Describing family life set against the backdrop of war, this novel follows the fortunes of the Bolkonsky and Rostov families as Napoleon's armies sweep through Europe, invade Russia and end in Napoleon's defeat. It captures national events, private experiences of individuals, and the triangle of affection that binds the central characters.

Pechorin is certainly a dangerous man - Byronic in his wasted gifts, his cynicism, his predatory and flamboyant energy for any kind of action that will stave off boredom. In five linked episodes, Mikhail Lermontov builds up the portrait of a man caught in and expressing the sickness of his times.

The stories collected here, written during the final decade of Chekhov's life, reveal a writer who, in response to the techniques of Symbolism and Impressionism, was moving beyond 19th-century realism to become an influential innovator of the modern short story.

Ilya Ilyich Oblomov is a member of Russia's dying aristocracy a man so lazy that he has given up his job in the Civil Service, neglected his books, insulted his friends and found himself in debt. Too apathetic to do anything about his problems, he lives in a grubby, crumbling apartment, waited on by Zakhar, his equally idle servant.

Anna Karenina .

Turgenev's masterpiece about the conflict between generations is as fresh, outspoken, and exciting today as it was in when it was first published in 1862. The controversial portrait of Bazarov, the energetic, cynical, and self-assured 'nihilist' who repudiates the romanticism of his elders, shook Russian society. Indeed the image of humanity liberated by science from age-old conformities and ...