The stories collected in this volume demonstrate Tolstoys artistic prowess displayed over five decades experimenting with prose styles and drawing on his own experiences with humor and compassion. The Two Hussars, inspired by his time in the army,
In the winter of 1854 Tolstoy, then an officer in the Russian army, arranged to be transferred to the besieged town of Sebastopol. Wishing to see at first hand the action of what would become known as the Crimean War, he was spurred on by a fierce patriot
Set in Reykjavík, this novel charts the changes that took place when the rural community clashed with the American popular culture brought by American troops. The story concerns two brothers, one of whom returns to "Devil's Island" with an American accen
Throughout his life Isaac Babel was torn by opposing forces, by the desire both to remain faithful to his Jewish roots and yet to be free of them. This duality of vision infuses his work with a powerful energy from the earliest tales including 'Old Shloym
Poor Folk was Dostoyevsky's first great triumph in fiction and the work that looks forward to the double-acts and obsessions of his later genius. It takes place in a world of office , lodging-house and seamstress's rooms and consists of an impoverished lo
Of all Russian writers Leo Tolstoy is probably the best known to the Western world, largely because of War and Peace, his epic in prose, and Anna Karenina, one of the most splendid novels in any language. But during his long lifetime Tolstoy also wrote
Banned in Russia, Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You was deemed a threat to church and state. The culmination of a lifetime's thought, it espouses a commitment to Jesus's message of turning the other cheek. In a bold and original manner, Tolstoy s
Uncluttered by the complexities of plot and character that daunt so many readers of the longer Russian masterpieces, Tolstoy's tales illumine eternal truths with the forceful brevity. While inspired by the sense of spiritual certainty, their narrative qua