Showing titles in Russian & Soviet

"I am a sick man.... I am a spiteful man", a nameless voice cries out. And so, from underground, emerge the passionate confessions of a suffering man; the painful self-examination of a tormented soul; the bristling scorn of a lonely individual who has become one of the greatest anti-heroes in all literature.

The book probes the possible roles of four brothers in the unresolved murder of their father, Fyodor Karamazov. At the same time, it carefully explores the personalities and inclinations of the brothers themselves. Their psyches together represent the full spectrum of human nature, the continuum of faith and doubt. Ultimately, this novel seeks to understand the real meaning of faith and existence and includes much beneficial philosophical and spiritual discussion that moves the reader towards faith.

Drawing on three of the greatest works of Russian literature, this sweeping collection breathes new life into Leo Tolstoy’s legacy, providing contemporary listeners with an easy, accessible way to discover and enjoy this great Russian author’s literary talents. With gripping prose and profound philosophical insights, listeners will be transported to the battles of the Napoleonic era in War and Peace, explore the trials and tribulations of upper-class Russian life and love in Anna Karenina, and uncover a controversial reflection on Russian culture.

Like Kafka's The Castle, Invitation to a Beheading embodies a vision of a bizarre and irrational world. In an unnamed dream country, the young man Cincinnatus C. is condemned to death by beheading for "gnostical turpitude", an imaginary crime that defies definition.

Братья Карамазовы - последний роман Ф. М. Достоевского, который автор писал два года. Роман был напечатан частями в Русском вестнике. Достоевский задумывал роман как первую часть эпического романа "История Великого грешника". Роман был окончен в ноябре 1880 года.

Raskolnikow befindet sich noch immer im Unklaren bezüglich vieler Ereignisse. So belastet ihn unter anderem das Verhältnis zu Swidrigajlow, der ihn näher kennenlernen möchte. Andererseits weiß er die Zuneigung Sonjas zu schätzen, wenngleich dies der einzige Lichtblick ist. Dunja erhält einen Brief, dass der vermeintliche Mörder die Tat gestanden habe. Kurz darauf erscheint Petrowitsch überraschend und bittet darum, mit Raskolnikow reden zu dürfen.

Raskolnikow möchte Swidrigajlow wegschicken, doch dieser wehrt sich und äußert zunächst unklare Aussagen. Er sei der Mann Dunjas verstorbener, ehemaliger Arbeitgeberin und ein früherer Falschspieler. Seine Frau habe ihn einst aus dem Gefängnis freigekauft. Nun möchte er Dunjas Hochzeit verhindern, da er selbst Gefühle für diese hegt. Auch möchte er sie mit 10.000 Rubel entschädigen und ihr zudem 3.000 Rubel übergeben, die seine Frau Dunja vermacht hatte.

Luschin macht es noch immer zu schaffen, dass Dunja ihm eine Abfuhr erteilt hat. Er streitet sich mit seinem früheren Mündel Lebestjanikow, bei welchem er nun wohnt. Thema des Streits ist primär Sonja, die Lebestjanikow in eine Kommune locken möchte, um diese dort zu entwickeln. Luschin holt Sonja hinzu, weil er vorgeblich etwas Gutes für die Witwe Marmeladow tun möchte. Luschin überreicht Sonja zehn Rubel und möchte sich am Abend mit ihr treffen.

Seit anderthalb Jahren ist Raskolnikow mittlerweile in Sibirien in Haft. Ein Rückblick zeigt, dass er zu acht Jahren Zwangsarbeit aufgrund mildernder Umstände verurteilt wurde. Dunja hat mittlerweile Rasumichin geheiratet, doch ist seine Mutter in der Zwischenzeit verstorben. Sonja hat sich entschieden, mit Raskolnikow zu gehen, lebt in der Nähe des Lagers und hält per Brief Kontakt zu Rasumichin und Dunja.

One of the most important and influential Russian writers of the 19th century, Fyodor Dostoevsky is admired worldwide for his great realist novels, exploring questions of morality, philosophy and the nature of existence. This compilation contains the BBC radio productions of his four most famous novels - as well as three lesser-known works and two bonus documentaries - collected together for the first time.

Paterson Joseph, John Hurt, Lesley Manville and Harriet Walter are among the cast of BBC Radio 4's epic full-cast dramatisation. Adapted for radio by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Leo Tolstoy's epic story follows the fortunes of three Russian aristocratic families during the Napoleonic War. First broadcast on New Year's Day 2015, the drama also features Alun Armstrong, Natasha Little, David Calder, Phoebe Fox, Sam Reid and Joanna David. Duration: 10 hours approx.

The fortunes of the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys, of Pierre, Natasha, and Andrei, are intimately connected with the national history that is played out in parallel with their lives. Balls and soirées alternate with councils of war and the machinations of statesmen and generals, scenes of violent battles with everyday human passions in a work whose extraordinary imaginative power has never been surpassed. The prodigious cast of characters, both great and small, seem to act and move as if connected by threads of destiny as the novel relentlessly questions ideas of free will, fate, and providence.

In this biography of Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, A. N. Wilson narrates the complex drama of the writer's life: his childhood of aristocratic privilege but emotional deprivation, his discovery of his literary genius after aimless years of gambling and womanizing, and his increasingly disastrous marriage. Wilson sweeps away the long-held belief that Tolstoy's works were the exact mirror of his life and instead traces the roots of Tolstoy's art to his relationship with God, with women, and with Russia.

Dostoevsky's life was marked by brilliance and brutality. Sentenced to death as a young revolutionary, he survived mock execution and Siberian exile to live through a time of seismic change in Russia, eventually being accepted into the Tsar's inner circle. He had three great love affairs, each overshadowed by debilitating epilepsy and addiction to gambling. Somehow, amidst all this, he found time to write short stories, journalism and novels such as Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov, works now recognised as among the finest ever written.

The Master and Margarita is one of the most famous and best-selling Russian novels of the 20th century, despite its surreal environment of talking cats, Satan and mysterious happenings. Naxos AudioBooks presents this careful abridgement of a new translation in an imaginative reading by the charismatic Julian Rhind-Tutt. With War and Peace and Crime and Punishment among the Naxos AudioBooks best-sellers, this too promises to be a front title.

From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times best-selling author of Lincoln in the Bardo, a literary masterclass on how to become both a better writer and reader, on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about how to live. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders guides the listener through seven classic Russian short stories he's been teaching for 20 years as a professor in the prestigious Syracuse University graduate MFA creative writing program.

В романе "Идиот" Достоевский стремился, по его словам, "изобразить вполне прекрасного человека".

A startling and revelatory examination of Nabokov’s life and works—notably Pale Fire and Lolita—bringing new insight into one of the twentieth century’s most enigmatic authors. Novelist Vladimir Nabokov witnessed the horrors of his century, escaping Revolutionary Russia then Germany under Hitler, and fleeing France with his Jewish wife and son just weeks before Paris fell to the Nazis. He repeatedly faced accusations of turning a blind eye to human suffering to write artful tales of depravity. But does one of the greatest writers in the English language really deserve the label of amoral aesthete bestowed on him by so many critics?

Anna Karenina is beautiful, married to a successful man, and has a son whom she adores. But a chance meeting at a train station in Moscow sets her passionate heart alight, and she is defenceless in the face of Count Vronsky's adoration. Having defied the rules of nineteenth-century Russian society, Anna is forced to pay a heavy price.

Here are 11 short stories and one novella by Anton Chekhov, one of the finest masters of what is acknowledged as a difficult genre. There is the richly comic "Oh! The Public" about a hassled ticket inspector, a wry look at morals and manners in "The Chorus Girl", and the melancholic tale of a cab driver in "Misery".