Books about russian literature

This text is a revised edition of Dostoyevsky's classic tale. Rasholnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. As he embarks on a dangerous cat and mouse game, he is pursued by his conscience.

Anna Karenina is one of the loved and memorable heroines of literature. Her overwhelming charm dominates a novel of unparalleled richness and density. This book addresses the very nature of society at various levels - of destiny, death, human relationships and the irreconcilable contradictions of existence.

When brutal landowner Fyodor Karamazov is murdered, the lives of his sons are changed irrevocably: Mitya is placed under suspicion, Ivan's mental tortures drive him to breakdown, Alyosha tries to heal the family's rifts, and there is always the shadow of their bastard half-brother, Smerdyakov.

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.

The devil makes a personal appearance in Moscow accompanied by various demons, including a naked girl and a huge black cat. When he leaves, the asylums are full and the forces of law and order in disarray. Only the Master, a man devoted to truth, and Margarita, the woman he loves, can resist the devil's onslaught.

Prince Myshkin returns to Russia from an asylum in Switzerland. As he becomes embroiled in the frantic amatory and financial intrigues which centre around a cast of brilliantly realised characters and which ultimately lead to tragedy, he emerges as a unique combination of the Christian ideal of perfection.

The third of Dostoevsky's five major novels, The Devils is a powerful political tract and a profound study of atheism, depicting the disarray which follows the appearance of a band of modish radicals in a small provincial town.

Mr. Golyadkin, a man who is haunted or possessed by his own double. Is 'Mr. Golyadkinjunior' really a double or simply an earful side of his own nature?

The Gulag, the Stalinist labour camps to which millions of Russians were condemned for political deviation, has become a household word in the West. This is due to the accounts of many witnesses, but most of all to the publication, in 1962, of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich , the novel that first brought the author to public attention.

Examines the conflict of attitudes in mid-19th-century Russia, as distant pre-echoes of the Revolution continue to rumble through the remote rural landscape. The story follows the Kirsanov family, representatives of the old regime, and the violent character of the anti-hero Bazarov.

Written in 1842, this comic masterpiece about a mysterious con man and his grotesque victims is one of the major works of Russian literature.

The story of Humbert Humbert, poet and pervert, and his obsession with 12-year-old Dolores Haze. Determined to possess his Lolita both carnally and artistically, Humbert embarks on a disastrous courtship that can only end in tragedy.

Yuri Zhivago, physician and poet, wrestles with the new order and confronts the changes cruel experience has made in him and the anguish of being torn between the love of two women. This novel talks about Russia in the throes of revolution, offering a love story.

In a glass-enclosed city of absolute straight lines, ruled over by the all-powerful 'Benefactor', the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState live out lives devoid of passion and creativity - until D-503, a mathematician who dreams in numbers, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul. This is the dystopian novel.

This is a new translation of one of the most important works of Russian Romanticism, 'A Hero of Our Time'. Lermontov's only novel examines a weary and cynical man trapped in the futility of his age.