Leon Tolstoy

Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leon 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 installment (Tolstoy's unpopular views of volunteers going to Serbia); therefore, the novel's first complete appearance was in book form. Widely regarded as a pinnacle in realist fiction, Tolstoy considered Anna Karenina his first true novel, when he came to consider War and Peace to be more than a novel. Fyodor Dostoevsky declared it to be "flawless as a work of art". His opinion was shared by Vladimir Nabokov, who especially admired "the flawless magic of Tolstoy's style", and by William Faulkner, who described the novel as "the best ever written". The novel is currently enjoying popularity, as demonstrated by a recent poll of 125 contemporary authors by J. Peder Zane, published in 2007 in "The Top Ten" in Time, which declared that Anna Karenina is the "greatest novel ever written" "..The novel opens with a scene introducing Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky ("Stiva"), a Moscow aristocrat and civil servant who has been unfaithful to his wife Darya Alexandrovna ("Dolly"). Dolly has discovered his affair with the family's governess, and the household and family are in turmoil. Stiva's affair and his reaction to his wife's distress show an amorous personality that he cannot seem to suppress. In the midst of the turmoil, Stiva informs the household that his married sister, Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, is coming to visit from Saint Petersburg. Meanwhile, Stiva's childhood friend, Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin ("Kostya"), arrives in Moscow with the aim of proposing to Dolly's youngest sister, Princess Katerina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya ("Kitty"). Levin is a passionate, restless, but shy aristocratic landowner who, unlike his Moscow friends, chooses to live in the country on his large estate. He discovers that Kitty is also being pursued by Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky, an army officer. Whilst at the railway station to meet Anna, Stiva bumps into Vronsky who is there to meet his mother, the Countess Vronskaya. Anna and Vronskaya have traveled and talked together in the same carriage. As the family members are reunited, and Vronsky sees Anna for the first time, a railway worker accidentally falls in front of a train and is killed. Anna interprets this as an "evil omen." Vronsky, however, is infatuated with her. Anna is uneasy about leaving her young son, Sergei ("Seryozha"), alone for the first time. At the Oblonsky home, Anna talks openly and emotionally to Dolly about Stiva's affair and convinces her that Stiva still loves her despite the infidelity. Dolly is moved by Anna's speeches and decides to forgive Stiva. Kitty, who comes to visit Dolly and Anna, is just eighteen. In her first season as a debutante, she is expected to make an excellent match with a man of her social standing. Vronsky has been paying her considerable attention, and she expects to dance with him at a ball that evening. Kitty is very struck by Anna's beauty and personality and becomes infatuated with her just as Vronsky is. When Levin proposes to Kitty at her home, she clumsily turns him down, believing she is in love with Vronsky and that he will propose to her, and encouraged to do so by her mother who believes Vronsky would be a better match. At the big ball Kitty expects to hear something definitive from Vronsky, but he dances with Anna, choosing her as a partner over a shocked and heartbroken Kitty. Levin, crushed by Kitty's refusal, returns to his estate, abandoning any hope of marriage. Anna returns to her husband Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, a senior government official, and her son Seryozha in Saint Petersburg. On seeing her husband for the first time since her encounter with Vronsky, Anna realises that she finds him unattractive, though she tells herself he is a good man.."

Anna Karenina

Ένα αριστουργηµατικό πορτρέτο της συναισθηµατικής εξέλιξης µιας γυναίκας, η ανατοµία ενός γάµου, ένα κλασικό έργο του Τολστόι. Η δεκαεπτάχρονη Μάσα, µετά τον θάνατο των γονιών της, παντρεύεται τον Σεργκέι Μιχάηλιτς, τον φίλο του πατέρα της. Μεταξύ τους αναπτύσσεται µια τρυφερή σχέση που χαρίζει και στους δύο την ευτυχία, η ζωή τους όµως θ’ αλλάξει όταν αποφασίζουν να εγκατασταθούν για λίγο στην Πετρούπολη. Η Μάσα ξελογιάζεται από τη γοητεία των κοσµικών σαλονιών και ο γάµος της αρχίζει να ξεθωριάζει… «Ο συζυγικός βίος, µας λέει ο Τολστόι, ακόµα και αν θεµελιώνεται στον έρωτα, είναι µια εύθραυστη ισορροπία από επιθυµίες που καταπιέζονται, από συµπλέγµατα που καιροφυλακτούν. Η ζυγαριά της συµβίωσης εύκολα διαταράσσεται και τότε όλα µπορούν να συµβούν. Η πραγµατική αγάπη ωστόσο, όσο κι αν δοκιµάζεται, έχει τον τρόπο της να διασώζεται µέσα από διαδοχικές µεταλλάξεις». Από τον πρόλογο του Δηµήτρη Στεφανάκη Πέρασα πολλά και θαρρώ πως βρήκα αυτό που µου χρειάζεται για να ευτυχήσω. Μια ήρεµη, µοναχική ζωή στην ερηµιά του χωριού µας, µε τη δυνατότητα να κάνουµε καλό στους ανθρώπους, στους οποίους είναι τόσο εύκολο να κάνεις το καλό κι αυτοί δεν το έχουν συνηθίσει. Έπειτα η δουλειά, η δουλειά που φαίνεται ότι αποφέρει όφελος. Έπειτα η ξεκούραση, η φύση, ένα βιβλίο, η µουσική, η αγάπη για τον πλησίον• να την η ευτυχία µου και τίποτα παραπάνω απ’ αυτή δεν σκεφτόµουν. Λέον Τολστόι (1828-1910)

Οικογενειακή ευτυχία

Tolstoy incorporated extensive historical research. He was also influenced by many other novels. A veteran of the Crimean War, Tolstoy was quite critical of standard history, especially the standards of military history, in War and Peace. Tolstoy read all the standard histories available in Russian and French about the Napoleonic Wars and combined more traditional historical writing with the novel form. He explains at the start of the novel''s third volume his own views on how history ought to be written. His aim was to blur the line between fiction and history, in order to get closer to the truth, as he states in Volume II.The novel is set 60 years earlier than the time at which Tolstoy wrote it, "in the days of our grandfathers", as he puts it. He had spoken with people who had lived through war during the French invasion of Russia in 1812, so the book is also, in part, accurate ethnography fictionalized. He read letters, journals, autobiographical and biographical materials pertaining to Napoleon and the dozens of other historical characters in the novel. There are approximately 160 real persons named or referred to in War and Peace.Plot summary:War and Peace has a large cast of characters, the majority of whom are introduced in the first book. Some are actual historical figures, such as Napoleon and Alexander I. While the scope of the novel is vast, it is centered around five aristocratic families. The plot and the interactions of the characters take place in the era surrounding the 1812 French invasion of Russia during the Napoleonic wars.Book/Volume OneThe novel begins in July 1805 in Saint Petersburg, at a soiree given by Anna Pavlovna Scherer-the maid of honour and confidante to the queen mother Maria Feodorovna. Many of the main characters and aristocratic families in the novel are introduced as they enter Anna Pavlovna''s salon. Pierre (Pyotr Kirilovich) Bezukhov is the illegitimate son of a wealthy count, an elderly man who is dying after a series of strokes. Pierre is about to become embroiled in a struggle for his inheritance. Educated abroad at his father''s expense following his mother''s death, Pierre is essentially kindhearted, but socially awkward, and owing in part to his open, finds it difficult to integrate into Petersburg society. It is known to everyone at soiree that Pierre is his father''s favorite of all the old count''s illegitimate children.Also attending the soire� is Pierre''s friend, the intelligent and sardonic Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky, husband of Lise, the charming society favourite. Finding Petersburg society unctuous and disillusioned with married life after discovering his wife is empty and superficial, Prince Andrei makes the fateful choice to be an aide-de-camp to Prince Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov in the coming war against Napoleon.The plot moves to Moscow, Russia''s ancient city and former capital, contrasting its provincial, more Russian ways to the highly mannered society of Petersburg. The Rostov family are introduced. Count Ilya Andreyevich Rostov has four adolescent children. Thirteen-year-old Natasha (Natalia Ilyinichna) believes herself in love with Boris Drubetskoy, a disciplined young man who is about to join the army as an officer. Twenty-year-old Nikolai Ilyich pledges his love to Sonya (Sofia Alexandrovna), The eldest child of the Rostov family, Vera Ilyinichna, is cold and somewhat haughty but has a good prospective marriage in a Russian-German officer, Adolf Karlovich Berg. Petya (Pyotr Ilyich) is nine and the youngest of the Rostov family; like his brother, he is impetuous and eager to join the army when of age. The heads of the family, are an affectionate couple but forever worried about their disordered finances.At Bald Hills, the Bolkonskys'' country estate, Prince Andrei departs for war and leaves his terrified, pregnant wife Lise with his eccentric father Prince Nikolai Andreyevich Bolkonsky and devoutly religious sister Maria Nikolayevna Bolkonskaya.

War and Peace

Anton Chekhov

Maxim Gorky

Asino Calcio

Ivan Sergejevič Turgenev

Fyodor Dostoevsky

This book is a collection of Nineteen selected stories by the renowned Russian authors. The most of the 27 illustrations are the pictures of the Greek and Roman Goddesses worshiped before the influence of Christianity and monotheism. The authors and the stories are:The Queen Of Spades - By Alexsandr S. Pushkin; The Cloak - By Nikolay V. Gogol; The District Doctor - By Ivan S. Turgenev; The Christmas Tree And The Wedding - By Fiodor M. Dostoyevsky; God Sees The Truth, But Waits - By Leon. Tolstoy; How A Muzhik Fed Two Officials - By M.Y. Saltykov [N. Shchedrin]; Banquet Given By The Mayor, The Shades and A Phantasy - By Vladimir G. Korlenko; The Signal - By Vsevolod M. Garshin; The Darling, The Bet and Vanka - By Anton P. Chekhov; Hide And Seek - By Fiodor Sologub; Dethroned - By I.N. Potapenko; The Servant - By S.T. Semyonov; One Autumn Night - By Maxim Gorky; The Revolutionist - By Michaïl P. Artzybashev; The Outrage : A True Story - By Aleksandr I. Kuprin. Beat regards.Asino Calcio

Leon Tolstoy

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