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The story behind the origins of Anna Karenina and the turbulent life and times of Leo Tolstoy. Anna Karenina is one of the most nuanced characters in world literature and we return to her, and the novel she propels, again and again. Remarkably, there has not yet been an examination of Leo Tolstoy specifically through the lens of this novel. Critic and professor Bob Blaisdell unravels Tolstoy’s family, literary, and day-to-day life during the period that he conceived, drafted, abandoned, and revised Anna Karenina. In the process, we see where Tolstoy’s life and his art intersect in obvious and unobvious ways. Readers often assume that Tolstoy, a nobleman-turned-mystic would write himself into the principled Levin. But in truth, it is within Anna that the consciousness and energy flows with the same depth and complexities as Tolstoy. Her fateful suicide is the road that Tolstoy nearly traveled himself. At once a nuanced biography and portrait of the last decades of the Russian empire and artful literary examination, Creating Anna Karenina will enthrall the thousands of readers whose lives have become deeper and clearer after experiencing this hallmark of world literature.
Adventures, calamities, and conquests abound in stirring tales about Pandora's box, King Midas and his golden touch, the dreaded Cyclops, Narcissus and Echo, and many other familiar figures.
Compilation of the best proverbs from around the world — ancient and modern — offers concise, time-honored wisdom about love, money, politics, and human nature. Handsome gift-book format makes this volume an ideal present.
A revelatory portrait of Chekhov during the most extraordinary artistic surge of his life. In 1886, a twenty-six-year-old Anton Chekhov was publishing short stories, humor pieces, and articles at an astonishing rate, and was still a practicing physician. Yet as he honed his craft and continued to draw inspiration from the vivid characters in his own life, he found himself—to his surprise and ocassional embarassment—admired by a growing legion of fans, including Tolstoy himself. He had not yet succumbed to the ravages of tuberculosis. He was a lively, frank, and funny correspondant and a dedicated mentor. And as Bob Blaisdell discovers, his vivid articles, stories, and plays from this per...
Swashbuckling novel of D'Artagnan and his three friends — Athos, Porthos and Aramis — three musketeers in the service of King Louis XIII.
Presents the classic study of power and politics written in 1513 by a Florentine diplomat that recommends guile and ruthlessness to achieve and maintain political power.
This compilation of classic short fiction presents stories inspired by life in the great metropolis. Contributors include O. Henry, Melville, Cather, Wharton, Wodehouse, Langston Hughes, Junot Díaz, and others.
DIVThe legendary strongman recounts his road to immortality with tales of battles with fabulous monsters and other spectacular feats of heroism. Many illustrations, easy-to-read text. /div
A revelatory portrait of Chekhov during the most extraordinary artistic surge of his life. In 1886, a twenty-six-year-old Anton Chekhov was publishing short stories, humor pieces, and articles at an astonishing rate, and was still a practicing physician. Yet as he honed his craft and continued to draw inspiration from the vivid characters in his own life, he found himself—to his surprise and ocassional embarassment—admired by a growing legion of fans, including Tolstoy himself. He had not yet succumbed to the ravages of tuberculosis. He was a lively, frank, and funny correspondant and a dedicated mentor. And as Bob Blaisdell discovers, his vivid articles, stories, and plays from this per...
In the years before he wrote War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy founded and ran a school on his estate at Yasanya Polyana. Brimming with progressive and sometimes radical ideas on schooling, Tolstoy undertook to teach the peasant children many subjects-including imaginative writing-and wrote about what he learned. This is a book for anyone who cares about education.