Books in Brief: Unconquered Souls

UNCONQUERED SOULS, by C. L. Sulzberger (The Overlook Press, 219 pp., $7.95).

The “Resistentialist” is the person “who loses most and gains least in vast conflicts and who is, if ever remembered, soonest forgotten. . . .” Sulzberger remembers. His subjects are three gallant, albeit obscure, individuals who, while unable to order their fate, were doggedly determined to survive it. An Austrian artist, a French film editor, and a Yugoslavian Communist endured the maelstrom of World War II only to be tormented in peace. The Austrian was vilified by Fascists in Spain; the Frenchman stood condemned as a collaborator by the government for whom he endured the Gestapo’s brutality; the Communist faced ostracism for defending his philosophical principles against Tito’s state. Sulzberger believes that these men convey a timeless wisdom: self-conquest is infinitely more important than world conquest.

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A. Miller

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UNCONQUERED SOULS, by C. L. Sulzberger (The Overlook Press, 219 pp., $7.95).

The “Resistentialist” is the person “who loses most and gains least in vast conflicts and who is, if ever remembered, soonest forgotten. . . .” Sulzberger remembers. His subjects are three gallant, albeit obscure, individuals who, while unable to order their fate, were doggedly determined to survive it. An Austrian artist, a French film editor, and a Yugoslavian Communist endured the maelstrom of World War II only to be tormented in peace. The Austrian was vilified by Fascists in Spain; the Frenchman stood condemned as a collaborator by the government for whom he endured the Gestapo’s brutality; the Communist faced ostracism for defending his philosophical principles against Tito’s state. Sulzberger believes that these men convey a timeless wisdom: self-conquest is infinitely more important than world conquest.