Presents the classical epic of the Napoleonic Wars and their effects on four Russian families

Introduction by A. N. Wilson • Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Often called the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoy’s genius is seen clearly in the multitude of characters in this massive chronicle—all of them fully realized and equally memorable. Out of this complex narrative emerges a profound examination of the individual’s place in the historical process, one that makes it clear why Thomas Mann praised Tolstoy for his Homeric powers and placed War and Peace in the same category as the Iliad: “To read him . . . is to find one’ s way home . . . to everything within us that is fundamental and sane.”

Poetry. "Finally an oracle with a gorgeous sense of humor. Jessica Laser's vision is singular, her voice at once formidable and intimate. Its impeccable wit imparts a bracing metaphysics. 'I said to myself as a child do not / Mistake the ghost you fear for / The ghost you are.' Here intellect sings. Everywhere agile, coruscating syntax proves music isn't only a form of beauty, it's also a mode of inquiry. Rhyme tracks relations inaccessible to reason. Repetition conducts its tests of the present, its shadow appraisals of the past's part in the future. The visceral pleasure one experiences reading these poems corresponds to the depth of their ambition: to fathom human feeling--its contradictions, its infinite shifts--and 'see how full of changes change is.'"--Margaret Ross

Often called the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoy's genius is seen clearly in the multitude of characters in this massive chronicle-all of them fully realized and equally memorable. Out of this complex narrative emerges a profound examination of the individual's place in the historical process, one that makes it clear why Thomas Mann praised Tolstoy for his Homeric powers and placed War and Peace in the same category as the Iliad "To read him . . . is to find one's way home . . . to everything within us that is fundamental and sane."

"Cultural brujeria, sacrilegious litanies, ritualized births, and letters from hearts and/or brains populate Rachel McKibben's world in blud"--

These poems tell the story of a generation in crisis: at odds with its own ideals, precariously (or just un-) employed, and absolutely terrified of seeing itself in the planet's future. Is our contemporary moment pure tragedy, or a dark joke? Can it be both? Ranging between elegiac lyrics and autobiographical accounts of a group of poets moving from Iowa to Brooklyn in the years just before and after the 2016 election, Fear of Description reinvigorates the prose poem, exploring the slippery terrain between grief and friendship, artifice and technology, writing and ritual, hauntings and obsessions - searching for joy in art but instead finding it in pitch darkness. As the narrative cuts back and forth in time and circles around itself, the stories which begin to emerge in this remarkable book - of dead dogs speaking through Ouija boards, lives cut short, and youthful brilliance - explore at once the struggle to find one's place in the world, and the fear of being trapped once there.

150th Anniversary Edition Praised by Tolstoy as an "incomparable artist", Chekov is considered one of the masters of the short story. This collection features twenty of his most noted stories, including The Confession, Ninotchka, and The Cure for Drinking.