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.

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.

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.

The Voice of a Giant looks at seven masterpieces of Russian nineteenth-century prose fiction-Pushkin's "The Queen of Spades", Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time", Gogol's "The Greatcoat", Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons", Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground", Tolstoy's "War and Peace" and Chekhov's "The Lady with the Dog". Each chapter concentrates primarily on a detailed analysis of one of these works but reference is also made to historical background, the seven author's general attitudes and the distinguishing characteristics of Russian literature. The book is intended for A-Level students, for first- and second-year undergraduates, and for the general reader exploring the richness and subtlety of a body of writing which has profoundly influenced the modern European consciousness.

This is a lively and readable guide to Alexander Pushkin's novel in verse Eugene Onegin, a landmark of European Romanticism, and arguably the best of all Russian poetry. Professor Briggs addresses the question of how such remarkable poetry can have been composed about a rather banal plot, and considers the form of the work and its poetic techniques in detail. He offers fresh interpretations of the characters and events of the poem, and sets it against its European background. He discusses its influence - notably Tchaikovsky's operatic version - and points to its life-affirming philosophy and spirit of joyfulness. The book includes a chronological chart and a guide to further reading.

Pushkin is often overshadowed by later Russian writers whose works have achieved more extensive critical acclaim. Yet he is deservedly regarded as Russia's foremost poet and holds a unique place in that country's literature and history. The creator of a body of poetry that has endured in its appeal and remains unsurpassed in quality, Pushkin revitalized the language and culture of the educated Russian people, leaving an inheritance of artistic potential for his successors. This book gives a clear, detailed and accessible account of all Pushkin's poetry, from the heroic and the sentimental to the bawdy and humorous, as well as a briefer consideration of his major prose works. Its approach should present no difficulty to the reader who only has a limited knowledge of Russian, and above all, emphasizes the challenging and adventurous spirit of enjoyment in the work of this major poet.

Nikolai Bukharin was one of the most eminent leaders and theoreticians of the Bolsheviks, a man who had become famous long before the Russian Revolution. He was idolized by the youth of Soviet Russia, who identified with him and drew much of their inspiration from his writings. Prominent among the organizers of the revolution, he served for twenty years on the Central Committee and for ten years as a member of the Politburo. From 1917 to 1929 he was in charge of the newspaper Pravda, and though he and Lenin often disagreed, Lenin referred to him in his Testament as "deservedly the favorite of the Party."

Prof. Briggs provides an introduction which looks closely at the poetry and then, taking the death of Lensky as the most important event, considers the sotry, the characters and the hidden meanings of the novel. English introduction, Russian text and notes and glossary.

This book contains the Russian text of Pushkin's Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin. The text is accompanied with English language introduction and notes on the text.