboratory with unexpected effects
"nickel" - in the chemical laboratories of a mine
"lead" - the story of a lead quarryman
"mercury" - a story of life on a desolate island
"phosphorus" - an experience from a job in the chemical industry
"gold" - a story of imprisonment
"cerium" - in order to survive in the Lager
"chromium" - a recovery of livered varnishes
"sulfur" - an experience from a job in the chemical industry
"titanium" - a scene of daily life
"arsenic" - consultation about a sugar sample
"nitrogen" - trying to manufacture cosmetics by scratching the floor of a hen-house
"tin" - a domestic chemical laboratory
"uranium" - consultation about a piece of metal
"silver" - the story of some unsuitable photographic plates
"vanadium" - to find a German chemist after the war
"carbon" - the history of a carbon atom