Showing titles in Russian & Soviet

Misery by Anton Chekhov is a short story that explores the working-class, human despair, and suffering in Tsarist Russia. Chekhov's brief portrait of working-class life follows a sledge driver named Iona as he attempts to process his grief about his son's untimely death.

In "A Nervous Breakdown", Vasilyev feeling distressed after his visit to few brothels for the first time. Guilt, disgust and shame and of that little voices debating inside his mind that lead him to a symptom of a nervous breakdown. A quirky storytelling, quite distressing but entertaining.

War and Peace is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy that mixes fictional narrative with chapters on history and philosophy. It was first published serially, then published in its entirety in 1869. It is regarded as Tolstoy's finest literary achievement and remains an internationally praised classic of world literature. The novel chronicles the French invasion of Russia and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society through the stories of five Russian aristocratic families.

Concerned with questions of aging and mortality, A Second Space furthers 93-year-old Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz’s reputation as “arguably the greatest living poet” (Edward Hirsch, New York Times Book Review). “Milosz continues exploring his own version of the meditative lyric...

Using, or rather mimicking, traditional forms of storytelling, Gogol created stories that are complete within themselves and only tangentially connected to a meaning or moral. His work belongs to the school of invention, where each twist and turn of the narrative is a surprise unfettered by obligation to an overarching theme.

The Wife is one of the famous works of A.P. Chekhov. The plot focuses on a conflict between spouses, where the ambitions and pride of one destroy family life and relationships with others. The work captivates with laconic content, deep meaning and brilliant Chekhov's syllable.

A narrativa acompanha um homem que, diante da adversidade, é forçado a encarar seus próprios limites, uma jornada que se transforma em profunda meditação filosófica sobre liberdade, destino, resiliência e empatia. Tolstói nos conduz por paisagens externas e internas, entre montanhas traiçoeiras e os abismos da alma, revelando, com sensibilidade e firmeza, as camadas mais complexas do espírito humano.

This magnificent novel is about the murder of a miserly, aged pawnbroker and her younger sister by a radical, destitute St. Petersburg student named Raskolnikov, and the emotional, mental, and physical effects that follow. It is a remarkable masterpiece about a man's turbulent inner life and his relationship to others and to society at large. Dostoevsky explored the human condition on many levels in this great piece, and among the main themes the novel explores is the rather strange theory that criminals have a spiritual need to be punished - that indeed they demand it.

Nine classic works by the Russian literary giant, adapted for BBC Radio Ivan Turgenev stands alongside Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as one of the three great Russian novelists of the 19th century. He was also a consummate short story writer, poet and playwright, and the first Russian author to become...

Evgenii Onegin is best known in the West through Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin. But the original narrative poem (consisting of 389 stanzas, the form of which has become known as the "Pushkin sonnet") is one of the landmarks of Russian literature. In the poem, the eponymous hero repudiates love, only to later experience the pain of rejection himself. Pushkin’s unique style proves timeless in its exploration of love, life, passion, jealousy, and the consequences of social convention.

Kholstomer is a work by Leo Tolstoy that has been referred to as "one of the most striking stories in Russian literature". It was started in 1863 and left unfinished until 1886, when it was reworked and published as Kholstomer: The Story of a Horse. This story prominently features the technique of defamiliarization by adopting the perspective of a horse to expose some of the irrationalities of human conventions. Kholstomer's altruistic life is recounted parallel to that of his selfish and useless owner. At the end of the story horse dies but his corpse gives birth to a new life - that of wolf cubs.

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a profound philosophical and psychological novel that explores deep questions of faith, doubt, free will, and the nature of evil through the lives of the Karamazov family in 19th century Russia. The narrative delves into the moral struggles and inner turmoil of the three brothers and their relationship with their father, leading to a dramatic and tragic conclusion. This masterpiece is celebrated for its exploration of the human condition, morality, and the search for truth.

"The Lady with the Dog" is a short story by Anton Chekhov. First published in 1899, it describes an adulterous affair between an unhappily married Moscow banker and a young married woman that begins while both are vacationing alone in Yalta.

Das Stück schildert das Leben auf einem russischen Landgut, geprägt von Resignation, verpassten Chancen und unausgesprochenen Sehnsüchten. Mit subtilem Humor und tiefgehender Psychologie zeigt Tschechow die Zerrissenheit zwischen persönlichen Wünschen und gesellschaftlichen Erwartungen.

В 2018 году исполняется 150 лет со дня рождения Максима Горького, великого русского писателя, прозаика и драматурга, классика ХХ века. Максим Горький - литературный псевдоним Алексея Максимовича Пешкова (16 [28] марта 1868 - 18 июня 1936)). Горький внёс выдающийся вклад в отечественную и мировую культуру.

This is a story from the In the Ravine and Other Stories collection.

This short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky was first published in 1848. A man walking past a wedding is reminded of a children’s New Year’s Eve party he attended 5 years previously – a party that was clearly an excuse for the parents to make advantageous connections in a casual setting. As an outsider at the party, he was able to observe the guests in greater detail than most, and took particular note of the children playing by the Christmas tree, and the social hierarchy they unwittingly participated in. This recording is based on the 1918 translation by Constance Garnett.

Индийские рассказы. Только брамин из браминов, находясь на пике признания, власти, богатства, авторитета, может оставить всё, надеть монашеский плащ, взять монашескую миску из кокосового ореха и посох и поселиться в покинутом храме высоко в горах.

A startling and revelatory examination of Nabokov’s life and works—notably Pale Fire and Lolita—bringing new insight into one of the twentieth century’s most enigmatic authors. Novelist Vladimir Nabokov witnessed the horrors of his century, escaping Revolutionary Russia then Germany under Hitler, and fleeing France with his Jewish wife and son just weeks before Paris fell to the Nazis. He repeatedly faced accusations of turning a blind eye to human suffering to write artful tales of depravity. But does one of the greatest writers in the English language really deserve the label of amoral aesthete bestowed on him by so many critics?

Many of the greatest Russian authors, including Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Pushkin, produced crime and mystery fiction, a type of literature that was largely suppressed during the Soviet era because it did not glorify the state, but rather, gave significance to individual characters. With the fall of the Soviet Union, mystery writers have become some of the most successful novelists in Russia, and there is a renewed interest in, and appreciation of, the great crime classics of an earlier era. This volume is the first collection ever devoted entirely to Russian crime fiction.