The Periodic Table (book)
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The Periodic Table
Paperback cover - published by Abacus.
Author	Primo Levi
Original title	Il sistema periodico
Translator	Raymond Rosenthal
Country	United Kingdom
Publisher	Abacus
Publication date	1985
Media type	Print (Hardcover) and (Paperback)
Pages	233
ISBN	0-349-12198-2

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. In 2006, the Royal Institution of Great Britain named it the best science book ever [1].

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.

Contents

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

Book information

The Periodic Table by Primo Levi.

• Hardcover - ISBN 0-679-44722-9 (ISBN-13: 978-0-679-44722-1), published in September 1996 by Random House
• Paperback - ISBN 0-805-21041-5 (ISBN-13: 9780805210415), published in April 1995 by Knopf Publishing Group