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Poverty-stricken and cut off from society, former law student
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov leads a desolate life in a dreary
little room in St Petersburg. Having abandoned all hopes of
sustaining himself through work, he now obsesses over the idea of
changing his fortunes through an extreme act of violence: the
killing of an elderly pawnbroker. His mind baulks at the horror of
his plan, but when he hears that his sister Dunya is about to agree
to a loveless marriage in order to escape the advances of her
employer, his disgust for the world becomes unbounded, and his
feelings of rebellion and revenge push him closer and closer to the
edge of the precipice. A masterpiece of psychological insight,
Dostoevsky's 1866 novel features some of its author's most
memorable characters - from the temperamental protagonist
Raskolnikov to the amoral sensualist Svidrigailov and the immoral
lawyer Luzhin. Presented here in a sparkling new translation by
Roger Cockerell, Crime and Punishment is a towering work in Russian
nineteenth-century fiction and a landmark of world literature.
Over the last fifteen years of his life, Tolstoy collected and
published the maxims of some of the world's greatest masters of
philosophy, religion and literature, adding his own contributions
to various questions that preoccupied him in old age, such as faith
and existence, as well as matters of everyday life. Banned in
Russia under Communism, A Calendar of Wisdom was Tolstoy's last
major work, and one of his most popular both during and after his
lifetime. This new translation by Roger Cockrell will offer today's
generation of readers the chance to discover, day by day, these
edifying and carefully selected pearls of wisdom.
Presented in a new translation by Roger Cockrell, The Village of
Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants was originally conceived as a
play and first published in 1859, shortly after the author’s
release from forced military service. Gogolian in style and tone,
and waspish in its description of the villainous Opiskin, it is a
sustained exercise in caricatural cruelty and a comedic tour de
force. The young Sergei is summoned from St Petersburg by his
uncle, the retired colonel Yegor Rostanev, to the remote country
estate of Stepanchikovo. Rostanev’s household, populated by a
medley of remarkable characters, is dominated by the figure of Foma
Opiskin, a devious, manipulative hanger-on who has everyone in
thrall and plots to marry the colonel to the woman of his choice,
Tatyana Ivanova. When Opiskin finds that his plans are being
thwarted, a confrontation with Rostanev ensues, and all hell is let
loose.
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The Fatal Eggs (Paperback)
Mikhail Bulgakov; Translated by Roger Cockrell
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R249
R185
Discovery Miles 1 850
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Professor Persikov, an eccentric zoologist, stumbles upon a new
light ray that accelerates growth and reproduction rates in living
organisms. In the wake of a plague that has decimated the country's
poultry stocks, Persikov's discovery is exploited as a means to
correct the problem. As foreign agents, the state and the Soviet
media all seize upon the red ray, matters get out of hand... Set in
1928 but written four years earlier, during Stalin's rise to power,
The Fatal Eggs is both an early piece of science fiction
reminiscent of H.G. Wells and a biting, brilliant satire on the
consequences of the abuse of power and knowledge.
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Black Snow (Paperback)
Mikhail Bulgakov; Translated by Roger Cockrell
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R283
R232
Discovery Miles 2 320
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After being saved from a suicide attempt by the appearance of a
literary editor, the journalist and failed novelist Sergei Maxudov
has a book suddenly accepted for stage adaptation at a prestigious
venue and finds himself propelled into Moscow's theatrical world.
In a cut-throat environment tainted by Soviet politics, censorship
and egomania - epitomized by the arrogant and tyrannical director
Ivan Vasilyevich - mayhem gradually gives way to absurdity.
Unpublished in Bulgakov's own lifetime, Black Snow is peppered with
darkly comic set pieces and draws on its author's own bitter
experience as a playwright with the Moscow Arts Theatre, showcasing
his inimitable gift for shrewd observation and razor-sharp satire.
Set in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev during the chaotic winter of
1918-19, The White Guard, Bulgakov's first full-length novel, tells
the story of a Russian-speaking family trapped in circumstances
that threaten to destroy them. As in Tolstoy's War and Peace, the
narrative centres on the stark contrast between the cosy
domesticity of family life on the one hand, and wide-ranging and
destructive historical events on the other. The result is a
disturbing, often shocking story, illuminated, however, by shafts
of light that testify to people's resilience, humanity and ability
to love in even the most adverse circumstances.
On a train journey, Pozdnyshev tells his story to a stranger: how
his relationship with his wife gradually deteriorated from one of
love and passion to jealousy and resentfulness, culminating in a
mad act of desperation while she practised Beethoven's Kreutzer
Sonata with her violin teacher. An uncompromising examination of
lust, suspicion and infidelity which was once forbidden by censors
in Russia and banned in the US due to its shocking content,
Tolstoy's controversial novella - here presented in a new
translation, along with 'The Prisoner of the Caucasus', 'Master and
Man' and 'After the Ball' - is now considered one of the
masterpieces of Tolstoy's late period.
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Uncle's Dream (Paperback)
Fyodor Dostoevsky; Translated by Roger Cockrell
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R251
R206
Discovery Miles 2 060
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The small town of Mordasov is all abuzz at the arrival of Prince
K-, a wealthy, ageing landowner, after an absence of several years.
Marya Alexandrovna Moskaleva, a local gossip and fearsome schemer,
decides that he would be an advantageous match for her daughter
Zina. But in her endeavours to make such a union come about, she
must contend with rival matchmakers and Zina's existing suitors.
The first book Dostoevsky wrote after serving his sentence in a
Siberian prison camp - an experience that inspired his
semi-autobiographical novel The House of the Dead - Uncle's Dream
shares none of that work's gloomy tone or weighty subject matter:
it is a humorous drawing-room novella, a satire of Russian society
that can be enjoyed as a lighter counterpoint to the author's later
works.
"The Exeter English-Russian Dictionary of Cultural Terms" is a
unique work of reference whose aim is to provide English speakers
who possess at least some knowledge of Russian with the Russian
equivalents of foreign and cultural terms in widespread use.
Begun in 1920 while Bulgakov was employed in a hospital in the
remote Caucasian outpost of Vladikavkaz, and continued when he
started working for a government literary department in Moscow,
Notes on a Cuff is a series of journalistic sketches which show the
young doctor trying to embark on a literary career among the chaos
of war, disease, politics and bureaucracy. Stylistically brilliant
and brimming with humour and literary allusion, Notes on a Cuff is
presented here in a new translation, along with a collection of
other short pieces by Bulgakov, many of them - such as 'The
Cockroach' and 'A Dissolute Man' - published for the first time in
the English language.
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.
The career of Mikhail Bulgakov, the author of Master and Margarita
- now regarded as one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century
literature - was characterized by a constant and largely
unsuccessful struggle against state censorship. This suppression
did not only apply to his art: in 1926 his personal diary was
seized by the authorities. From then on he confined his thoughts to
letters to his friends and family, as well as to public figures
such as Stalin and his fellow Soviet writer Gorky, while also
encouraging his wife Yelena to keep a diary, with many entries
influenced or even dictated by him. This ample selection from the
diaries and letters of the Bulgakovs, mostly translated for the
first time into English, provides an insightful glimpse into a
fascinating period of Russian history and literature, telling the
tragic tale of the fate of an artist under a totalitarian regime.
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Devils (Paperback)
Fyodor Dostoevsky; Translated by Roger Cockrell
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R341
R287
Discovery Miles 2 870
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As ideological ferment grips Russia, a small group of
revolutionaries, led by Pyotr Verkhovensky and inspired by Nikolai
Stavrogin, plan to spread destruction and anarchy throughout the
country. Morally bankrupt, they are prepared to use whatever means
necessary to achieve their goal, including murder and incitement to
suicide. But when they are forced to test the limits of their
doctrine and kill one of their own to secure the secrecy of their
mission, the ragtag group breaks up in mutual recrimination.Devils
is at once a compelling political statement and a study of atheism
and its calamitous effect on a country that is teetering on the
edge of an abyss. Seen as Dostoevsky's most powerful indictment of
man's propensity to violence, this darkly humorous work, shot
through with grotesque comedy, is presented here in Roger
Cockrell's masterful new translation.
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Three Years (Paperback)
Anton Chekhov; Translated by Roger Cockrell
1
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R187
R152
Discovery Miles 1 520
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On a visit to a provincial town to see his sister Nina who is
suffering from cancer, Alexei Laptev, who works for his father's
Moscow haberdashery business, falls in love with Yulia, the
daughter of her doctor, and proposes to her. Although she does not
reciprocate his feelings, she agrees to marry him and live with him
in the capital, where the couple's relationship is marred by
tensions: Yulia is filled with regrets about her choice and boredom
with her new existence, while Alexei is nagged by the suspicion
that she married him for his money alone. However, as time passes
and misfortune strikes, they both learn to reassess all of their
assumptions. Chekhov's second-longest prose work after The Steppe,
Three Years is, in the author's own words, " a novel of Moscow
life" and an examination of its merchant classes. A powerful story
of redemption and the nuances of human relationships, the novella
helped cement Chekhov's reputation as a major figure in Russian
literature.
V.F. Odoevskii (1804-69) was one of the most original and versatile
writers of his generation. Written in 1839 and published the
following year, The Cosmorama reflects the author's deep interest
in the mystical and the non-rational. It tells tale of a small
boy's involvement with a seemingly harmless child's toy which has
fateful consequences for him and for those he encounters. During
the course of the story the narrator, Vladimir, is transformed from
a rational man of the world into an incoherent and isolated wreck,
fated apparently to live out the rest of his life in tormented
despair. The pathway to doom is marked by a series of seemingly
fortuitous but interlinked events of an increasingly grotesque,
violent character. Not simply a melodramatic tale, this is in fact
an unsettling intellectually challenging story giving rise to a
range of philosophical, moral and social issues, including
questions about the nature of reality, the conflict between social
convention and passionate instinct. This edition contains an
introduction, generous notes in English, the text in Russian and a
glossary and bibliography.
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