It includes character studies and summaries of the plot with discussions of the major themes, as well as a background to John Steinbeck.

    In her working-class neighbourhood in Copenhagen, she is enthralled by her wild, red-headed friend Ruth, who initiates her into adult secrets. But Tove cannot reveal her true self to her or to anyone else. For 'long, mysterious words begin to crawl across my soul', and she comes to realize that she has a vocation, something unknowable within her - and that she must one day, painfully but inevitably, leave the narrow street of her childhood behind.Childhood, the first volume in The Copenhagen Trilogy, is a visceral portrait of girlhood and female friendship, told with lyricism and vivid intensity.

    Extensively revised by Nabokov in 1965 - thirty years after its original publication -Despair is the wickedly inventive and richly derisive story of Hermann Karlovich, a man who undertakes the perfect crime - his own murder.

    

    The Idle Years comprises two semi-autobiographical novels (My Father's House and The Idle Years) that form part of a series; these two are set during the 1920s and 1930s, a period of major social change in the new Turkish Republic. The unnamed narrator grows up in an affluent household in Adana with his brother, sisters, mother and formidable father, a well-known political agitator. When the father falls foul of the authorities the family migrates to Beirut, where the narrator becomes something of a rebel while attempting to support his now impoverished family. He returns alone to Adana as a disaffected teenager, but lack of money and prospects prompts him and his best friend to set off for Istanbul in an ill-fated attempt to seek fame and fortune. Soon, however, he is forced to return home as a humiliated and alienated youth struggling on the bottom rung of society. Things only begin to look up when he meets a young factory girl ..." In his writings Orhan Kemal examines the struggles that ordinary people face in order to survive in the harsh conditions that can result from social and economic upheaval. A master at portraying the relationship between the individual and society, he left an immortal literary legacy - not only to Turkey but to the world.

    Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

    

    A major hit in Germany that went on to become one of Europe’s biggest literary blockbusters in the last five years, Night Train to Lisbon is an astonishing novel, a compelling exploration of consciousness, the possibility of truly understanding another person, and the ability of language to define our very selves. Raimund Gregorius is a Latin teacher at a Swiss college who one day—after a chance encounter with a mysterious Portuguese woman—abandons his old life to start a new one. He takes the night train to Lisbon and carries with him a book by Amadeu de Prado, a (fictional) Portuguese doctor and essayist whose writings explore the ideas of loneliness, mortality, death, friendship, love, and loyalty. Gregorius becomes obsessed by what he reads and restlessly struggles to comprehend the life of the author. His investigations lead him all over the city of Lisbon, as he speaks to those who were entangled in Prado’s life. Gradually, the picture of an extraordinary man emerges—a doctor and poet who rebelled against Salazar’s dictatorship.

    

    With debts to dangerous men piling up, he becomes an unwilling recruit for a Cincinnati gangster needing an expendable tool to recover his stolen cash and railroad bonds.

    Here was a disgusted man. His name was Svevo Bandini, and he lived three blocks down that street. He was cold and there were holes in his shoes. That morning he had patched the holes on the inside with pieces of cardboard from a macaroni box. The macaroni in that box was not paid for. He had thought of that as he placed the cardboard inside his shoes.

    After his father, a paperhanger and upholsterer, died of cholera, five-year-old Gorky was taken to live with his grandfather, a polecat-faced tyrant who would regularly beat him unconscious, and with his grandmother, a tender mountain of a woman and a wonderful storyteller, who would kneel beside their bed (with Gorky inside it pretending to be asleep) and give God her views on the day's happenings, down to the last fascinating details. She was, in fact, Gorky's closest friend and the epic heroine of a book swarming with characters and with the sensations of a curious and often frightened little boy. My Childhood, the first volume of Gorky's autobiographical trilogy, was in part an act of exorcism. It describes a life begun in the raw, remembered with extraordinary charm and poignancy and without bitterness. Of all Gorky's books this is the one that made him 'the father of Russian literature'.

    In 1936, Shostakovitch, just thirty, fears for his livelihood and his life. Stalin, hitherto a distant figure, has taken a sudden interest in his work and denounced his latest opera. Now, certain he will be exiled to Siberia (or, more likely, executed on the spot), Shostakovitch reflects on his predicament, his personal history, his parents, various women and wives, his children—and all who are still alive themselves hang in the balance of his fate. And though a stroke of luck prevents him from becoming yet another casualty of the Great Terror, for decades to come he will be held fast under the thumb of despotism: made to represent Soviet values at a cultural conference in New York City, forced into joining the Party and compelled, constantly, to weigh appeasing those in power against the integrity of his music. Barnes elegantly guides us through the trajectory of Shostakovitch's career, at the same time illuminating the tumultuous evolution of the Soviet Union. The result is both a stunning portrait of a relentlessly fascinating man and a brilliant exploration of the meaning of art and its place in society.

    As in all Delphi Classics, the work is presented in a scholarly fashion, with all of the novels placed in chronological order, allowing readers to explore the author's gradual development in writing. The majority of texts are from Constance Garnett's celebrated translations, bringing the true spirit of Dostoyevsky's work to the English reader. Please note: we aim to provide the most comprehensive author collections available to Kindle readers. Sadly, it’s not always possible to guarantee an absolutely ‘complete’ works, due to copyright restrictions or the scarcity of minor works that have been translated into English. However, we do ensure our customers that every possible major text and a wealth of other material are included. We are dedicated to developing and enhancing our eBooks, which are available as free updates for customers who have already purchased them.CONTENTS:The NovelsPOOR FOLKTHE DOUBLENETOCHKA NEZVANOVAUNCLE’S DREAMTHE VILLAGE OF STEPANCHIKOVOTHE INSULTED AND HUMILIATEDTHE HOUSE OF THE DEADNOTES FROM UNDERGROUNDCRIME AND PUNISHMENTTHE GAMBLERTHE ETERNAL HUSBANDTHE IDIOTTHE POSSESSEDTHE RAW YOUTHTHE BROTHERS KARAMAZOVThe Short StoriesMR. PROHARTCHINTHE CHRISTMAS TREE AND THE WEDDINGTHE HEAVENLY CHRISTMAS TREETHE CROCODILEBOBOKA GENTLE SPIRITTHE DREAM OF A RIDICULOUS MANTHE PEASANT MAREYTHE LITTLE ORPHANA WEAK HEARTWHITE NIGHTSTHE MEEK GIRLPOLZUNKOVA LITTLE HEROTHE HONEST THIEFA NOVEL IN NINE LETTERSTHE LANDLADYAN UNPLEASANT PREDICAMENTANOTHER MAN'S WIFETHE GRAND INQUISITORThe Non-FictionDOSTOYEVSKY’S JOURNALTHE COMPLETE LETTERSThe CriticismON RUSSIAN NOVELISTS BY WILLIAM LYON PHELPSRUSSIAN ROMANCE BY EARL OF EVELYN BARING CROMERA SURVEY OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE BY ISABEL FLORENCE HAPGOODAN OUTLINE OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE BY MAURICE BARING

    Stephen Pearl's new translation, the first major English-language publication of Oblomov in more than fifty years, succeeds exquisitely to introduce this astonishing and endearing novel to a new generation of readers.