Translated by Constance Garnett, with an Introduction and Notes by Agnes Cardinal, Honorary Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of Kent. 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 and Dostoevsky's own views, afflictions and manners. His serene selflessness is contrasted with the worldly qualities of every other character in the novel. Dostoevsky supplies a harsh indictment of the Russian ruling class of his day who have created a world which cannot accomodate the goodness of this idiot.

Translated by Constance Garnett, with an Introduction by A. D. P. Briggs. As Fyodor Karamazov awaits an amorous encounter, he is violently done to death. The three sons of the old debauchee are forced to confront their own guilt or complicity. Who will own to parricide? The reckless and passionate Dmitri? The corrosive intellectual Ivan? Surely not the chaste novice monk Alyosha? The search reveals the divisions which rack the brothers, yet paradoxically unite them. Around the writhings of this one dysfunctional family Dostoevsky weaves a dense network of social, psychological and philosophical relationships. At the same time he shows - from the opening 'scandal' scene in the monastery to a personal appearance by an eccentric Devil - that his dramatic skills have lost nothing of their edge. The Karamazov Brothers, completed a few months before Dostoevsky's death in 1881, remains for many the high point of his genius as novelist and chronicler of the modern malaise. It cast a long shadow over D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Albert Camus, and other giants of twentieth-century European literature.

With an Introduction and Notes by David Rampton, Department of English, University of Ottowa. Notes from Underground and Other Stories is a comprehensive collection of Dostoevsky's short fiction. Many of these stories, like his great novels, reveal his special sympathy for the solitary and dispossessed, explore the same complex psychological issues and subtly combine rich characterization and philosophical meditations on the (often) dark areas of the human psyche, all conveyed in an idiosyncratic blend of deadly seriousness and wild humour. In Notes from Underground, the Underground Man casually dismantles utilitarianism and celebrates in its stead a perverse but vibrant masochism. A Christmas Tree and a Wedding recounts the successful pursuit of a young girl by a lecherous old man. In Bobok, one Ivan Ivanovitch listens in on corpses gossiping in a cemetery and ends up deploring their depravity. In A Gentle Spirit, the narrator describes his dawning recognition that he is responsible for his wife's suicide. In short, as a commentator on spiritual stagnation, Dostoevsky has no equal.

Translated by Constance Garnett with an introduction by Anthony Briggs. Dostoevsky's fascination for mental breakdown and violence (20 murders in his four main novels) was based on his own life, and these two unmistakably autobiographical works bear this out. The House of the Dead is fiction, but based on his four years in a Siberian prison. An educated upper-class man is condemned to live among criminals and brutal guards, with arbitrary punishments, lousy food, disgusting living conditions, hard toil and many floggings. Somehow he avoids bitterness and recrimination; faith in humanity survives. With its breadth of characterisation, acute sense of detail and strong narrative interest, this work can still shock, entertain and inspire. In The Gambler we see the Russian community in a German spa town. Drawn to the casino, Alexey becomes obsessed with roulette. In a gripping story, full of psychological interest, his growing mania eclipses even his interest in Polina, a heroine of demonic and vibrant sexuality. Dostoevsky himself was rescued from a similar gambling obsession by the young stenographer who took down this work at his dictation and married him soon afterwards.

Originally published in 1866, Crime and Punishment is a psychological thriller that deals with issues of morality, conscience, and redemption. Widely considered to be one of the greatest novels written in any language, this novel explores the life of Rodin Raskolnikov, a young Russian man who robs and murders a pawnbroker to save himself from a life of poverty. As a consequence, he must deal with the oppressive mental anguish of being a criminal while attempting to maintain relationships with his friends and family.

Translated by Constance Garnett with an Introduction by A.D.P. Briggs. In 1869 a young Russian was strangled, shot through the head and thrown into a pond. His crime? A wish to leave a small group of violent revolutionaries, from which he had become alienated. Dostoevsky takes this real-life catastrophe as the subject and culmination of Devils, a title that refers the young radicals themselves and also to the materialistic ideas that possessed the minds of many thinking people Russian society at the time. The satirical portraits of the revolutionaries, with their naivety, ludicrous single-mindedness and readiness for murder and destruction, might seem exaggerated - until we consider their all-too-recognisable descendants in the real world ever since. The key figure in the novel, however, is beyond politics. Nikolay Stavrogin, another product of rationalism run wild, exercises his charisma with ruthless authority and total amorality. His unhappiness is accounted for when he confesses to a ghastly sexual crime - in a chapter long suppressed by the censor. This prophetic account of modern morals and politics, with its fifty-odd characters, amazing events and challenging ideas, is seen by some critics as Dostoevsky's masterpiece.

In this extraordinary collection of twenty tales, Richard Ford, a master short-story writer in his own right, has selected his personal favourites from among more than two hundred of Chekhov's tales and novellas. Included are the familiar masterpieces 'The Kiss', 'The Darling' and 'The Lady with the Dog' as well as several brilliant lesser-known tales such as 'A Blunder', 'Hush!' and 'Champagne'. These stories, written between 1886 and 1899, are drawn from Chekhov's most prolific years as a short-story writer. Introduced by Richard Ford's perceptive observations on 'Why We Like Chekhov', The Essential Tales of Chekhov is an indespensable anthology.

Ivan Gontcharoff is best known for his second novel, Oblomov. One might say, only known, but, while his output was small, he did write two other novels, some short stories and some travel pieces. A Common Story was his first novel, published in 1847. It opens with its hero, Alexandr Fedoritch asleep. Its plot concerns his departure from the countryside to St Petersburg to pursue a bureaucratic career and his mother trying to prevent him, pointing out the superior qualities of the countryside. The title of the novel is a reference to the time-honoured psychological tension between son and mother. Many of the themes Gontcharoff developed more fully in Oblomov are first seen here.

Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin, "although made as Communist propaganda to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the mutiny in 1905, is an undoubted film classic. One of its sources was Constantine Feldman's memoir which Faber Finds are reissuing one hundred years after Constance Garnett's translation was first published.

Of course this isn't objective history but it is a vivid first-hand account of the unrest in Odessa and of the mutiny itself, the twelve days when the Potemkin flew the red flag of revolution and ruled the Black Sea.

Feldman's memoir is a rare book that should be better known; it's scale is smaller but it stands comparison with John Reed's "Ten Days that Shook the World," his eyewitness account of the 1917 Russian Revolution.

One of Ostrovsky's most poetical works, The Storm is set in Kalinov, a provincial town on the banks of the Upper Volga. Trapped in an unhappy marriage, Katerina is tormented by her widowed mother-in-law, Marfa Kabanova. Katerina seeks solace in an affair with a similarly toermented young lover, and the confession of this affair to her husband leads ultimately to tragedy.

The Storm was a great success on its first performance the Maly Theatre, Moscow, in November 1859, and continues to be critically regarded as one of Ostrovsky's best plays. It inspired Janacek's opera "Katia Kabanova."

Alexander Herzen's own brilliance and the extraordinary circumstances of his life combine to place his memoirs among the great testimonies of the modern era. Born in 1812, the illegitimate son of a wealthy Russian landowner, he became one of the most important revolutionary and intellectual figures of his time - as theorist, polemicist and political actor; and fifty years after his death Lenin pronounced him 'the father of Russian socialism'.

My Past and Thoughts uniquely assimilates the personal to the historical, and is both a classic of autobiography an an unparalleled record of his century's remarkable life. His account of a privileged childhood among the Russian aristocracy is illuminated with the insight of a great novelist; his friends and enemies - Marx, Wagner, Mill, Bakunin, Garibaldi, Kropotkin - are brought brilliantly to life; and as a sceptical and free-thinking observer, he unerringly traces the line of revolutionary development, from the earliest stirrings of Russian radicalism through the tumultuous ideological debates of the International.

'His power of observation is extraordinary. He tells a story with the economy of a great reporter. His gift is for knowing not only what people are, but how they are historically situated. Somewhere in the pages of this hard, honest observer of what movements do to men, we shall find ourselves.' - V.S. Pritchett

Alexander Herzen's own brilliance and the extraordinary circumstances of his life combine to place his memoirs among the great testimonies of the modern era. Born in 1812, the illegitimate son of a wealthy Russian landowner, he became one of the most important revolutionary and intellectual figures of his time - as theorist, polemicist and political actor; and fifty years after his death Lenin pronounced him 'the father of Russian socialism'. My Past and Thoughts uniquely assimilates the personal to the historical, and is both a classic of autobiography an an unparalleled record of his century's remarkable life. His account of a privileged childhood among the Russian aristocracy is illuminated with the insight of a great novelist; his friends and enemies - Marx, Wagner, Mill, Bakunin, Garibaldi, Kropotkin - are brought brilliantly to life; and as a sceptical and free-thinking observer, he unerringly traces the line of revolutionary development, from the earliest stirrings of Russian radicalism through the tumultuous ideological debates of the International. 'His power of observation is extraordinary. He tells a story with the economy of a great reporter. His gift is for knowing not only what people are, but how they are historically situated. Somewhere in the pages of this hard, honest observer of what movements do to men, we shall find ourselves.' - V.S. Pritchett

Alexander Herzen's own brilliance and the extraordinary circumstances of his life combine to place his memoirs among the great testimonies of the modern era. Born in 1812, the illegitimate son of a wealthy Russian landowner, he became one of the most important revolutionary and intellectual figures of his time - as theorist, polemicist and political actor; and fifty years after his death Lenin pronounced him 'the father of Russian socialism'.

My Past and Thoughts uniquely assimilates the personal to the historical, and is both a classic of autobiography an an unparalleled record of his century's remarkable life. His account of a privileged childhood among the Russian aristocracy is illuminated with the insight of a great novelist; his friends and enemies - Marx, Wagner, Mill, Bakunin, Garibaldi, Kropotkin - are brought brilliantly to life; and as a sceptical and free-thinking observer, he unerringly traces the line of revolutionary development, from the earliest stirrings of Russian radicalism through the tumultuous ideological debates of the International.

'His power of observation is extraordinary. He tells a story with the economy of a great reporter. His gift is for knowing not only what people are, but how they are historically situated. Somewhere in the pages of this hard, honest observer of what movements do to men, we shall find ourselves.' - V.S. Pritchett

A Sportsman's Sketches was a collection of short stories written by Ivan Turgenev in 1852. Known also as Sketches from a Hunter's Album or The Hunting Sketches, the stories were Turgenev's first major piece of writing and brought him instant recognition.

Based on his own observations riding around his family's estate the stories explore the difficult lives of the peasants and the Russian system of serfdom. This system came into effect during the 11th century and required the dependency of the peasants on the state. Peasants' mobility was severely restricted and it was made illegal for them to run away from the estates where they worked - they belonged, in essence, to the landowners who could move them to another estate under another landowner while retaining the serf's personal property and family.

While there were many rebellions against serfdom it was only in 1861 that it was finally abolished and all serfs were freed by the Tsar, Alexander II. Turgenev's A Sportsman's Sketches influenced the Tsar's decision to abolish the system of serfdom in Russia.

Volume One includes:

Khor and Kalinych

Yermolay and the Miller's Wife

Raspberry Water

The District Doctor

My Neighbor Radilov

Farmer Ovsyanikov

Lgov

Bezhin Lea

Kasyan from the Beautiful Lands

Bailiff

The Office

Loner

Two Landowners

Lebedyan

A Sportsman's Sketches was a collection of short stories written by Ivan Turgenev in 1852. As Turgenev's first major piece of writing they brought him instant recognition.

Based on his own observations riding around his family's estate the stories explore the difficult lives of the peasants and the Russian system of serfdom. This system came into effect during the 11th century and required the dependency of the peasants on the state. Peasants' mobility was severely restricted and it was made illegal for them to run away from the estates where they worked - they belonged, in essence, to the landowners who could move them to another estate under another landowner while retaining the serf's personal property and family.

While there were many rebellions against serfdom it was only in 1861 that it was finally abolished and all serfs were freed by the Tsar, Alexander II. Turgenev's A Sportsman's Sketches influenced the Tsar's decision to abolish the system of serfdom in Russia.

Volume Two includes:

Tatyana Borisovna and her Nephew

Death

The Singers

Pyotr Petrovich Karataev

The Tryst

The Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky District

Chertopkhanov and Nedopyuskin

The End of Chertopkhanov

Living Relic

The Rattling of Wheels

The Forest and the Steppe

Young Muscovite bachelor Yakov Aratov lives in contented solitude, until the arrival in town of the dazzling actress Clara Militch:

"'She was all fire, all passion, and all contradiction; revengeful and kind; magnanimous and vindictive; she believed in fate - and did not believe in God.'"

Her beauty entrances him, beyond her tragic death; and soon, for the formerly level-headed rationalist Aratov, dreams, fever and the spirit world blend and merge together. These tales involve Turgenev's enthusiasm for spirituality, ghosts and premonitions, usually suppressed in his works but an intriguing counterpoint to the powerful naturalism of which he was master.

This volume contains Clara Militch," "Phantoms," "The Song of Triumphant Love," "The Dream and Turgenev's marvellously realized Poems in Prose, which conclude with his famous avowal:

"'In days of doubt, in days of dreary musings on our country's fate, thou alone art my stay and support, mighty, true, free Russian speech But for thee, how not fall into despair, seeing all that is done at home? But who can think that such a tongue is not the gift of a great people '"

Constance Garnett's 1897 translation succeeds in capturing the subtleties and delicacy of Turgenev's own poetic prose.

"'That night I went home to my lodgings in a state of perfect ecstasy ... I felt supremely happy, and was already making all sorts of plans in my head. If someone had whispered in my ear then: "You're raving, my dear chap That's not a bit what's in store for you. What's in store for you is to die all alone, in a wretched little cottage, amid the insufferable grumbling of an old hag who will await your death with impatience to sell your boots for a few coppers ... "'"

Turgenev's hopeless protagonist, at the end of his life, can only truthfully define himself as 'superfluous, ' and relates the tale of the failed romance that confirmed him in that unfortunate opinion. Turgenev's virtuosic account of a man thoroughly undermined by himself, tormented by jealousy and love, but who is, ultimately, nothing more than superfluous.

This volume of five tales also includes" "A Tour in the Forest," "Yakov Pasinkov," "Andrei Kolosov" "and" "A Correspondence," " in Constance Garnett's classic 1899 translation.

Misha Poltyev, a 'desperate character, ' squanders his inheritance, senselessly turns to drink, and lives among the beggars of the highway. Eventually, he returns to his family estate and the graveyard where his parents lie:

"'I want to dig myself a grave ... and to lie here for time everlasting. There's only this spot left for me in the world. Get a spade Oh God Everywhere nothing but injustice, and oppression, and evil-doing ... Everything must go to ruin then, and me too ' "

""

These stories demonstrate Turgenev's matchless skill for portraying elemental aspects of Russian life: the melancholic, the nostalgic, and the darkly comic.

Six tales written by Turgenev between 1847 and 1881, in Constance Garnett's classic 1899 translation: A Desperate Character," "A Strange Story," "Punin and Baburin," "Old Portraits," "The Brigadier" "and Pyetushkov. With an introduction by Edward Garnett.

Martin Petrovitch, believing he has dreamed of his own impending death, transfers ownership of his estate to his two daughters. Turgenev's short story version of Shakespeare's King Lear, follows his protagonist from that fatalistic submission to the cataclysm of cruelty, betrayal and violence that follows.

Three tales written by Turgenev in Constance Garnett's classic 1898 translation: A Lear of the Steppes," "Faust and" "Acia." "With an introduction by Edward Garnett.

A difficult and uncompromising short tale by the Russian master Turgenev, and four additional tales. Includes The Duellist, an early (1846) study of contrasting characters which clearly demonstrates his movement away from the romantic and melodramatic tradition in Russian literature, and towards his unerringly realistic portraiture of individual lives, a skill that is perhaps most perfectly expressed in his short works. Five short tales by Turgenev: The Jew, An Unhappy Girl, The Duellist, Three Portraits and Enough, in Constance Garnett's classic 1900 translation.

The Torrents of Spring and Other Stories was written when Turgenev was in his fifties and is considered to be partly autobiographical.

Also known as Spring Torrents, The Torrents of Spring focuses on the main protagonist Dimitry Sanin, a young Russian landowner who on his travels to Germany meets and falls in love with Gemma, an Italian living in Frankfurt. After winning her heart Sanin decides to sell off his estate in Russia and move to Frankfurt to be close to her. However, once back in Russia and away from his fiancee he succumbs to the charms of a sophisticated older woman, Maria Nikolaevna. He breaks off his engagement with Gemma and embarks on an affair with Maria Nikolaevna, knowing that he doesn't truly love her. Years later a successful but lonely man Sanin can't forget Gemma, the love of his life, and is tortured by the thought of what might have been had he not abandoned her. Returning to Frankfurt he searches for Gemma in the hope that she will forgive him.

An exploration of the joy and disappointment of first love, of betrayal, redemption and forgiveness The Torrents of Spring is classic Turgenev.

Considered to be among the world's greatest masters of fiction Turgenev's works explored the social issues that affected Russians during the nineteenth century, most notably the peasantry and the intelligentsia. Part of the charm of his novels and stories is his sense of place and his sympathy with the rural landscapes.

The works of Ivan Turgenev that are now available on the Faber Finds list are as much a celebration of a classic Russian novelist and short-story writer as they are of the translator Constance Garnett. During her lifetime Garnett translated around 70 volumes of Russian literature that included works by Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Chekhov as well as Turgenev.

Referred to by Henry James as 'the first novelist of his time' Ivan Turgenev's works focus on class, love and suffering. Knock, Knock, Knock and Other Stories with its themes of the supernatural was, therefore, something of a departure for a writer who was well-known for his more humanitarian and liberal views. However, Turgenev uses these supernatural elements as a vehicle for exploring the irrationalities of the human psyche and he leaves the rational explanations for apparently supernatural events ambiguous - as Avrahm Yarmolinsky writes in his biography of Turgenev perhaps 'there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in positivist philosophy'. Knock, Knock, Knock and Other Stories includes Knock, Knock, Knock, The Inn, Lieutenant Yergunov's Story, The Dog and The Watch. 'Turning from side to side I stretched out my hands ... My finger hit one of the beams of the wall. It emitted a faint but resounding, and as it were, prolonged note ... I must have struck a hollow place. I tapped again ... this time on purpose. The same sound was repeated. I knocked again ...' From Knock, Knock, Knock (1871)