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Reading lists

20 must-read classics in translation

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Features

A beginner’s guide to translated fiction

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Interviews

How books help Lucy Dacus write music

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Six unusual families from the classics

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Extracts

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Resurrection

The finest editions available of the world's greatest classics from Homer to Achebe, Tolstoy to Ishiguro, Proust to Pullman, printed on a fine acid-free, cream-wove paper that will not discolour with age, with sewn, full cloth bindings and silk ribbon markers, and at remarkably low prices. All books include substantial introductions by major scholars and contemporary writers, and comparative chronologies of literary and historical context.

Sweetness and light among shame and confusion. The greatest of all novels is Leo Tolstoy's final novel, Resurrection. Its effect upon a reader is immense and immediate.

My all-time favourite is Resurrection. Its themes of social injustice and personal redemption resonated in the Seventies, when I first read it. This, I thought, is what all books should be like: serious, committed and passionate

In Resurrection … the return to the land, as the physical correlative to the rebirth of the soul, is beautifully rendered…The sun glimmers on the river, the colt nuzzles, and the pastoral scene enforces on Nekhlyudov the full realization that the morality of urban life is founded on injustice… The account of the eastward transportation of the prisoners is handled with a breadth of design and aliveness which transcend any programmatic purpose. When Tolstoy opened his eyes on actual scenes and events … his hand moved with matchless artistry.

The greatest of all novels is Leo Tolstoy's final novel, Resurrection. Its effect upon a reader is immense and immediate. Even after eight readings of various translations, I continue to feel its spell and admire its complexity… This brilliant, troubling novel at first out-sold Tolstoy's earlier novels, even War and Peace. It was criticized for its outspoken contents. It remains a grand panorama of discontent

A nobleman faces the consequences of his youthful wrongdoing when the girl he seduced and abandoned some years earlier is put on trial in a murder case. Initially conceived as a love story, Tolstoy’s last novel, published in 1899, is a dark masterpiece in which the whole of Imperial Russian society is tried and found wanting. Resurrection moves from the salons and country estates of the aristocracy to courtrooms and government offices, brothels and prisons; from Moscow and St Petersburg by road, rail and route march to the penal settlements of Siberia. Its pages are peopled with convicts and gaolers, revolutionaries and religious sectaries, soldiers, labourers and lawyers, peasants, priests and prostitutes. While for Prince Nekhlyudov and Katusha Maslova salvation through love proves problematic, the journey into exile becomes one of self-discovery and spiritual transformation.

Family Happiness

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books 
‘I’m not the sort of husband you dream of when you’re walking alone along the avenue in the evening, am I? And it would be a disaster, wouldn’t it?’ 
How does love die? This question lies at the heart of Tolstoy’s desperately sad novella. It tells the story of seventeen-year-old Masha who, despite their differences, falls passionately in love with an older man, and marries him. Soon, however, the gap between them becomes unbridgeable.

‘I’m not the sort of husband you dream of when you’re walking alone along the avenue in the evening, am I? And it would be a disaster, wouldn’t it?’How does love die? This question lies at the heart of Tolstoy’s desperately sad novella. It tells the story of seventeen-year-old Masha who, despite their differences, falls passionately in love with an older man, and marries him. Soon, however, the gap between them becomes unbridgeable.

War and Peace

This is, at last, a translation of War and Peace without the dreadful misunderstandings and &quot;improvements&quot; that plague all other translations of the novel into English. Pevear and Volokhonsky's supple and compelling translation is the closest that an English reader without Russian can get to Tolstoy's masterwork. This is a great achievement. It is hard to imagine how this translation could be superseded.&quot;

Vladimir E. Alexandrov,  Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures,

It is simply the greatest novel ever written. All human life is in it. If I were told there was time to read only a single book, this would be it

Reveals Tolstoy in his majestic scope and precision to this reader for the first time, unencumbered by the pidgin archaisms of previous translations, ringing with mastery and truth

Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year

There is a good argument to say that any decent library must make room for War and Peace

War and Peace... is gleefully experimental... Tolstoy is the greatest miniaturist in the history of the novel. He is economical... [An] outlandish, wonderful novel

The greatest of all novels. Read it again, to test and savour the infallible truth of Tolstoy&rsquo;s understanding of every stage and aspect of human life

To read him . . . is to find one's way home . . . to everything within us that is fundamental and sane

In War And Peace, richly observed human life - its catastrophes and passions, its thrills and tedium - mark out Tolstoy as a fox, who knows all about the dizzying diversity of existence

Translators give their wits and craft selflessly in service of others' work; this is a triumph of fidelity and unpretentiousness.

My favourite book of 2007 is this new translation of War and Peace... I'm relishing the incomparable mix of vivid description, penetrating social comment and philosophy. Translators give their wits and craft selflessly in the service of others' work; this is a triumph of fidelity and unpretentiousness

I'm absolutely blown away by this translation. The main thing about reading Volokhonsky and Pevear is that I feel I'm reading a book for the first time...it's a joy to read...There were moments in the book that hadn't quite established themselves until this [translation]...The sense of actually being in the skin of these people is phenomenally, brilliantly rendered by this new translation

There remains the greatest of all novelists-for what else can we call the author of War and Peace

First-rate! What an artist and what a psychologist

'If you've never read it, now is the moment. This translation will show that you don't read War and Peace, you live it' The Times 
 
Tolstoy's enthralling epic depicts Russia's war with Napoleon and its effects on the lives of those caught up in the conflict. He creates some of the most vital and involving characters in literature as he follows the rise and fall of families in St Petersburg and Moscow who are linked by their personal and political relationships. His heroes are the thoughtful yet impulsive Pierre Bezukhov, his ambitious friend, Prince Andrei, and the woman who becomes indispensable to both of them, the enchanting Natasha Rostov. 
 
&lsquo;It is simply the greatest novel ever written. All human life is in it. If I were told there was time to read only a single book, this would be it&rsquo; Andrew Marr 
 
TRANSLATED BY RICHARD PEVEAR AND LARISSA VOLOKHONSKY

A BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramatisation

Anna Karenina

A brand-new BBC Radio full-cast dramatisation of Tolstoy's epic love story 
 
Beautiful and intelligent young Anna suffers in her loveless marriage, dreaming of the romantic life she should be living, and the love that others around her should be sharing honestly with one another. When she meets the dashing Vronsky he seems to offer everything she has been craving, but the cost she will pay is higher than she could have imagined. 
 
Meanwhile Konstantin Levin, a gentle landowner who shares Anna's belief in sincerity, attempts to channel his beliefs into his land, his family, and his love for beautiful aristocrat Kitty, and must risk everything to discover his capacity for life. 
 
Dramatised by the award-winning Linda Marshall Griffiths, Anna Karenina is a powerful story of passion, infidelity, vengeance and retribution. Starring Kate Phillips (Peaky Blinders), Alfred Enoch (Harry Potter films) and Rory Kinnear (James Bond films), this brand-new adaptation is an epic and compelling production that will stay with each listener for a lifetime. 
 
Written by Leo Tolstoy 
Dramatised by Linda Marshall Griffiths 
 
Cast 
Anna - Kate Phillips 
Vronsky - Alfred Enoch 
Karenin - Rory Kinnear 
Levin - Sacha Dhawan 
Kitty - Anneika Rose 
Stiva - Adetomiwa Edun 
Dolly - Rosalie Craig 
Seryozha - Rafferty Railton 
Countess Vronskaya - Leah Marks 
Kuzma/Priest/Porter - Hasan Dixon 
Princess/Nurse/Madame Kartasova - Georgie Glen 
 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 30 April - 14 May 2023 
©2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

30 Festive Dramas and Stories

A BBC Christmas Collection

A sparkling seasonal anthology of BBC dramas and readings 
 
Christmas is the perfect time to curl up with a good story, and this cracking collection brings you 30 wonderfully diverse tales inspired by this most special of seasons. From Santa Claus, gift-giving and family gatherings, to an unexpected encounter in a snowstorm and an alternative take on the Nativity, they're sure to get you in the festive mood. 
 
Here are modern readings of classics such as Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Tree', Anton Chekhov's 'At Christmas Time', Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Fir Tree', O Henry's 'The Gift of the Magi', Elizabeth Gaskell's 'Christmas Storms and Sunshine' and Leo Tolstoy's 'Papa Panov's Special Christmas'. Alongside them is some superb short fiction by contemporary authors, including Stella Duffy ('South'), Paul McVeigh ('Daddy Christmas'), Laura Barnett ('Survivors'), and nine delightful stories by Alexander McCall Smith. Among the stellar narrators are Don Gilet, Nina Sosanya, Hannah Gordon, Stephanie Cole and Meera Syal. 
 
Interspersed with these are a range of spellbinding plays, including Rachel Joyce's poignant Christmas by the Lake; festive action comedy Lena Marsh, Live and Schticking! by Jeremy Front; a very unusual and very dangerous Santa in The Morpeth Carol by Timothy X Atack; and Robert Hudson and Marie Phillips' epistolary animal tale, Some Hay in a Manger, introduced by Stephen Fry. All feature star casts including Niamh Cusack, Robert Lindsay, Sam Troughton, Clare Corbett, Tamsin Greig and Joel Fry. 
 
Heartwarming and heartfelt, comic and bittersweet, moving and magical, these fantastic, evocative stories are a real Christmas treat. 
 
Note: Chapter metadata updated in January 2023. 
 
Contents 
Christmas by the Lake by Rachel Joyce 
Christmas Short Stories by Alexander McCall Smith: 
· 'Motordrome' 
· 'The Revenge, or Otherwise, of Herbie Bontemps' 
· 'How to Escape in Gaelic' 
· 'The Colourful Life of Cousin Grace' 
· 'Good President Wenceslas' 
The Christmas Present by Ben Crompton 
Christmas Compass: Series 1: 
· 'North' by Malachy Tallack 
· 'South' by Stella Duffy 
· 'East' by Ruth Thomas 
· 'West' by Mike McCormack 
A Time to Dance by Lucy Gannon 
Christmas Compass: Series 2 by Alexander McCall Smith 
· 'Winter Journey' 
· 'In the DRC' 
· 'Primatologist' 
· 'On The Island' 
Midnight at Christmas by Elliott Kerrigan 
'The Fir Tree' by Hans Christian Andersen 
'At Christmas Time'by Anton Chekhov 
'Papa Panov's Special Christmas' by Leo Tolstoy 
Some Hay in a Manger by Robert Hudson and Marie Phillips 
'Daddy Christmas' by Paul McVeigh 
'Christmas Storms and Sunshine'by Elizabeth Gaskell 
The Morpeth Carol by Timothy X Atack 
'Survivors' by Laura Barnett 
Lena Marsh, Live and Shticking!by Jeremy Front 
'A Christmas Tree' by Charles Dickens 
'The Gift of the Magi' by O Henry 
Get Santa by Peter Gibbs 
'Home' by Christine Dwyer Hickey 
 
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

The Cossacks

Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. 
 
Dmitry Andreich Olenin, in the hope of escaping the hollowness of his privilege, joins the army and heads to the Caucasus. There among the foothills he will meet the Cossacks: a people he considers to be at one with the land. In their company he will hunt, he will drink, he will fall in love and, slowly, he will begin to understand that between people, between cultures, there is often a space that cannot be traversed... 
 
'It is the richness of Tolstoy's genius that strikes us most in this story' Virginia Woolf

Dmitry Andreich Olenin, in the hope of escaping the hollowness of his privilege, joins the army and heads to the Caucasus. There among the foothills, he will meet the Cossacks: a people he considers to be at one with the land. In their company he will hunt, he will drink, he will fall in love and, slowly, he will begin to understand that between people, between cultures, there is often a space that cannot be traversed...

Full-cast dramatisations of War and Peace, Anna Karenina & more

The Leo Tolstoy BBC Radio Drama Collection

BBC Radio adaptations of Tolstoy's three major novels, plus a reading of his profound philosophical memoir, an original drama based on his life and a bonus documentary 
 
One of the greatest novelists of all time, Leo Tolstoy is famed worldwide for his masterpieces of realist fiction, War and Peace and Anna Karenina. This comprehensive collection contains both those iconic works, as well as his final novel Resurrection; his autobiographical essay A Confession; Stephen Wakelam's dramatic account of his tempestuous marriage, Mrs Tolstoy; and In Our Time: Tolstoy. 
 
War and Peace - 1805, and Napoleon Bonaparte is threatening the peace of Europe. In St Petersburg and Moscow, the lives of three aristocratic families are about to be changed forever... This epic dramatisation stars Simon Russell Beale, Gerard Murphy, Amanda Redman and Emily Mortimer. 
 
Anna Karenina - In 19th Century Russia, bored high society wife Anna embarks on an affair with the handsome Count Vronsky - but her passion sets her on a path to self-destruction. Starring Teresa Gallagher and Toby Stephens. 
 
Resurrection - Serving on the jury in a murder trial, Prince Dimitri recognises the young prostitute in the dock as Katerina Maslova, the girl he seduced years before. Knowing he is partly responsible for her plight, he attempts to atone for his mistakes and find redemption. Katherine Igoe and Richard Dillane star in this powerful adaptation of Tolstoy's final novel. 
 
A Confession - Read by Joss Ackland, this compelling religious testament describes Tolstoy's search for God, faith and the meaning of life. 
 
Mrs Tolstoy - In his fifties, Leo Tolstoy has a spiritual crisis. Converting to Christianity, he gives up writing, stops sleeping with his wife, won't see his children and wants to give away all his possessions. But Sofya is ready to fight for her husband and family... Starring Ian McDiarmid and Haydn Gwynne. 
 
In Our Time: Tolstoy - Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Tolstoy's life and writings, exploring his urgent desire to represent real life in his work, how he strove to convey truth to the reader - and why he ultimately gave up on literature to concentrate on religious and political philosophy. 
 
Please note that the chapter headings have been updated as of 10th February 2022. 
 
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
(p) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
 
First published 1869 (War and Peace), 1877 (Anna Karenina), 1879 (A Confession), 1899 (Resurrection)

BBC Radio adaptations of Tolstoy's three major novels, plus a reading of his profound philosophical memoir, an original drama based on his life and a bonus documentary 
 
One of the greatest novelists of all time, Leo Tolstoy is famed worldwide for his masterpieces of realist fiction, War and Peace and Anna Karenina. This comprehensive collection contains both those iconic works, as well as his final novel Resurrection; his autobiographical essay A Confession; Stephen Wakelam's dramatic account of his tempestuous marriage, Mrs Tolstoy; and In Our Time: Tolstoy. 
 
War and Peace - 1805, and Napoleon Bonaparte is threatening the peace of Europe. In St Petersburg and Moscow, the lives of three aristocratic families are about to be changed forever... This epic dramatisation stars Simon Russell Beale, Gerard Murphy, Amanda Redman and Emily Mortimer. 
 
Anna Karenina - In 19th Century Russia, bored high society wife Anna embarks on an affair with the handsome Count Vronsky - but her passion sets her on a path to self-destruction. Starring Teresa Gallagher and Toby Stephens. 
 
Resurrection - Serving on the jury in a murder trial, Prince Dimitri recognises the young prostitute in the dock as Katerina Maslova, the girl he seduced years before. Knowing he is partly responsible for her plight, he attempts to atone for his mistakes and find redemption. Katherine Igoe and Richard Dillane star in this powerful adaptation of Tolstoy's final novel. 
 
A Confession - Read by Joss Ackland, this compelling religious testament describes Tolstoy's search for God, faith and the meaning of life. 
 
Mrs Tolstoy - In his fifties, Leo Tolstoy has a spiritual crisis. Converting to Christianity, he gives up writing, stops sleeping with his wife, won't see his children and wants to give away all his possessions. But Sofya is ready to fight for her husband and family... Starring Ian McDiarmid and Haydn Gwynne. 
 
In Our Time: Tolstoy - Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Tolstoy's life and writings, exploring his urgent desire to represent real life in his work, how he strove to convey truth to the reader - and why he ultimately gave up on literature to concentrate on religious and political philosophy. 
 
Please note that the chapter headings have been updated as of 10th February 2022. 
 
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
(p) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

Paterson Joseph, John Hurt, Lesley Manville and Harriet Walter are among the cast of BBC Radio 4's full-cast dramatisation from 2015.

Tolstoy’s imagined world is recreated on air brilliantly by the extraordinary cast

The cast is extraordinary, but pre-eminent is Harriet Walter in a masterclass of apparently effortless radio acting

Leo Tolstoy (1828 –1910) was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, he is best known for the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877), often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction. He first achieved literary acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852–1856), and Sevastopol Sketches (1855), based upon his experiences in the Crimean War. Tolstoy's fiction includes dozens of short stories and several novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Family Happiness, and Hadji Murad. He also wrote plays and numerous philosophical essays.

Paterson Joseph, John Hurt, Lesley Manville and Harriet Walter are among the stellar cast of this landmark BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Leo Tolstoy’s epic saga. 
 
‘Tolstoy’s imagined world is recreated on air brilliantly by the extraordinary cast’ The Spectator 
 
One of the greatest novels of all time, War and Peace explores historical, social, ethical and religious issues on a scale never before attempted in fiction, and reflects the panorama of life at every level of Russian society during the 19th Century. 
 
Adapted for radio by Timberlake Wertenbaker, this riveting, wide-ranging drama follows the fortunes of four Russian aristocratic families during the Napoleonic War. Told in flashback over ten episodes, it moves from fashionable society soirées in St Petersburg and Moscow to the battlefields of Austerlitz and Borodino, as protagonists Pierre, Natasha, Marya and Nikolai describe to their children the events that shaped their lives and those of every Russian who lived through this turbulent time. 
 
First broadcast on New Year's Day 2015, this dynamic full-cast dramatisation features specially composed music by Stephen Warbeck. It stars Paterson Joseph as Pierre, Phoebe Fox as Natasha, Natasha Little as Marya and Sam Reid as Nikolai, part of a stunning cast including Alun Armstrong, Simon Russell Beale and Roger Allam. 
 
Duration: 10 hours approx.

Anna Karenina (Vintage Classic Russians Series)

The Vintage Classics Russians Series - sumptuous editions of the greatest books to come out of Russia during the most tumultuous period in its history

A glittering affair begins in Russian high society. 
Tolstoy follows its consequences through marriage, family and the search for meaning. 
Anna is a beautiful, intelligent woman whose passionate affair with the dashing Count Vronsky leads her towards ruin. Yet Anna Karenina is far more than one of world literature’s great love stories. Twinned with Anna’s story is that of Levin, an awkward idealist whose happy marriage and domestic trials become part of his own search for meaning. Moving between Moscow, St Petersburg and the Russian countryside, Tolstoy creates a rich social novel about desire, family, morality and spiritual uncertainty. Anna’s defiance of society is set against Levin’s attempts to understand work, faith, marriage and goodness, giving the novel its extraordinary emotional and philosophical range. Tolstoy’s power lies in the patience with which he follows every contradiction of feeling: tenderness and resentment, duty and longing, self-deception and moral clarity. The result is a Russian literary classic that feels vast in scope yet intimate in every judgement, gesture and private crisis. TRANSLATED BY LOUISE AND AYLMER MAUDE VINTAGE CLASSICS RUSSIAN SERIES: sumptuous editions of the greatest books to come out of Russia during the most tumultuous period in its history. 
'One of the greatest love stories in world literature' Vladimir Nabokov 'I've read and re-read this novel and every time I find another layer in the story' Philippa Gregory

One of the greatest love stories in world literature

Tolstoy's historical and human sweep is breathtaking. His vision, humanity and his knowledge that love and pain are at the heart of life is the most important of all the profound truths revealed in this great novel

In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy got totally inside the mind of a woman who is prepared to lose everything for the sake of man and who is so much in love that she commits suicide. I don't like her as a woman, but I think it is a brilliant portrait, unequalled in literature

I've read and re-read this novel and every time I find another layer in the story

I first read Anna Karenina 20 years ago when travelling across the Peruvian desert on a long bus journey, and it has stayed with me ever since

Anyone who has read Anna Karenina will be aware of its extraordinary power as an epic psychological tale of a woman who gives up her husband and son for the sake of an affair with a handsome army officer. It has humour but, as with all of Tolstoy's works, it is completely without sentimentality

I just love this classic romance about a married mother who succumbs to an unsuitable lover and becomes pregnant by him, which of course results in all sorts of pressures and heartache. The best love story ever told

Probably one of the greatest novelistic treatments of the torments of love

Leo Tolstoy was born in central Russia on 9 September 1828. In 1852 he published his first work, the autobiographical Childhood. He served in the army during the Crimean War and his Sevastopol Sketches (1855-6) are based on his experiences. His two most popular masterpieces are War and Peace (1864-69) and Anna Karenina (1875-8). He died in 1910.

War and Peace (Vintage Classic Russians Series)

Pierre searches for purpose, Andrei for glory and Natasha for love, while Russia moves towards war. 
Tolstoy’s enthralling epic depicts Russia’s war with Napoleon and its effects on the lives of those caught up in the conflict. Moving between St Petersburg, Moscow, country estates and battlefields, War and Peace follows families linked by love, ambition, inheritance and history. At its heart are Pierre Bezukhov, thoughtful and impulsive; Prince Andrei, restless and ambitious; and Natasha Rostov, whose vitality changes the lives around her. This is a classic Russian epic about war, love, family and the search for meaning. Vast in scope yet intimate in feeling, Tolstoy brings public history and private emotion together, showing how individuals are shaped by forces they can neither control nor fully understand. War and Peace is essential reading for anyone drawn to historical fiction, literary classics and novels that ask what it means to live morally in a world of upheaval. VINTAGE CLASSICS RUSSIAN SERIES: sumptuous editions of the greatest books to come out of Russia during the most tumultuous period in its history. 
'If you've never read it, now is the moment. This translation will show that you don't read War and Peace, you live it' The Times 'It is simply the greatest novel ever written. All human life is in it. If I were told there was time to read only a single book, this would be it' Andrew Marr

If you've never read it, now is the moment. This translation will show that you don't read War and Peace, you live it

This is, at last, a translation of War and Peace without the dreadful misunderstandings and "improvements" that plague all other translations of the novel into English. Pevear and Volokhonsky's supple and compelling translation is the closest that an English reader without Russian can get to Tolstoy's masterwork. This is a great achievement. It is hard to imagine how this translation could be superseded."

It may sound pretentious, or strange, but I can remember the weeks (three weeks, to be precise) I spent reading War and Peace as a peak experience of sustained excitement and deep delight. Part of the delight was the largeness and strangeness of this world - the sense of the vastness and extremes of Russia, the unboundedness of everything

The greatest of all novels. Read it again, to test and savour the infallible truth of Tolstoy’s understanding of every stage and aspect of human life

Highly and deservedly praised...is a remarkable achievement.

Leo Tolstoy was born in central Russia on 9 September 1828. In 1852 he published his first work, the autobiographical Childhood. He served in the army during the Crimean War and his Sevastopol Sketches (1855-6) are based on his experiences. His two most popular masterpieces are War and Peace (1864-69) and Anna Karenina (1875-8). He died in 1910. 
 
Together, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have translated works by Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gogol, Bulgakov and Pasternak. They were twice awarded the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize (for their translations of Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina) and their translation of Dostoevsky’s Demons was one of three nominees for the same prize. They are married and live in France.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

'It is only a bruise' 
 
A carefree Russian official has what seems to be a trivial accident... 
 
One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

Penguin Classics

War And Peace

A beautiful Penguin Classics clothbound edition of Tolstoy's magnificent epic novel of love, conflict, fate and human life in all its imperfection and grandeur 
 
At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon's army marches on Russia, and the lives of three young people are changed forever. The stories of quixotic Pierre, cynical Andrey and impetuous Natasha interweave with a huge cast, from aristocrats and peasants to soldiers and Napoleon himself. In War and Peace, Tolstoy entwines grand themes - conflict and love, birth and death, free will and faith - with unforgettable scenes of nineteenth-century Russia, to create a magnificent epic of human life in all its imperfection and grandeur. 
 
Translated with an introduction and notes by Anthony Briggs, and with an afterword by Orlando Figes 
 
Anthony Briggs's superb translation combines stirring, accessible prose with fidelity to Tolstoy's original, while Orlando Figes's afterword discusses the novel's vast scope and depiction of Russian identity. This edition also contains appendices, notes, a list of prominent characters and maps. 
 
'A masterpiece ... This new translation is excellent' - Anthony Beevor

A masterpiece ... this new translation is excellent

War and Peace is like no other novel ... Tolstoy writes of both war and peace more marvellously than anyone else has done

New BBC TV tie-in edition of the original masterpiece by Leo Tolstoy, with an introduction by Andrew Davies.

This is the official tie-in edition to the BBC adaptation of War and Peace with an exclusive introduction written by Andrew Davies. 
 
Tolstoy’s beguiling masterpiece entwines love, death and determinism with Russia’s war with Napoleon and its effects on those swept up by the terror it brings. The lives of Pierre, Prince Andrei and Natasha are changed forever as conflict rages throughout the early nineteenth century. Following the rise and fall of some of society’s most influential families, this truthful and poignant epic is as relevant today as ever. 
 
This six part adaptation has been written by Bafta-winning author Andrew Davies and will be directed by Tom Harper (Peaky Blinders, The Scouting Book for Boys, Woman in Black: Angel of Death). Accompanied by a stellar cast including Paul Dano (12 Years a Slave, Prisoners, There Will Be Blood) as the idealistic Pierre, James Norton (Happy Valley, Belle, Grantchester) as the ambitious Prince Andrei and Lily James (Cinderella, Downton Abbey) as the impulsive beauty Natasha. It also features the legendary Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge, Harry Potter, Longford), Gillian Anderson (The Fall, The X-Files), Greta Scacchi (White Mischief, Presumed Innocent) and many more.

The Kreutzer Sonata

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), the Russian prose writer, is chiefly remembered for his novels, War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

Pozdnyshev and his wife have a turbulent relationship. When her beauty blossoms after the birth of their children, men begin to flock around her, and he becomes increasingly jealous. Convinced his wife is betraying him with a young musician, his overpowering suspicion drives him to ever more dangerous lengths. 
 
United by the theme of love, the writings in the Great Loves series span over two thousand years and vastly different worlds. Readers will be introduced to love&rsquo;s endlessly fascinating possibilities and extremities: romantic love, platonic love, erotic love, gay love, virginal love, adulterous love, parental love, filial love, nostalgic love, unrequited love, illicit love, not to mention lost love, twisted and obsessional love&hellip;.

How Much Land Does A Man Need?

'Although he feared death, he could not stop. 'If I stopped now, after coming all this way - well, they'd call me an idiot!' 
 
A pair of short stories about greed, charity, life and death from one of Russia's most influential writers and thinkers. 
 
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. 
 
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). Tolstoy's works available in Penguin Classics are Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Childhood, Boyhood, Youth,The Cossacks and Other Stories, The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories, What is art?, Resurrection, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories, Master and Man and Other Stories, How Much Land Does A Man Need? &amp; Other Stories, A Confession and Other Religious Writings and Last steps: The Late Writings of Leo Tolstoy.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). Tolstoy's works available in Penguin Classics are Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Childhood, Boyhood, Youth,The Cossacks and Other Stories, The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories, What is art?, Resurrection, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories, Master and Man and Other Stories, How Much Land Does A Man Need? &amp; Other Stories, A Confession and Other Religious Writings and Last steps: The Late Writings of Leo Tolstoy.

Although he feared death, he could not stop. 'If I stopped now, after coming all this way - well, they'd call me an idiot!'

Tolstoy's epic novel of love, destiny and self-destruction, in a gorgeous new clothbound edition from Penguin Classics. 
 
Anna Karenina seems to have everything - beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky. Their subsequent affair scandalizes society and family alike and soon brings jealously and bitterness in its wake. Contrasting with this tale of love and self-destruction is the vividly observed story of Levin, a man striving to find contentment and a meaning to his life - and also a self-portrait of Tolstoy himself. 
 
This acclaimed modern translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky won the PEN/ Book of the Month Club Translation Prize in 2001. Their translation is accompanied in this edition by an introduction by Richard Pevear and a preface by John Bayley 
 
'The new and brilliantly witty translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is a must' - Lisa Appignanesi, Independent, Books of the Year 
 
'Pevear and Volokhonsky are at once scrupulous translators and vivid stylists of English, and their superb rendering allows us, as perhaps never before, to grasp the palpability of Tolstoy's "characters, acts, situations"' - James Wood, New Yorker

The new and brilliantly witty translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is a must

Pevear and Volokhonsky are at once scrupulous translators and vivid stylists of English, and their superb rendering allows us, as perhaps never before, to grasp the palpability of Tolstoy's "characters, acts, situations"

Tolstoy's story of one woman's fate is brought powerfully to life in this BBC Radio full-cast dramatisation starring Teresa Gallagher and Toby Stephens.

Tolstoy's story of one woman's fate is brought powerfully to life in this BBC Radio full-cast dramatisation starring Teresa Gallagher and Toby Stephens. Anna Karenina enjoys a privileged and aristrocratic lifestyle as the wife of influential government official Alexy Karenin. Yet their ten-year marriage is devoid of tenderness, and when Anna falls in love with the handsome Count Vronsky they embark upon a deep and passionate affair. Reflecting the social conditions of the era in which it was written, Tolstoy's masterpiece sets a doomed love story against a harsh and unforgiving backdrop.

Childhood, Boyhood, Youth

Tolstoy's first published work, Childhood, is unquestionably one of his most engaging and profound narratives, and he followed it in short order with the other two parts of the trilogy. We have several competent English translations, but none of them comes close to matching Judson Rosengrant's in capturing the young writer's astonishing precision, stylistic variety, and range of moods [...] The introduction breaks new critical ground in presenting Tolstoy's language and thought. The deft, unpretentious annotations are the most thorough in any English-language edition. I cannot think of a better place to start for new readers of Tolstoy, or a more insightful, enjoyable refresher for experienced Tolstoyans

William Mills Todd III, Harvard University

This superb new translation of the early trilogy, intelligently introduced, is a miracle of persuasive storytelling

Judson Rosengrant's stunning new translation of Leo Tolstoy's first literary masterpiece reveals the Russian novelist's talent in all its startling and visionary originality [...] Rosengrant's Childhood, Boyhood, Youth is an example of the art of translation at its finest, combining critical acumen, a specialist's understanding of Tolstoy's art, and a profound sympathy with the original's subtle narrative 'moods,' shifting melodies of language, and deployment of stylistic registers. Thanks to Rosengrant's passionate respect for the integrity of the text and the power of the precisely chosen word to illuminate experience, Tolstoy has found an English voice worthy of his own.

Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 at Yasnaya Polyana, in the Tula province, and educated privately. He studied Oriental languages and law at the University of Kazan, then led a life of pleasure until 1851 when he joined an artillery regiment in the Caucasus. He took part in the Crimean War and after the defence of Sebastopol he wrote The Sebastopol Sketches (1855-56), which established his reputation. After a period in St Petersburg and abroad, he married Sofya Andreyevna Behrs in 1862. The next fifteen years was a period of great happiness; they had thirteen children, and Tolstoy managed his vast estates in the Volga Steppes, continued his educational projects, cared for his peasants and wrote War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). A Confession (1879-82) marked a spiritual crisis in his life, and in 1901 he was excommunicated by the Russian Holy Synod. He died in 1910, in the course of a dramatic flight from home, at the small railway station of Astapovo. 
 
Judson Rosengrant has translated and edited a wide range of Russian literature and historiography, including works by Olesha, Lydia Ginzburg, Iskander, Limonov and Radzinsky. He has taught Russian language, literature and culture at the University of Southern California, Indiana University and Reed College in the United States, and translation theory and practice at St Petersburg State University in Russia.

Leo Tolstoy began his trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood, Youth, in his early twenties. Although he would in his old age famously dismiss it as an 'awkward mixture of fact and fiction', generations of readers have not agreed, finding the novel to be a charming and insightful portrait of inner growth against the background of a world limned with extraordinary clarity, grace and colour. Evident too in its brilliant account of a young person's emerging awareness of the world and of his place within it are many of the stances, techniques and themes that would come to full flower in the immortal War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and in the other great works of Tolstoy's maturity.

Stop What You’re Doing and Read…To Your Partner: Jane Eyre & Anna Karenina

JANE EYRE &amp; ANNA KARENINA: Two novels of romance, passion and obsession - read aloud to your partner and make sparks fly...

Jane Eyre's suspense-laden, melodramatic plot - featuring child cruelty and attempted bigamy, as well as the celebrated madwoman - explains much of its appeal... Jane Eyre is a book into which generations of readers have escaped

Charlotte Bronte (Author) Charlotte Brontë was born on 21 April 1816. Her father was curate of Haworth, Yorkshire, and her mother died when she was five years old, leaving five daughters and one son. In 1824 Charlotte, Maria, Elizabeth and Emily were sent to Cowan Bridge, a school for clergymen's daughters, where Maria and Elizabeth both caught tuberculosis and died. The children were taught at home from this point on and together they created vivid fantasy worlds which they explored in their writing. Charlotte worked as a teacher from 1835 to 1838 and then as a governess. In 1846, along with Emily and Anne, Charlotte published Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.After this Emily wrote Wuthering Heights, Anne wrote Agnes Grey and Charlotte wrote The Professor. Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey were both published but Charlotte's novel was initially rejected. In 1847 Jane Eyre became her first published novel and met with immediate success. Between 1848 and 1849 Charlotte lost her remaining siblings: Emily, Branwell and Anne. She published Shirley in 1849, Villette in 1853 and in 1854 she married the Rev. Arthur Bell Nicholls. She died the next year, on 31 March 1855. Leo Tolstoy (Author) Leo Tolstoy was born in central Russia on 9 September 1828. In 1852 he published his first work, the autobiographical Childhood. He served in the army during the Crimean War and his Sevastopol Sketches (1855-6) are based on his experiences. His two most popular masterpieces are War and Peace (1864-69) and Anna Karenina (1875-8). He died in 1910.

To mark the publication of Stop What You're Doing and Read This!, a collection of essays celebrating reading, Vintage Classics are releasing 12 limited edition themed ebook 'bundles', to tempt readers to discover and rediscover great books. 
 
JANE EYRE 
As an orphan, Jane's childhood is not an easy one but her independence and strength of character keep her going through the miseries inflicted by cruel relatives and a brutal school. However, her biggest challenge is yet to come. Taking a job as a governess in a house full of secrets, for a passionate man she grows more and more attracted to, ultimately forces Jane to call on all her resources in order to hold on to her beliefs. 
 
ANNA KARENINA 
Set against the backdrop of Russian high society, Tolstoy charts the course of the doomed love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer. Although she initially resists his charms Anna eventually succumbs, falling passionately in love and setting in motion a chain of events that lead to her downfall.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories

Magnificent new translation of Tolstoy's fiction by the acclaimed duo behind War and Peace.

Ivan Ilyich has always led a proper life. Only as he dies does he begin to ask what that meant. 
The title story of this collection follows Ivan Ilyich, a successful official battling a mysterious illness. His family visit his bedside, their faces masks of concern. His colleagues pay their respects but think only of the advantages created by his death. As Ivan’s suffering deepens, the respectable life he has built begins to seem hollow, and the truth of death becomes impossible to avoid. It is one of the masterpieces of Tolstoy’s late fiction. The 10 other stories in this collection include ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’, ‘The Devil’ and ‘Hadji Murat’, and range across military captivity, jealousy, spiritual crisis, peasant life and moral awakening. These are stories written with the force of final questions. Tolstoy looks at illness, jealousy, violence and faith not as abstractions, but as pressures that reveal what his characters have built their lives upon. 
 
'As good as anything Tolstoy ever wrote... Self-assured, vital, unforgettable' Guardian

As good as anything Tolstoy ever wrote... Self-assured, vital, unforgettable

The simplicity and power of this novella, the story of the terrible encroachment of death on a shallow man spiritually unprepared for it, has staggered millions

I don't read Russian, but I think Tolstoy's writing comes over whatever translation you read...he wrote the great, terrible story The Death of Ivan Illyich

For me, the best insight into the process of dying comes from Leo Tolstoy in his short story, The Death of Ivan Ilych, which examines the life and death of the most ordinary man

A fitting monument to Tolstoy's battles with what it is that makes us human

Leo Tolstoy was born in central Russia on 9 September 1828. In 1852 he published his first work, the autobiographical Childhood. He served in the army during the Crimean War and his Sevastopol Sketches (1855-6) are based on his experiences. His two most popular masterpieces are War and Peace (1864-69) and Anna Karenina (1875-8). He died in 20 November 1910.

Leo Tolstoy

Charlotte Brönte

Gustave Flaubert

William Shakespeare

Colette

Jane Austen

Alessandro Manzoni

Radclyffe Hall

Emily Brontë

Elizabeth Gaskell

Edith Wharton

Thomas Hardy

Vanessa Kirby

Tom Burke

Rory Kinnear

Toby Jones

John Hurt

David Tennant

Kate Philips

Full Cast

12 Full-Cast Dramatisations including Wuthering Heights, now a major film

Twelve dramatisations of the best love stories ever written, performed by star casts 
 
Treat yourself to this stunning collection of classic stories of love, loss, obstacles overcome and desperate attraction. This is a beautiful, moving and at times thrilling listen which takes you on a journey through the greatest tales of romance ever told. These unmissable, dramatised novels feature stellar performances from fantastic casts including Vanessa Kirby, Hiftu Quasem, Kate Philips, Rory Kinnear, Toby Jones, John Hurt and David Tennant. 
 
Anna Karenina is Leo Tolstoy's powerful drama of desire, transgression and heartache. Starring Kate Philips (Wolf Hall), Alfred Enoch (Harry Potter) and Rory Kinnear (James Bond films). 
 
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is a fantastic mix of injustice, romance, passion and danger wrapped up in a glorious love story. Starring Amanda Hale (Catastrophe) and Tom Burke (Strike). 
 
Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary is a masterpiece of betrayal and wantonness - the first great novel of adultery. Starring Sarah Smart (Wallander), Jude Akuwudike (Gangs of London) and James D’Arcy (Broadchurch) with John Hurt (Harry Potter) as the Narrator. 
 
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. In a town full of hatred, where the streets ring with the Capulet-Montague feud and swords are too easily drawn, Romeo and Juliet find each other, fall in love, and never let go. Starring Trystan Gravelle (Mr Selfridge), Vanessa Kirby (Mission Impossible), David Tennant (Broadchurch) and Paul Ready (Motherland). 
 
Chéri by Colette is the story of a love affair between a courtesan and a man half her age, set in Paris before the First World War. Starring Frances Barber (Silk) and Joseph Millson (The Last Kingdom) with Lindsay Duncan (Birdman) as the Narrator. 
 
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen remains one of the world’s favourite novels, dealing with the timeless issues of love, social class and money with a witty, clever - though flawed - heroine at its heart. Starring Pippa Nixon (Unforgotten), Jamie Parker (The Crown) and Toby Jones (The Detectorists). 
 
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni is an icon of Italian literature: the story of two lovers who want nothing more than to marry but are beset by the hazards of war, bread riots and the machinations of a nameless crime lord. Starring Hiftu Quasem (Killing Eve) and Ian Dunnett Jnr (Masters of the Air). 
 
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, written in 1928, is a pioneering novel about love and attraction between women. Starring Valerie Edmond as the enigmatic Stephen. 
 
Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë's iconic love story. Heathcliff and Cathy's love is the beating heart of the story, set against the backdrop of the bleak Yorkshire moors. Starring Chloe Pirrie (Temple) and Ben Batt (Shameless). 
 
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell explores social conscience, ideological difference and love in a mill town in the 1800s. Starring Emily Mortimer (The Pursuit of Love) and David Threlfall (Shameless). 
 
The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a passionate life-long love affair which breaks all the rules of the restrictive high society of 1870's New York. Starring Susan Lynch (Happy Valley) and Kellie Bright (Eastenders). 
 
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy is a story of the belief in true romance and the power of money and love. Starring Alex Tregear (Silk: The Clerk’s Room), Toby Jones (The Detectorists) and Patrick Kennedy (Boardwalk Empire). 
 
This stunning collection is packed with the best romance stories written in the last 500 years – a fully dramatised, unmissable listen featuring some of the biggest names of stage and screen. 
 
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War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

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