Sal Paradise, a young innocent, joins his hero Dean Moriarty, a traveller and mystic, the living epitome of Beat, on a breathless, exuberant ride back and forth across the United States. Their search for release or fulfilment through drink, sex, drugs and jazz becomes an exploration of personal freedom, a test of the limits of the American dream.

The acclaimed new translation of Tolstoy's masterpiece, for the first time in Black Classics after the successful hardback and Red Classics editions - 10,000+ hbks and by time of BC 20,000+ of Red Classic sold 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. The stories of quixotic Pierre, cynical Andrey and impetuous Natasha interweave with a huge cast, from aristocrats and peasants, to soldiers and Napoleon himself. In War and Peace (1868-9), Tolstoy entwines grand themes - conflict and love, birth and death, free will and fate - with unforgettable scenes of nineteenth-century Russia, to create a magnificent epic of human life in all its imperfection and grandeur.

Details

ISBN13: 9780140447934
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 1440
Edition:
Publication Date: 07 Jan 2008
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 197(H)x130(L)x63(W)965
Weight (gm): 965

Author Biography

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born in Tula province and was educated privately and at Kazan University. In 1851 he went to the Caucasus, joined an artillery regiment & began his literary career. After marrying in 1862, he began writing War and Peace, which was finished in 1869. His second great work, Anna Karenina, was finished in 1876. Professor Tony Briggs is former Professor of Russian at the University of Birmingham, and is the author of six books on Russian literature. Professor Tony Briggs is former Professor of Russian at the University of Birmingham, has translated widely from the Russian, especially Pushkin, and is the author of several critical books on Russian literature. Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck and the author of A People's Tragedy- The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924, which was awarded the Wolfson Prize for History and, most recently, Natasha's Dance- A Cultural History of Russia.

Reviews

“There remains the greatest of all novelists—for what else can we call the author of War and Peace?” —Virginia Woolf