Leo Tolstoy

Set against the sweeping panoply of Napoleons invasion of Russia, "War and Peace" is often considered the greatest novel ever written. Set in Russia during the Napoleonic era, this epic novel follows the fortunes of five aristocratic Russian families over the course of the French invasion. Tolstoy's timeless portrayal of the fates of families set against the backdrop of war is ultimately optimistic and life-affirming, with the educated, but socially...

The nineteenth-century Russian writer's masterful novel of a woman's bitter struggle to live outside moral law after she has forsaken her husband for a lover.

Stars Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Mel Ferrer.

"In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders guides the reader through seven classic Russian short stories he's been teaching for twenty years as a professor in the prestigious Syracuse University graduate MFA creative writing program. Paired with stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, these essays are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it's more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. Saunders approaches...