Classics

Thucydides' history of the Peloponnesian War combines brilliant narrative and penetrating analysis; his writing has had more lasting influence on western thought than all but Plato and Aristotle. This masterly new translation is the most comprehensive single-volume edition currently available.

From sophisticated Moscow soirees to breathless troika rides through the snow, from the bloody front line at Austerlitz to a wife's death in childbirth, the author conjures a broad panorama of rich, messy, beautiful and debased human life.

Tolstoy's epic novel focuses on the chaos of battle, the horror of death and bloodshed, and the expression of the noble virtues of love and valour.

At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon's army marches on Russia, and the lives of three young people are changed forever.

A devastating account of a man fighting his inevitable end, and asks the existential question: why must a good person be taken before his time?

Offers an account of a young person's emerging awareness of the world and of his place within it.

Describes Tolstoy's crisis of depression and estrangement from the world. This work describes his search for 'a practical religion not promising future bliss but giving bliss on earth'.

At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. In this book, the author entwines grand themes - conflict and love, birth and death, free will and faith - with unforgettable scenes of nineteenth-century Russia, to create a magnificent epic of human life in its imperfection and grandeur.

Anna Karenina seems to have everything - beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky. Their subsequent affair scandalizes society and family alike and soon brings jealously and bitterness in its wake.

Anna is a beautiful, intelligent woman whose passionate affair with the dashing Count Vronsky leads her to ruin. Her story is also about a search for meaning, and by twinning it with that of Levin, an awkward idealist whose happy marriage and domestic trials form the backdrop for a similar quest.

Set in mid-19th-century Russia, this book tells the story of a married woman's passion for a young officer and of her tragic fate.