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En 1869, tras seis años de arduo trabajo con la colaboración de su esposa Sophia Tolstaya, Tolstoy publicó la versión final de La Guerra y la Paz, considerada una de las obras cumbres de la literatura universal.La maestría narrativa del autor y su acabado conocimiento de fuentes documentales nos sumergen verazmente en el contexto de la invasión napoleónica de 1805 en esta novela histórica de corte realista.Enriquecida por los detalles visuales, la narración se mueve fluidamente través de los distintos planos, desde el amplio escenario de la guerra, pasando por la vida social en los ...

Der Kaufmann Wasili Andrejitsch Brechunow und sein Knecht Nikita machen sich an einem Dezembernachmittag trotz eisiger Kälte und Schneegestöber mit dem Pferdeschlitten auf, da Wasili Andrejitsch einem benachbarten Gutsbesitzer einen Wald abkaufen will. Während der Fahrt nimmt der Schneesturm zu, sie kommen vom Weg ab und verirren sich, landen jedoch in einem Nachbarort. Mehrfach bietet sich die Möglichkeit, von der Weiterfahrt abzusehen und den nächsten Tag abzuwarten, aber der rücksichtslose und dabei selbstgerechte Wasili Andrejitsch will sich das günstige Geschäft nicht entgehen ...

A land owner, Vasili Andreevich, takes along one of his peasants, Nikita, for a short journey to another town. He wishes to get to the town quickly 'for business'. They find themselves in the middle of a blizzard, but the master in his avarice wishes to press on. They eventually get lost off the road and they try to camp. The master's peasant soon finds himself about to die from hypothermia. The master leaves him on the horse to stubbornly try to find the road. When he returns, he attains a spiritual/moral revelation, and Tolstoy once again repeats one of his famous themes: that the only true ...

Written after Tolstoy suffered a spiritual crisis, Ivan the Fool is a fairy tale that offers children instruction in how to live rightly, simply, and generously. The story emphasizes the destructive aspects of materialism and militarism while idealizing manual labor and the peasant life. (Introduction by Dorlene Kaplan)

"My Confession" is a brief autobiographical story of Leo Tolstoy's struggle with a mid-life existential crisis of melancholia. It describes his search for answers to the profound questions "What will come of my life?" and "What is the meaning of life?", without answers to which life, for him, had become "impossible." Tolstoy reflects on the arc of his philosophical life until then: his childhood abandonment of his Russian orthodox faith; his mastery of strength, will, power, and reason; and how, after he had achieved tremendous financial success and social status, life to him seemed ...

Publication of The Kreutzer Sonata in 1889 was a significant intellectual event worldwide. Censored in Russia, it set off an explosive debate in Europe, America, and Asia on matters relating to sexual abstinence and the hypocrisy of marriage. The novella emphasizes Tolstoy's controversial view on sexuality, which asserts that physical desire is an obstacle to relations between men and women and may result in tragedy. The Kreutzer Sonata has been recognized as among the best examples of Tolstoy's art of storytelling.(Introduction by Dorlene Kaplan)

En 1869, tras seis años de arduo trabajo con la colaboración de su esposa Sophia Tolstaya, Tolstoy publicó la versión final de La Guerra y la Paz, considerada una de las obras cumbres de la literatura universal.La maestría narrativa del autor y su acabado conocimiento de fuentes documentales nos sumergen verazmente en el contexto de la invasión napoleónica de 1805 en esta novela histórica de corte realista.Enriquecida por los detalles visuales, la narración se mueve fluidamente través de los distintos planos, desde el amplio escenario de la guerra, pasando por la vida social en los ...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 22 recordings of A Backward Spring by Thomas Hardy.This was the Weekly Poetry project for March 19, 2023. ------While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, he gained fame as the author of novels such as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). During his lifetime, Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets (particularly the Georgians) who viewed him as a mentor - ...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 24 recordings of Rain In My Heart by Edgar Lee Masters.This was the Weekly Poetry project for April 20, 2025. ------Edgar Lee Masters was an American attorney, poet, biographer, and dramatist. He is the author of Spoon River Anthology, The New Star Chamber and Other Essays, Songs and Satires. In all, Masters published twelve plays, twenty-one books of poetry, six novels and six biographies, including those of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Vachel Lindsay, and Walt Whitman.- Summary by Wikipedia

Here is a collection of strikingly different pieces by Flaubert: a prose poem in the voices of Death, Satan and Nero; the trials and apotheosis of a medieval saint; and the life of a selfless maid in 19th century France. Each exhibits the vigorous exactness, and the mixture of realism and romanticism, for which Flaubert is renowned.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 25 recordings of At A Lunar Eclipse by Thomas Hardy.This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 27, 2019. ------While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of such novels as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). During his lifetime, Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets (particularly the Georgians) who viewed him as a ...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of A Commonplace Day by Thomas Hardy.This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for February 27, 2022. ------Thomas Hardy OM was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Wordsworth. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain, such as those from his native South West England. (Wikipedia)

Eleven short stories. - Summary by david wales

An extraordinary work of the aesthetic imagination, cast in the form of a psycho-drama detailing the events of one night in the life of the aged hermit, later Saint, Anthony, in the course of which his claims to sainthood are severely tested by, among other things, Gods, Magicians, Science, Food, Monstres, Lust and Death. Beautifully translated by Lafcadio Hearn, justly celebrated for his eerie re-tellings of Japanese ghost stories and legends, it boasts equally extraordinary printworks (for those who follow the link to the Online Text) by renowned symbolist artist Odilon Redon. - Summary by ...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 recordings of Sweet Clover by Edgar Lee Masters.This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for April 30, 2023. ------Edgar Lee Masters was an American attorney, poet, biographer, and dramatist. In all, Masters published twelve plays, twenty-one books of poetry, six novels and six biographies, including those of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Vachel Lindsay, and Walt Whitman. - Summary by Wikipedia

After completing the famous Mme Bovary, Flaubert put all his efforts into researching the Punic Wars and completed the lesser known Salammbô. In this volume, Flaubert describes in detail the Mercenary Revolt and the fight of the Mercenaries against the all-powerful Carthage, the theft of the magical Zaimph and the love and hate between the Carthaginian princess Salammbô and the fiercest leader of the Mercenaries, Matho. (Summary by Carolin)

Written over a century and a half ago, Madame Bovary is still an extraordinarily fresh, exciting and shockingly frank novel, at once an acute psychological study of a woman drawn into adultery through circumstances we can partly understand, and a sharply-observed comedy that offers a fascinating glimpse of the social and cultural divisions running through French provincial society in the mid nineteenth century. This translation is by Eleanor Marx-Aveling, a prominent social activist and literary translator. She was the youngest daughter of Karl Marx. (Summary by Peter Dann)

Poderoso y controvertido, considerado uno de los mejores novelistas de todos los tiempos y varias veces candidato al Premio Nobel, Leon Tolstoy (1828-1910) aún tiene mucho que decirnos.Escritor realista, fue un prolifico creador de profundos retratos psicológicos. Trató de plasmar en su obra su pensamiento social a la vez que describir la sociedad rusa con todas sus contradicciones. Un ferviente cristiano-anarquista y anarco-pacifista que rechazaba la guerra y la propiedad de la tierra, inspiró líderes y movimientos alrededor del mundo, incluyendo a Mahatma Gandhi. Sus obras transparentan...

Prince Stepan Kasatsky experiences a disappointment with his fiancé and decides to become a monk! There is a story line, but beneath it, Father Sergius struggles to find peace and, if not happiness, then at least contentment. But he is always disillusioned and ultimately unsatisfied. Only in the end does he find his way by letting go of what he struggled to attain all his life, i.e. to be better than everyone else in whatever he did, and settle for the mundane. (Summary by JCarson)

The Cossacks (1863) is an unfinished novel which describes the Cossack life and people through a story of Dmitri Olenin, a Russian aristocrat in love with a Cossack girl. This text was acclaimed by Ivan Bunin as one of the finest in the language.Additional proof-listening was done by mim@can & katzes.