Recommendations based on "Master and Margarita"

A rich, successful Moscow professor befriends a stray dog and attempts a scientific first by transplanting into it the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased man. A distinctly worryingly human animal is now on the loose, and the professor's hitherto respectable life becomes a nightmare beyond endurance. An absurd and superbly comic story, this classic novel can also be read as a fierce parable of the Russian Revolution.

For fans of Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, the classic Russian novel about an indolent aristocrat who spends most of his days in bedA Penguin ClassicWritten with sympathetic humor and compassion, this masterful portrait of upper-class decline made Ivan Goncharov famous throughout Russia on its publication in 1859. Ilya Ilyich Oblomov is a member of Russia’s dying aristocracy—a man so lazy that he has given up his job in the Civil Service, neglected his books, insulted his friends, and found himself in debt. Too apathetic to do anything about his problems, he lives in a grubby, crumbling apartment, waited on by Zakhar, his equally idle servant. Terrified by the activity necessary to participate in the real world, Oblomov manages to avoid work, postpones change, and—finally—risks losing the love of his life. This superb translation by David Magarshack captures all the subtle comedy and near-tragedy of the original.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Eugene Onegin is the master work of the poet whom Russians regard as the fountainhead of their literature. Set in 1820s Russia, Pushkin's verse novel follows the fates of three men and three women. Engaging, full of suspense, and varied in tone, it also portrays a large cast of other characters and offers the reader many literary, philosophical, and autobiographical digressions, often in a highly satirical vein. Eugene Onegin was Pushkin's own favorite work, and this new translation conveys the literal sense and the poetic music of the original.About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Andrey Tarkovsky, the genius of modern Russian cinema—hailed by Ingmar Bergman as "the most important director of our time"—died an exile in Paris in December 1986. In Sculpting in Time, he has left his artistic testament, a remarkable revelation of both his life and work. Since Ivan's Childhood won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1962, the visionary quality and totally original and haunting imagery of Tarkovsky's films have captivated serious movie audiences all over the world, who see in his work a continuation of the great literary traditions of nineteenth-century Russia. Many critics have tried to interpret his intensely personal vision, but he himself always remained inaccessible.In Sculpting in Time, Tarkovsky sets down his thoughts and his memories, revealing for the first time the original inspirations for his extraordinary films—Ivan's Childhood, Andrey Rublyov, Solaris, The Mirror, Stalker, Nostalgia, and The Sacrifice. He discusses their history and his methods of work, he explores the many problems of visual creativity, and he sets forth the deeply autobiographical content of part of his oeuvre—most fascinatingly in The Mirror and Nostalgia. The closing chapter on The Sacrifice, dictated in the last weeks of Tarkovsky's life, makes the book essential reading for those who already know or who are just discovering his magnificent work.

History on a grand scale--an enchanting masterpiece that explores the making of one of the world's most vibrant civilizationsA People's Tragedy, wrote Eric Hobsbawm, did "more to help us understand the Russian Revolution than any other book I know." Now, in Natasha's Dance, internationally renowned historian Orlando Figes does the same for Russian culture, summoning the myriad elements that formed a nation and held it together.Beginning in the eighteenth century with the building of St. Petersburg--a "window on the West"--and culminating with the challenges posed to Russian identity by the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself--its character, spiritual essence, and destiny. He skillfully interweaves the great works--by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall--with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons, and all the customs of daily life, from food and drink to bathing habits to beliefs about the spirit world. Figes's characters range high and low: the revered Tolstoy, who left his deathbed to search for the Kingdom of God, as well as the serf girl Praskovya, who became Russian opera's first superstar and shocked society by becoming her owner's wife.Like the European-schooled countess Natasha performing an impromptu folk dance in Tolstoy's War and Peace, the spirit of "Russianness" is revealed by Figes as rich and uplifting, complex and contradictory--a powerful force that unified a vast country and proved more lasting than any Russian ruler or state.

In nineteenth-century Russia, the wife of an important government official loses her family and social status when she chooses the love of Count Vronsky over a passionless marriage.

A brilliant new translation of a perennial favorite of Russian literature   The first major Russian novel, A Hero of Our Time was both lauded and reviled upon publication. Its dissipated hero, twenty-five-year-old Pechorin, is a beautiful and magnetic but nihilistic young army officer, bored by life and indifferent to his many sexual conquests. Chronicling his unforgettable adventures in the Caucasus involving brigands, smugglers, soldiers, rivals, and lovers, this classic tale of alienation influenced Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov in Lermontov's own century, and finds its modern-day counterparts in Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, the novels of Chuck Palahniuk, and the films and plays of Neil LaBute.

Anecdotes about Balakirev -- Tales of the ancient Poshekhonians / Vasily Berezaisky -- The merry old fellow / Teller of old Moscow tales -- The ancient and modern divinatory oracle / Martin Zadek -- Guak, or unbounded devotion: a knightly tale -- The tale of Vanka Kain -- The new Sterne / A.A. Shakhovskoi -- Traditional songs (late 18th century) -- Ermak Timofeich / Nikolai Polevoi -- Filatka and Miroshka the rivals / Pavel Grigoriev, Jr. -- Ivan Vyzhigin / Faddei Bulgarin -- The little humpbacked horse / Petr Ershov -- The history of Russia told for children / Aleksandra Ishimova -- The battle of the Russians with the Kabardinians / Nikolai Zriakhov -- Etiquette manuals (1849-1911) --Street types -- God save the Tsar / Aleksei Lvov -- Dark eyes / Evgeny Grebenka -- The great Moscow fire / N. Sokolov -- Elegy (Khas-Bulat) / Aleksandr Ammosov and O. Kh. Agrenova-Slavianskaia -- Balagan advertisements / Malafeev Theater (1883) -- The slums of Petersburg / Vsevolod Krestovsky -- How the Russian gave it hot to a German -- Oh those Yaroslavites, what a fine folk / Fedor Ivanich Kuz'ma -- The slums of the female heart -- Correspondence from the Russo-Turkish War / Vasily Nemirovich-Danchenko -- War stories from the present-day war with the Turks / M. Evstigneev -- Where is it better? / L.A. Tikhomirov -- A flask of hooch -- Gypsy romances -- Scenes from a third-class car / B.S. Borisov and V.A. Kriger -- Sarah Bernhardt / M.L. Lentovsky -- The queen of diamonds / V.P. Valentinov -- Anecdotes (1840-1917) -- Moscow court reporting / The Moscow Sheet (Early 1880s) -- The terrible wedding night / Aleksei Pazukhin -- The terrible bandit Churkin -- Where the oranges ripen / N.A. Leikin -- Messrs. Businessmen / I.I. Miasnitsky -- The diary of Maria Bashkirtseva -- Ivanov Pavel / V.M. Doroshevich -- Song of the stormy Petrel / Maxim Gorky -- Light-fingered Sonya / M.D. Klefortov -- Revolutionary songs (late 19th century) -- Vaudeville skits (1905-1910) -- Why was I born into this world / Tobolsk prison song -- The poor fellow died / Konstantin Romanov -- Marusia poisoned herself -- Russian sob sister / Olga Gridina -- How the lasses burned a lad in the stove / Al. Aleksandrovsky -- The wrath of God / V.I. Kryzhandrovskaia -- The little Siberian girl (Sibirochka) / Lidiia Charskaia -- The African princess (Vampuka) / M.N. Volkonsky -- Gladiators of our time / N.N. Breshko-Breshkovsky -- Sanin / Mikhail Artsybashev -- The keys of happiness / Anastasia Verbitskaia -- The vanquished / Count Amori -- Do you remember? / Petr Chardynin -- The wrath of Dionytsus / E.A. Nagrodskaia -- The Countess-actress / Count Amori -- The bloody Talisman / Nat Pinkerton, King of detectives -- The headlands of Manchuria -- The heroic feat of the Don Cossack Kuzma Firsovich Kriuchkov -- Jackals / Sergei Sokolsky -- Rasputin's nighttime orgies / V.V. Ramazanov

The Harvest of Sorrow is the first full history of one of the most horrendous human tragedies of the 20th century. Between 1929 and 1932 the Soviet Communist Party struck a double blow at the Russian peasantry: dekulakization, the dispossession and deportation of millions of peasant families, and collectivization, the abolition of private ownership of land and the concentration of the remaining peasants in party-controlled "collective" farms. This was followed in 1932-33 by a "terror-famine," inflicted by the State on the collectivized peasants of the Ukraine and certain other areas by setting impossibly high grain quotas, removing every other source of food, and preventing help from outside--even from other areas of the Soviet Union--from reaching the starving populace. The death toll resulting from the actions described in this book was an estimated 14.5 million--more than the total number of deaths for all countries in World War I. Ambitious, meticulously researched, and lucidly written, The Harvest of Sorrow is a deeply moving testament to those who died, and will register in the Western consciousness a sense of the dark side of this century's history.

From Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the best-selling, award-winning translators ofAnna KareninaandThe Brothers Karamazov,comes a brilliant, engaging, and eminently readable translation of Leo Tolstoy’s master epic. War and Peacecenters broadly on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the best-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves behind his family to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman, who intrigues both men. As Napoleon’s army invades, Tolstoy vividly follows characters from diverse backgrounds—peasants and nobility, civilians and soldiers—as they struggle with the problems unique to their era, their history, and their culture. And as the novel progresses, these characters transcend their specificity, becoming some of the most moving—and human—figures in world literature. Pevear and Volokhonsky have brought us this classic novel in a translation remarkable for its fidelity to Tolstoy’s style and cadence and for its energetic, accessible prose. With stunning grace and precision, this new version ofWar and Peaceis set to become the definitive English edition.