Boleslaw Prus is often compared to Chekhov, and Prus's masterpiece might be described as an intimate epic, a beautifully detailed, utterly absorbing exploration of life in late-nineteenth-century Warsaw, which is also a prophetic reckoning with some of the social forces--imperialism, nationalism, anti-Semitism among them--that would soon convulse Europe as never before. But The Doll is above all a brilliant novel of character, dramatizing conflicting ideas through the various convictions, ambitions, confusions, and frustrations of an extensive and varied cast. At the center of...

It is Egypt, circa 1100 BCE- trouble comes to the highest spheres of power in this most ancient of governments. Pharaoh's rule has been usurped by Egypt's priesthood, the kingdom's nobility has fallen on hard times, the justice system is bro...