"Edward Wasiolek, after much valuable work on Dostoevsky, has now written one of the best books on Tolstoy in recent decades. This may be in part because of his preoccupation with Tolstoy's most challenging contemporary, and the resulting sense of their unlikeness in a common pursuit. But there are other, unspeculative reasons. Few studies of Tolstoy have been so carefully pondered and so firmly organized to convince; and not so many show the flexibility and variety of its approach. Wasiolek proposes an essentially simple and consistent reading, but he advances it with subtlety and discretion."—Henry Gifford, Times Literary Supplement
In the past, critics have considered Dostoevsky an artist, thinker or psychologist, according to their own temperment. Now, with the appearance of Dostoevsky: The Major Fiction, it is at last possible to see him whole - for in this close, critical reading of Dostoevsky's major works the aesthetic, ideological, and psychological factors are as thoroughly interwoven and interdependant as they are in the novels themselves.
The young nobleman, Dmitri Ivanovich Nekhlyudov, had no care in the world when he seduced a young maid, Katerina (Katusha) Maslova, only to cruelly abandon her. Unaffected by the situation he carries on with his life. Her on the other hand loses her job as a result of the affair and is forced into a life of prostitution. Now, 10 years later, Katerina stands accused of murdering an abusive client and faces deportation to Siberia. Dmitri sits on the jury and is horrified when he realizes that one of the prisoners on trial is the young maid he seduced years before. This catapults him into a personal crusade of redemption, trying to make up for the fact that he used his high position in society to take advantage of others. "The Awakening" (often translated as "Resurrection") is the last of Tolstoy's major novels. It is an intimate, psychological tale of guilt, anger and forgiveness. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian author, a master of realistic fiction and one of the world’s greatest novelists. Tolstoy’s major works include "War and Peace" (1865–69) and "Anna Karenina" (1875–77), two of the greatest novels of all time and pinnacles of realist fiction. Beyond novels, he wrote many short stories and later in life also essays and plays.
George Steiner's Tolstoy or Dostoevsky has become a classic among scholars of Russian literature. An essay in poetic and philosophic criticism that bears mainly on the Russian masters, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky deals also with larger themes: the epic tradition extending from Homer to Tolstoy; the continuity of a "tragic world view" from Oedipus Rex to King Lear and The Brothers Karamazov; the contrasts between the epic and dramatic modes, between irreconcilably opposed views of God and of history.
Resurrection (1899) is the last of Tolstoy's major novels. It tells the story of a nobleman's attempt to redeem the suffering his youthful philandering inflicted on a peasant girl who ends up a prisoner in Siberia. Tolstoy's vision of redemption achieved through loving forgiveness, and his condemnation of violence, dominate the novel. An intimate, psychological tale of guilt, anger, and forgiveness, Resurrection is at the same time a panoramic description of social life in Russia at the end of the nineteenth century, reflecting its author's outrage at the social injustices of the world in which he lived. This edition, which updates a classic translation, has explanatory notes and a substantial introduction based on the most recent scholarship in the field. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Childhood is the first published novel by Leo Tolstoy, released under the initials L. N. in the November 1852 issue of the popular Russian literary journal The Contemporary. It is the first in a series of three novels and is followed by Boyhood and Youth. Published when Tolstoy was just twenty-three years old, the book was an immediate success, earning notice from other Russian novelists including Ivan Turgenev, who heralded the young Tolstoy as a major up-and-coming figure in Russian literature. Childhood is an exploration of the inner life of a young boy, Nikolenka, and one of the books in Russian writing to explore an expressionistic style, mixing fact, fiction and emotions to render the moods and reactions of the narrator.
DigiCat presents to you this unique and meticulously edited Tolstoy collection: Introduction Leo Tolstoy: A Short Biography "Tolstoy the Artist" and "Tolstoy the Preacher" by Ivan Panin "Count Tolstoi and the Public Censor" by Isabel Hapgood Novels Anna Karenina (Two Translations) War and Peace The Death of Ivan Ilyich Childhood Boyhood Youth The Cossacks: A Tale of 1852 Resurrection Family Happiness The Kreutzer Sonata The Forged Coupon Hadji Murad The Dekabrists: A Romance A Morning of a Landed Proprietor Reminiscences Reminiscences of Tolstoy, by His Son by Graf Ilia LvovichTolstoi My Visit to Tolstoy by Joseph Krauskopf "My First Interview with Tolstoy" and "At one of the Tolstoy Receptions" by Lilian Bell Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, he is best known for the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877) which are often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction. He also wrote plays and numerous philosophical essays.
A revolutionary terrorist, pondering the Gospels in his jail cell, is converted to a Tolstoyan understanding of true life, while an old schismatic's faith in himself is destroyed by an encounter in prison. In "Berries," Tolstoy condemns the frivolity of the 1905 revolution by contrasting the ridiculous conversations of liberals with the innocent labor of peasant children."--BOOK JACKET.
ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy (Modern Library Classics) Anna Karenina (Russian: «Анна Каренина», IPA: [ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə]) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy first published in book form in 1878 and widely considered one of the greatest works of fiction ever written.A complex novel in eight parts, spread over more than 800 pages (depending on the translation) typically contained in two volumes, Anna Karenina touches on themes of betrayal, faith, family, marriage, Imperial Russian society, desire, and rural vs. city life. A complex work with more than a dozen major characters, it was initially released in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger.Regarded as one of the finest examples of realist fiction, Tolstoy called Anna Karenina his first true novel (he called his other major work of fiction, War and Peace, more than a novel). His contemporary, the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky, declared it "flawless as a work of art, " an opinion later shared by Vladimir Nabokov. American writer and Nobel Prize laureate William Faulkner, also described it as "the best novel ever written."The plot of centers on an extramarital affair between Anna and dashing cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich that scandalizes the social circles of Saint Petersburg and forces the young lovers to flee for Italy in a futile search for happiness. Returning to Russia their lives further unravel. A second major plotline follows Levin, a character loosely based on Tolstoy himself, who rejects glitzy city life and those same social circles for his rural farm but struggles with both his love for Kitty, who has rejected him, and with his Christian faith.Trains are a recurring motif throughout the novel, which take place against the backdrop of rapid transformations as a result of the liberal reforms initiated by Emperor Alexander II of Russia, with several major plot points taking place either on passenger trains or at stations in Saint Petersburg or elsewhere in Russia.
