Blogs in April 2020

The Cossacks 3rd April 2020

“The Cossacks” is one of Tolstoy’s greatest works. In this semi-autobiographical work we meet the central character of Olenin, a young man of twenty-four who has yet to make anything of himself in life. Olenin joins the Russian army...

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The Death of Ivan Ilych 2nd April 2020

Hailed as one of the world’s supreme masterpieces on the subject of death and dying, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his...

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Hadji Murad 1st April 2020

He is considered one of the greatest novelists in any language in all of human history, but many of Leo Tolstoy’s works remain obscure today. This short novel, published posthumously and recommended by Harold Bloom in his Western Canon,...

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Anna Karenina 1st April 2020

Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger. Tolstoy clashed with editor Mikhail Katkov over political issues that arose in the final...

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War and Peace 6th July 2019

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....

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