Showing results by author "Leo Tolstoy" in All Categories

A delightful anthology of great works by some of Europe's greatest short story writers....

In these selections, an animal plays an important role in the action or plot of the story. The animals in these stories are real or are stand-ins for humans: Sredni Vashtar by Saki (H. H. Munro) Kholstomer, The Story of a Horse by Leo Tolstoy A Dark-Brown Dog by Stephen Crane Kashtanka by Anton Chekhov The Cat That Walked By Himself by Rudyard Kipling The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe The Fly by Katherine Mansfield The Boar-Pig by Saki (H. H. Munro) The Tiger Guest by Pu Songlbying Jackals and Arabs by Franz Kafka

From Tolstoy's introspective reflections on the passage of time in Boyhood, Childhood, Youth to Dostoevsky’s exploration of ideological turmoil in Demons, these stories present the raw complexities of personal and societal transformation. Dombey and Son captures Dickens' powerful critique of Victorian society, while Shirley examines the life of a strong, independent woman challenging the conventions of her era.

War and Peace is a literary work mixed with chapters on history and philosophy by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. It was first published serially, then published in its entirety in 1869. It is regarded as one of Tolstoy's finest literary achievements and remains an internationally praised classic of world literature. Second Epilogue: History is the life of nations and of humanity. To seize and put into words, to describe directly the life of humanity or even of a single nation, appears impossible.

Filled with unforgettable characters, rich in history and social realism, Anna Karenina is a masterpiece of world literature, a story that fires the imagination and touches the heart.

War and Peace is a literary work mixed with chapters on history and philosophy by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. It was first published serially, then published in its entirety in 1869. It is regarded as one of Tolstoy's finest literary achievements and remains an internationally praised classic of world literature. Book 8: 1811-12: After Prince Andrew’s engagement to Natásha, Pierre without any apparent cause suddenly felt it impossible to go on living as before.

The Big Book of Christmas: Classic Stories and Poems is a grand compilation that assembles a treasure trove of holiday tales and poems from a remarkable array of authors. This extensive collection includes 100 classic works, each thoughtfully illustrated, to immerse readers in the magic and wonder of the Christmas season. This anthology spans a rich tapestry of Christmas literature, including timeless favorites such as "The Gift of the Magi," "The Red Room," "A Letter from Santa Claus," "The Fir Tree," "Song of the Holly," and many more.

These novelists burst with a literary energy that is hard to contain. They cover a myriad of styles and themes, narratives packed full of fully-formed characters in powerful tales that have become an essential and integral part of our literary heritage.

Anna Karenina is a strikingly beautiful and highly intelligent woman, blessed with all the attributes that society deems desirable. She is, by all appearances, a happily married woman to her husband, Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, a respected government official. Yet, beneath the facade of this apparent perfection lies a profound sense of despair.

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. This decade is resplendent with literature and its many prodigiously talented authors who write on as varied a range of subjects as might be thought possible. Yet each is studded with careful literary precision and narrative verve. It is a remarkable decade.

Christmas is the perfect time to curl up with a good story, and this cracking collection brings you 30 wonderfully diverse tales inspired by this most special of seasons. From Santa Claus, gift-giving and family gatherings, to an unexpected encounter in a snowstorm and an alternative take on the Nativity, they're sure to get you in the festive mood.

Alyosha the Pot is a short story written by Leo Tolstoy (1905) about the life and death of a simple, uncomplaining worker. It was published after Tolstoy's death in 1911 and received high praise from Tolstoy's contemporaries. Without ever calling Alyosha a holy fool, Tolstoy centers the story on his meekness, aloofness, and foolishness. Alyosha's simple life, soft-spoken manner, and calm acceptance of death epitomizes Tolstoyan principles.

The Forged Coupon is a novella in two parts by Leo Tolstoy. In Part One, the schoolboy Mitya is in desperate need of money to pay a debt, but his father refuses to help him. He then changes a 2.50 rouble bond coupon to read 12.50 roubles. This one wicked deed sets off a chain of events which affects the lives of dozens of others. In Part Two, a good deed also sets of a series of events, but to the benefit of many people.

When a troubled schoolboy forges a cash coupon to pay off a debt, his deed starts off a chain reaction of tragedies that effects the lives of dozens, leading to thefts, imprisonments, murders, and in the end redemption. Originally published posthumously, this was one of the last works of Tolstoy, now excommunicated and raging against the hypocrisies of the Russian state and church.

God Sees the Truth, but Waits (1872) is the story of a man falsely convicted and imprisoned in Siberia for a murder he did not commit. Tolstoy explores themes of forgiveness, faith, and guilt in this narrative, which inspired a novella by Stephen King and the film The Shawshank Redemption.

War and Peace - Tolstoy's epic masterpiece intertwines the lives of private and public individuals during the time of the Napoleonic wars and the French invasion of Russia. Anna Karenina - The heroine of Tolstoy's epic of love and self-destruction, Anna Karenina has beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son, but feels that her life is empty until she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky. Their subsequent affair scandalizes society and family alike, and brings jealousy and bitterness in its wake.

Hailed as one of the world's supreme masterpieces on the subject of death and dying, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his death so much as a passing thought. But one day death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise, he is brought face-to-face with his own mortality. How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth? Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

God Sees the Truth, But Waits engages a subject that would have suited Dostoyevsky. But Dostoyevsky would have written it with a tone of fist-waving anger and frustration, while Tolstoy wrote this story with an accepting, non-violent attitude toward the grievances described. The protagonist has been wrongly accused of murder, separated from his family for 26 years, and by circumstance meets the real murderer in Siberia.

Leo Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists for such works as War and Peace and Anna Karenina. He also wrote a number of outstanding short stories. This is one of his best.

Tolstoy's final work - a gripping novella about the struggle between the Muslim Chechens and their inept occupiers - is a powerful moral fable for our time. Inspired by a historical figure Tolstoy heard about while serving in the Caucasus, this story brings to life the famed warrior Hadji Murat, a Chechen rebel who has fought fiercely and courageously against the Russian empire. After a feud with his commander, he defects to the Russians, only to find that he is now trusted by neither side.