This volume offers modern perspectives, from a strong international team of scholars, on the perception of Anton Chekhov's works by three leading cultural figures of the Silver Age of Russian culture - Vasilii Rozanov, Dmitrii Merezhkovskii and Lev Shestov.

The collection is comprised of twelve scholarly essays written by leading Chekhov specialists from around the world. Each essay analyses an interpretation of Chekhov by one of three prominent Russian thinkers of the Silver Age of Russian culture - Vasilii Rozanov, Dmitrii Merezhkovskii and Lev Shestov. This volume is particularly valuable in that its main focus is placed on the perception of Chekhov's art by those who existed on the border between literary criticism and philosophy. This is complemented by a literary critique of their accounts, and therefore remains faithful to Chekhov's poetics.

Russia, once compared to a giant sphinx, is often considered in the Anglophone world an alien culture, often threatening, and always enigmatic. Although recognisably European, Russian culture also has Oriental and mystical features, including the idiosyncratic phenomenon of Russian irrationalism. This is manifested in philosophy, theology and the arts, most notably in literature. It thrives in Russia, even today. Historically, Russian irrationalism has been viewed with caution in the West, where it is often seen as antagonistic to, and subversive of, the rational foundations of Western speculative philosophy. However, some remarkable achievements of the Russian irrationalist approach, especially in the artistic sphere, have been recognized and even admired, though perhaps not thoroughly investigated. This book attempts to bridge this gap between intellectual cultures, and to enhance our understanding of Russian cultural history.In a series of essays it discusses such fundamental irrationalist themes as the linguistic underpinning of culture; the power of illusion in national consciousness; the cultural roots of humour; the changing relationship between love and morality, and between creative impulse and religion; as well as the relevance of various individual writers and philosophers from Pushkin to Brodsky to the construction of Russian irrationalism. By shining focused light on the phenomenon of Russian irrationalism, this book offers privileged access to the Russian cultural consciousness.

The theory of groups is simultaneously a branch of abstract algebra and the study of symmetry. Designed to support a reader engaged in a first serious group theory course, or a mathematically mature reader approaching the subject for the first time, this book reviews the essentials. It recaps the basic definitions and results, up to and including Lagrange's Theorem, and then continues to explore topics such as the isomorphism theorems and group actions. Later chapters include material on chain conditions and finiteness conditions, free groups and the theory of presentations. In addition, a novel chapter of "entertainments" takes the basic theory and plays with it to obtain an assortment of results that will show a little of what can be done with the theoretical machinery. Adopting the slightly irreverent tone of Geoff Smith's previous book, Introductory Mathematics: Algebra and Analysis, this book is a key reference that will both stimulate and entertain its readers.

Russia, once compared to a giant sphinx, is often considered in the Anglophone world an alien culture, often threatening and always enigmatic. Although recognizably European, Russian culture also has mystical features, including the idiosyncratic phenomenon of Russian irrationalism. Historically, Russian irrationalism has been viewed with caution in the West, where it is often seen as antagonistic to, and subversive of, the rational foundations of Western speculative philosophy. Some of the remarkable achievements of the Russian irrationalist approach, however, especially in the artistic sphere, have been recognized and even admired, though not sufficiently investigated. Bridging the gap between intellectual cultures, Olga Tabachnikova discusses such fundamental irrationalist themes as language and the linguistic underpinning of culture; the power of illusion in national consciousness; the changing relationship between love and morality; the cultural roots of humour, as well as the relevance of various individual writers and philosophers from Pushkin to Brodsky to the construction of Russian irrationalism.