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There is no systematic scientific order to the succession of the elements used as chapter titles in the book, but it should be noted that all the elements used by Levi as constructing metaphors and themes in his stories belong to the field of inorganic chemistry, with one exception: the last chapter is on carbon, an element that creates a bridge to organic chemistry.⁷ In the book Levi’s life history is framed by two stories.

The opening story is dedicated to his ancestors who were Piedmontese Jews: noble, rare, and as inert as argon gas: “They are indeed so inert, so satisfied with their conditions, that they do not interfere in any chemical reaction, do not combine with any other element, and for precisely this reason have gone undetected for centuries” (PT, p. 3).⁸ The closing chapter is about carbon, an element that, on the contrary, opens up potentially infinite combinations in the eternal metamorphosis of existence. It is also worth mentioning that Levi did plan a sequel to The Periodic Table which he worked on during the last year of his life: The Double Bond was intended to explore the double, more complex and more stable combinations of organic chemistry.⁹

Levi’s autobiography is a story about growing up through the craftsmanship and science of chemistry. Through presentations of the properties of the elements, Levi shares memories from his youth, university years, war experiences, and professional life. The extremely dense quality of this book results from the chemical elements being used as mnemonic vehicles and metaphoric tools not only for presenting his own life story, but also for presenting the history of chemistry, the history of Italy in the twentieth century, and the history of the Jews. The historian Carlo Ginzburg has pointed out that Levi introduced the term “microhistory” into Italian; it occurs in the book’s last chapter, “Carbon” (Ginzburg, p. 196). Here Levi begins by dwelling on the hybrid literary genre of his novel and lists the different text types involved:

The reader, at this point, will have realised for some time by now that this is not a chemical treatise: my presumption does not reach so far – “ma voix est foible, et même un peu profane.” Nor it is an autobiography, save in the partial and symbolic limits in which every piece of writing is autobiographical, indeed every human work; but it is in some fashion a history. It is – or would have liked to be – a micro-history, the history of a trade and its defeats, victories, and miseries … (emphasis added)

Other genres are also involved in Levi’s book, including the detective story and the mythological tale. I will not focus on this interesting list of literary genres here, but simply point out that the use of the term microhistory is interesting. Ginzburg comments that the reduction of scale suggested by Levi’s notion of microhistory fits in with the acknowledgment of a limited existence, and with the description of reality on the individual level.¹⁰ We cannot know for sure what Levi meant by microhistory, but it seems plausible that he wished to draw attention to the importance and role of the individual as a small part of the whole, like an atom, or a microscopic chemical substance.

Although most of the short stories are autobiographical, Levi intended the book to be (and described it as) more generic; that is, it is a portrait of the profession of chemistry and a tool for personal development. Here are Levi’s own words about the intentions behind his project:

I had made a kind of project for myself, that was, basically, to write an educational book. I wanted … to make the non-chemist understand the strong and bitter taste of our profession. Not because it is particular, or privileged, but simply because it is a “profession”. If I may be allowed to quote myself, it is “a more strenuous version of the business of living”. (Poli and Calcagno, p. 77; emphasis added)

The kind of chemistry that is a strenuous version of the business of living is the chemistry done by a solitary individual whose emotions are engaged, and Levi sees it as a struggle with matter.¹¹ His auto-quotation is taken from the chapter entitled “Silver”, where he describes a class reunion commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his graduation from university. At the gathering he discusses the idea for The Periodic Table with his former fellow students:

[…] in this book I would deliberately neglect the grand chemistry, the triumphant chemistry of colossal plants and dizzying output, because this is collective work and therefore anonymous. I was more interested in the stories of the solitary chemistry, unarmed and on foot, at the measure of man, which with few exceptions has been mine: but it has also been the chemistry of the founders, … who confronted matter without aids, with their brains and hands, reason and imagination. (PT, p. 203)

I believe it is fruitful to read Levi’s portrait of chemistry as a representation of what Francois Jacob has labelled night science, the world of inspiration, intuition, and struggle, of poring over problems before stumbling over an unexpected solution.¹² This brings back the question of how chemistry, as a science and craft, can be said to be an allegory of fundamental stages in the formation of the protagonist in the novel. The answer requires a consideration of the structure of Levi’s autobiography from a broader point of view, questioning how the qualities of the specific scientific discipline shape the textual or narrative representation of the self. In examining the role of chemistry in the structure of Levi’s book, I will compare it with Oliver Sacks’s autobiography Uncle Tungsten.