Alexei Tolstoy

Here, for the first time, in its final form and in a new translation, is the epic Russian novel which has sold in its native country over two million copies. Alexey Tolstoy (who was not related to the author of War and Peace) began to study the character of his hero, Peter the First, in 1917. When he died almost thirty years later, Tolstoy was still working on his masterpiece, this huge historical canvas which gives brilliant life and meaning to a crucial period in Russian history. Tolstoy reanimates the past by a succession of character creations which range from the serf, Ivan Brodkin, to Peter's sinister and opportunistic favorite, Alexander Menshikoff; from the old Boyars shorn of their beards and their prerogatives to the foreign captains of the new Russian navy. Here in these pages are the beautiful Anna Mons, Peter's first mistress; his wife Eudoxia, whom he never loved; and the peasant girl who eventually was to be crowned Empress Catherine the First. We see these men and women moving across a tapestry of battles abroad, and amid the dark, opulent luxury of the great families and the Imperial Court. In Tolstoy's moving crowded pages we see the emergence of Russia, thrust forward by Peter's inexorable will, from a backward medieval state to her final position as one of the great powers of Europe. Here are magnificent portraits, the fruits of years of historical research, of Peter's principal opponents: August, Elector of Saxony, indefatigable in his amusements, and King Charles XII of Sweden, a great military genius, flawed by passion and indulgence. But the true hero of Tolstoy's epic is Peter himself. We see him grow to be a man---awkward, suspicious, prone to spasms of cowardice, but always driving, sometimes provoked almost to madness, to free his country from the chains of backwardness and superstition to take her place as an equal among the nations of the west. And in the last analysis it is this greatness and originality of character in its hero which gives the stamp of greatness to the book itself. Alexey Tolstoy was born in 1883. In 1918 he published his first full length work, Nikita's Childhood. In 1919 he fled from the Bolshevik government and settled in Paris. In 1922 he asked for and received permission to return home. For the next twenty-four years he lived in Russia, until his death in 1946.

Peter the First

Aelita is a science fiction fantasy in the manner of H.G. Wells, telling the story of a Soviet expedition to Mars with the aim of establishing communism. A Red Army officer foments a rebellion of the native Martians, who are in fact long-ago emigrants from Atlantis.

Aelita

Count Alexis Tolstoi

An Historical Novel of the Times of Ivan the Terrible and of the Conquest of Sibe

Prince Serebryani

Khozhdenie po mukam.

The Lame Prince

This is a story of an attempt to use a remarkable invention to establish the absolute power of one man throughout the world. Garin, inventor of a powerful death ray, also aims at subjugating the majority of the world's population by means of a "little operation" to their brains which will make slaves of them, willing to work, like beasts of burden, for their food alone, so that the chosen few, the "patricians," might live a life of pleasure. The scheme is countered by the champions of the common people, two bold fighters - young Gusev and the fearless Shelga.

The Garin Death Ray

Tatiana Litvinov

Ivy Litvinov

The central place in Alexei Tolstoy's work is held by his books about the events of the Great October Revolution and the Civil War. His Ordeal (1919-1941) is a book about the Russian people as they forge their way to a new life, about the Russian intelligentsia, which, as a result of a long "ordeal", found its place in society. Tolstoy himself wrote of the plan behind his trilogy: "It's time to begin studying the Revolution, it's time for the artist to become a historian and a thinker... I not only acknowledge the Revolution - with such acknowledgement alone it would not be possible even to write a novel - I love its dark majesty, its world-wide scope. And that is the task of my novel - to create this majesty, this scope in all its complexity. About the AuthorAlexei Tolstoy (Tolstoi) (1883-1945) was a classic writer and one of the founders of Soviet literature. Famous for his epic trilogy, Ordeal, the historical novel Peter the First, the science-fiction novels Aelita and The Garin Death Ray, and also many short stories, dramas, and publishing articles.

The Sisters

Alexei Tolstoy, the author of the well-known trilogy The Ordeal and the historic novel Peter I, also wrote small but highly artistic works on the life of Russian small-country gentry at the beginning of the twentieth century. The most popular among them is The Lame Prince, written in 1912. The author's attention was focused at the time on problems of morals, the questions of friendship and love. Contents: The Cockalorum (A Week in Turenevo) Mishuka Nalymov (A Tale of the Trans-Volga) The Lame Prince The Gullies Arkhip Nikita's Childhood A Tale of the Time of Troubles Lovely Lady Under Water The Man in Pince-Nez The Ancient Route Ivan Sudarev's Tales Nocturnal Soliloquy in the Hay How it Began The Seven Grimy Ones Nina A Strange Story Mother and Daughter

Selected Stories

When a young man goes from the demands and rigors of the army to a luxurious and serene country living, his mind is bound to wander where it should not. Such is the fate of Alexei Alexeyevich Fedyashev, who becomes so absorbed in his newfound idleness that he falls in love with an old portrait. When the famous conjurer and medium Count Cagliostro accidentally ends up at Fedyashev's escape, the young man begs him to bring his dream to reality. "Be careful what you wish for," is the lesson young Alexei has yet to learn - and how!

Count Cagliostro

Alexei Tolstoy’s writing is primarily focused on the personalities and destinies of his characters caught in the turmoil of historical events. His trilogy The Ordeal traces the development of the Russian society during the critical years of WWI, the 1917 revolution and the civil war. Covering one of the most intense periods in the history of the Russian state, this trilogy portrays the dramatic nature of social struggle, spiritual evolution of its heroes and the crucial changes happening in the country. The basic focus of the novel is the search for personal happiness by its main characters - Dasha, Katya, Telegin, and Roschin - during the violent and tragic events of the First World War and the revolution. revolution. In the process, traditional way of living is destroyed and beliefs of many people are changed. The trilogy is filled with sharp life-and-death conflicts, dramatic struggles and collisions, deep crises in both public life and the destiny and psychology of individual characters.

Ordeal:

Alexei Tolstoy’s writing is primarily focused on the personalities and destinies of his characters caught in the turmoil of historical events. In particular, his trilogy The Ordeal traces the development of the Russian society during the critical years of WWI, the 1917 revolution and the civil war. The plot of the novel revolves around the destiny of the Bulavin sisters, Ekaterina and Dasha, and their history of love, joy, and suffering.

Ordeal: Book 3 - Bleak Morning

A lyrical story, originally published in 1922, with autobiographical elements of a childhood in a Russian village, Nikita's Childhood is considered one of Tolstoi's major works Book jacket.

Alexei Tolstoy

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