The Modern Library Collection Essential Russian Novels 4-Book Bundle

Leo Tolstoy · Fyodor Dostoevsky

Sep 2012 · Dijual oleh Modern Library

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The enduring genius of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky shines through in this special eBook collection that includes four classic Russian novels—each one recognized as a masterpiece of world literature.
 
ANNA KARENINA
 
“One of the greatest love stories in world literature.”—Vladimir Nabokov
 
Anna Karenina is Tolstoy’s classic tale of love and adultery set against the backdrop of high society in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The rich and complex story charts the disastrous course of a love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer.
 
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
 
“Crime and Punishment has upon most readers an impact as immediate and obvious and full as the news of murder next door.”—R. P. Blackmur
 
The story of the murder committed by Raskolnikov and his guilt and atonement, Dostoevsky’s brilliant novel is without doubt the most gripping and illuminating account ever written of a crime of repugnance and despair and the consequences that inevitably arise from it.
 
THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV
 
“The Brothers Karamazov stands as the culmination of Dostoevsky’s art.”—The Washington Post Book World
 
Dostoevsky’s crowning achievement is a tale of patricide and family rivalry that embodies the moral and spiritual dissolution of an entire society. To Dostoevsky, it captured the quintessence of Russian character in all its exaltation, compassion, and profligacy.
 
WAR AND PEACE
 
“There remains the greatest of all novelists—for what else can we call the author of War and Peace?”—Virginia Woolf
 
Often called the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoy’s genius is seen clearly in the multitude of characters in this massive chronicle—all of them fully realized and equally memorable.

Tentang pengarang

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was born in central Russia. After serving in the Crimean War, he retired to his estate and devoted himself to writing, farming, and raising his large family. His novels and outspoken social polemics brought him world fame.

Fyodor Mikailovich Dostoevsky’s life was as dark and dramatic as the great novels he wrote. He was born in Moscow in 1821. A short first novel, Poor Folk (1846), brought him instant success, but his writing career was cut short by his arrest for alleged subversion against Tsar Nicholas I in 1849. His prison experiences coupled with his conversion to a profoundly religious philosophy formed the basis for his great novels. But it was his fortuitous marriage to Anna Snitkina, following a period of utter destitution brought about by his compulsive gambling, that gave Dostoevsky the emotional stability to complete Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868–1869), The Possessed (1871–1872), and The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880). When Dostoevsky died in 1881, he left a legacy of masterworks that influenced the great thinkers and writers of the Western world and immortalized him as a giant among writers of world literature.