Celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of Andrey Bely's Petersburg, this volume offers a cross-section of essays that address the most pertinent aspects of his 1916 masterpiece. The plot is relatively a simple one: Nikolai Apollonovich is ordered by a group of terrorists to assassinate his father, the prominent senator, Apollon Apollonovich Ableukhov. Nevertheless, Bely's polyphonic, experimental prose invokes such diverse themes as: Greek mythology, the apocalypse, family dynamics, psychology, Russian history, theosophy, revolution, and European literary influences. Considered by Vladimir Nabokov to be one of the twentieth century's four greatest masterpieces, Petersburg is the first novel in which the city is the hero. Frequently compared to Joyce's Ulysses, no novel did more to help launch modernism in turn-of-the century Russia.

Fluency in any language begins with mastery of its verbs, and Barron's 501 Verb books are the world's top verb reference guides. 501 Russian Verbs presents: The most commonly used verbs in the featured language Full conjugations in an easy-to-read chart format Helpful expressions and idioms for travelers Hundreds of example sentences demonstrating verb usage The most commonly used 501 Russian verbs are arranged alphabetically in a table format, one verb per page with English pronunciation and translation. Verbs are fully conjugated and presented in all forms. The book's additional features include common idioms with example sentences to demonstrate verb usage and a grammar review.

From a Dan Brown expert, a handy, reader-friendly guide to 33 critical topics covered in "The Lost Symbol," including photos, illustrations, and reference links for further exploration.

There's so much information and so many facts contained in Dan Brown's thrilling new page-turner that many readers need a quick reference guide to the history, geography, art and architecture, cryptology, science, people and places in the novel. Professor Beyer, who has taught seminars and produced on-line texts to Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels & Demons," started to work on this "Lost Symbol" companion guide three years ago in anticipation of its subject matter.

The seven sections are organized by theme and follow the plot of the story:

* People and Places: from Robert Langdon to the mysterious Smithsonian Museum Support Center

*The District of Columbia: the creation and design of Washington, D.C., and its Masonic influences

*Art and Architecture: from the "Apotheosis of Washington" to the Obelisk and Pyramid

*Cryptology: from Kryptos to magic squares

*Modern Science: from Noetics to modern-day physics

*Freemasonry: from origins and Founding Fathers to its symbols (including the significance of the number 33)

*The Secret Teachings: from The Hermetic Tradition to Bacon and "The Bible"