INTRODUCTION After making a production of Redemption, the chief feeling of the producer is one of deep regret that Tolstoi did not make more use of the theatre as a medium. His was the rare gift of vitalization: the ability to breathe life into word-people which survives in them so long as there is any one left to turn up the pages they have made their abode. In the world of writing, many terms that should be illuminative have become meaningless. So often has the barren been called "pregnant," the chill of death "the breath of life," the atrophied "pulsating," that when we really come upon a...

Extract: CHAPTER I. All the efforts of several hundred thousand people, crowded in a small space, to disfigure the land on which they lived; all the stone they covered it with to keep it barren; how so diligently every sprouting blade of grass was removed; all the smoke of coal and naphtha; all the cutting down of trees and driving off of cattle could not shut out the spring, even from the city. The sun was shedding its light; the grass, revivified, was blooming forth, where it was left uncut, not only on the greenswards of the boulevard, but between the flag-stones, and the birches, poplars...

Read Tolstoy's original War and Peace without the need for a dictionary with this insightful edition. Bringing you nine chapters from various parts of War and Peace, this edition's Russian and English word-by-word translation are displayed side by side on separate pages, the stress labeled in bold for each Russian word, thereby eliminating the need for a dictionary. Study Tolstoy's most moving passages from War and Peace with ease. This edition is a must for Russian language learners and Russian literature lovers wanting to read Tolstoy's original story.

Love and tragedy can go hand in hand when a young man falls in love with already married aristocrat, Anna. She is reluctant to leave her husband for the new love interest due to laws and rules handed down by the state, the church and her social standing. Eventually the two flee to Italy where they can finally be free to be together but a great shunning begins and Anna must overcome the new problems.

Covering the period from the French invasion under Napoleon into Russia. Although not covering solely the war itself, the serialized novel does cover the effects the war had on Russian society from the common person right up to the Tsar himself. The book starts to move more to a philosophical consideration on war and peace near the end making the book as a whole an important piece of literature.

Extract: CHAPTER I. . . . 169] The justification of all persons who have freed themselves from toil is now founded on experimental, positive science. The scientific theory is as follows: - "For the study of the laws of life of human societies, there exists but one indubitable method, -the positive, experimental, critical method "Only sociology, founded on biology, founded on all the positive sciences, can give us the laws of humanity. Humanity, or human communities, are the organisms already prepared, or still in process of formation, and which are subservient to all the laws of the...

Extract: THE POWER OF DARKNESS ACT I The Act takes place in autumn in a large village. The Scene represents Peter's roomy hut. Peter is sitting on a wooden bench, mending a horse-collar. Anisya and Akoulina are spinning, and singing a part-song. PETER looking out of the window] The horses have got loose again. If we don't look out they'll be killing the colt. Nikita Hey, Nikita Is the fellow deaf? Listens. To the women] Shut up, one can't hear anything. NIKITA from outside] What? PETER. Drive the horses in. NIKITA. We'll drive 'em in. All in good time. PETER shaking his head] Ah, these...

Extract: Scene 1 A dirty room in a low-class restaurant. A table, at which people sit drinking tea and vodka. In the foreground a small table, at which sits Fedya, tattered, and much come down in the world. With him is Petushkov, a gentle, mild man with long hair, of clerical appearance. Both are slightly drunk. PETUSHKOV. I understand, I understand. That is true love Yes? Go on. FEDYA. Well, you know, if a woman of our class showed such feeling and sacrificed everything for the man she loved.... But she was a gipsy, brought up to money-hunting, and yet she had this self-sacrificing love ...

Extract: ACT I Scene 1 The scene represents the verandah of a fine country-house, in front of which a croquet-lawn and tennis-court are shown, also a flower-bed. The children are playing croquet with their governess. Mary Ivanovna Saryntsova, a handsome elegant woman of forty; her sister, Alexandra Ivanovna Kohovtseva, a stupid, determined woman of forty-five; and her husband, Peter Semyonovich Kohovtsef, a fat flabby man, dressed in a summer suit, with a pince-nez, are sitting on the verandah at a table with a samovar and coffee-pot. Mary Ivanovna Saryntsova, Alexandra Ivanovna Kohovtseva,...

Extract: FRUITS OF CULTURE ACT I The entrance hall of a wealthy house in Moscow. There are three doors: the front door, the door of Leonid Fyodoritch's study, and the door of Vasily Leoniditch's room. A staircase leads up to the other rooms; behind it is another door leading to the servants' quarters. Scene 1. GREGORY looks at himself in the glass and arranges his hair, &c.] I am sorry about those moustaches of mine "Moustaches are not becoming to a footman," she says And why? Why, so that any one might see you're a footman, -else my looks might put her darling son to shame. He's a likely...