The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background. CliffsNotes on Anna Karenina delves into the complex web of relationships in Tolstoy’s epic novel. As the characters unfold, this novel draws you into the lives of Karenin, Anna, and others as they struggle through the seemingly hopeless marriage patterns of urban society. Do romantic relationships make us stronger or weaker as individuals? With insights into the characters of Anna Karenina, as well as information about Tolstoy’s own life and background, this study guide will help you get the most out of this classic novel. Other features that help you study include A character list that reveals names, traits, and key relationships Summaries and commentaries on each chapter Critical essays In-depth character analyses Analysis of major themes Review questions and suggested writing topics Classic literature or modern modern-day treasure — you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.
The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background. CliffsNotes on Anna Karenina delves into the complex web of relationships in Tolstoy’s epic novel. As the characters unfold, this novel draws you into the lives of Karenin, Anna, and others as they struggle through the seemingly hopeless marriage patterns of urban society. Do romantic relationships make us stronger or weaker as individuals? With insights into the characters of Anna Karenina, as well as information about Tolstoy’s own life and background, this study guide will help you get the most out of this classic novel. Other features that help you study include A character list that reveals names, traits, and key relationships Summaries and commentaries on each chapter Critical essays In-depth character analyses Analysis of major themes Review questions and suggested writing topics Classic literature or modern modern-day treasure — you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.
The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background. The latest generation of titles in this series also feature glossaries and visual elements that complement the classic, familiar format.In CliffsNotes on War and Peace, you discover Leo Tolstoy's masterpiece -- an epic novel of Russian society in the early 19th century. The novel combines the personal stories of members of three prominent Russian families with the historical backdrop of Russia 's war with France .Summaries and commentaries guide you through each chapter of the novel, and critical essays help you understand the structure, themes, and technical devices used in writing the novel. Other features that help you study include A section on the life and background of Leo Tolstoy Analyses of the major characters Review questions and essay topics Classic literature or modern modern-day treasure - you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.
ABOUT THE BOOK I first read Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina shortly after finishing Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. The books, both set in Russia in that late 1800s, tell two very different stories, yet explore many similar themes. Anna Karenina is a tale of an adulterous upper class woman whose husband refuses to release her from the shackles of their legal marriage, even though she shares a home and a daughter with her new lover and repeatedly begs for a divorce. Crime and Punishment, on the other hand, depicts the psychological underpinnings of crime and the impact that committing those crimes has on both the criminal and the society he lives in. Both of these works of nineteenth-century Russian literature vividly portray the intense mental anguish suffered by those who society has cast out. Anna Karenina, widely considered to be Tolstoy’s masterpiece, is a penetrating depiction of human existence. Through the themes of love, society, wealth, and human emotion, it delves deeply into the psyches of its characters, whose positions the reader can still empathize with more than one hundred years after the work’s original publication. Anyone who has experienced love in any of its forms will find a character in Anna Karenina whose thoughts, feelings, and predicaments, could be their own. MEET THE AUTHOR Deena Shanker is a San Francisco newbie, having just moved out here from New York City. She is a recovering lawyer excited to get back to doing work she loves, like writing. She enjoys taking advantage of California's great outdoors with her dog, Barley, reading fiction, and eating cheese. EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK In Europe, Anna and Vronsky find that they are not as happy as they had expected. Vronsky begins to feel suffocated and look for other forms of entertainment, and Anna becomes increasingly aware of his decreasing affection for her. When they return to Russia, they discover that their social situation has drastically changed: Anna, once universally respected and admired, is no longer welcome at society events, though Vronsky may still move freely and without condemnation. Unable to fit in, they move to Vronsky’s country estate. Dolly visits with Anna and Vronsky and immediately notices both their lavish lifestyle and Anna’s extreme despair. A combination of Vronsky’s wishes, her social position, and increasing paranoia about Vronsky leaving lead Anna to request a divorce from Karenin so that she may marry Vronsky. Oblonsky also visits Karenin to request a divorce, but Karenin refuses. Anna is so engulfed by despair that she throws herself into the tracks of an oncoming train. After her death, Vronsky leaves to volunteer for the army in the hopes of moving on. Levin, now a happy husband and father, finds religion. Oblonsky gets the job promotion he wanted, and him and Dolly continue as usual... Buy a copy to keep reading!
Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this lush romantic drama depicts a family of cigar makers whose loves and lives are played out against the backdrop of America in the midst of the Depression. Set in Ybor City (Tampa) in 1930, Cruz imagines the catalytic effect the arrival of a new ''lector (who reads Tolstoys Anna Karenina to the workers as they toil in the cigar factory) has on a Cuban-American family. Cruz celebrates the search for identity in a new land.
This short story from renowned Russian author Leo Tolstoy takes on an almost fable-like quality in its stark simplicity and moral truth. A wealthy man's greed and avarice lead him to treat his servant in a spectacularly cruel manner. Will he continue with his evil ways, or will he have a change of heart before it's too late?
'Although he feared death, he could not stop. 'If I stopped now, after coming all this way - well, they'd call me an idiot!' A pair of short stories about greed, charity, life and death from one of Russia's most influential writers and thinkers. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). Tolstoy's works available in Penguin Classics are Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Childhood, Boyhood, Youth,The Cossacks and Other Stories, The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories, What is art?, Resurrection, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories, Master and Man and Other Stories, How Much Land Does A Man Need? & Other Stories, A Confession and Other Religious Writings and Last steps: The Late Writings of Leo Tolstoy.
