“He who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.” Chapter 1: The Fall of Prince Kasatsky Prince Stepan Kasatsky is a proud […]
Russian literature
Youth
“I am convinced that there is no love so strong as that which is founded on repentance.” Chapter 1: The Beginning of Youth Nikolai Irtenev, now sixteen, reflects […]
Russian literature
Boyhood
“The whole difference between people lies in the process by which they arrive at truth.” Chapter 1: Departure from Childhood Nikolai (the protagonist) reflects on leaving his childhood […]
Russian literature
Childhood
“Happy, happy, never-returning time of childhood! How can one help loving and cherishing its memories?” Chapter 1: The Morning of Departure The story begins with ten-year-old Nikolenka Irtenev […]
Russian literature
The Kreutzer Sonata
“But music makes me forget myself, my true position; it transports me to some other position not my own. Under the influence of music it seems to me […]
Russian literature
Hadji Murat
“I remembered a once glorious, now crushed thistle… There is nothing more tenacious than this rough, hardy plant.” Introduction The novel opens with Tolstoy’s reflection on a crushed […]
Russian literature
Resurrection
“People are like rivers: the water is the same in all of them, but every river is narrow here, more rapid there, here slower, there broader, now clear, […]
Russian literature
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
“Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” Chapter 1: The Announcement of Death The novel opens with colleagues of Ivan Ilyich, […]
Russian literature
Anna Karenina
“Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” — Epigraph to Anna Karenina Part 1 The novel opens with the famous line: “All happy families are alike; […]
Russian literature
War and Peace
“The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.” Volume 1: Peace (1805) The novel opens in St. Petersburg in 1805, introducing the aristocratic families […]