In the novel ‘The Surgeon,’ the story of the brilliant plastic surgeon Arkady Khripunov is intertwined with the story of the life of Hassan ibn Sabbah – the prophet and founder of the Nizari Ismaili state of the 11th century, the master of the impregnable Alamut fortress. Khripunov changes human bodies, and therefore destinies. Granting people new faces, he sees before him simply material –...

‘The Headless Horseman.’ A gem of Mayne Reid's literary legacy. The captivating story of the beautiful Louise Poindexter and the noble Irishman Maurice Gerald, the proud Mexican woman Isidora Covarrubio, the cruel Captain Cassius Calhoun, the brave hunter Zeb Stump, and the dashing bandit El Coyote is considered a true masterpiece of adventure prose and is endlessly loved by both foreign and...

For all fans of Japanese culture. — A collection of folk tales, myths, and legends. — For those who have already read ‘Tales of Ancient Japan’ and ‘Ten Evenings’.

This collection of Japanese folk tales is translated by the renowned scholar of Japanese literature, Vera Nikolaevna Markova. It includes a preface and commentary by the translator. The tales presented in this collection tell of cunning pranks and mythical feats, of the struggle between good and evil and the triumph of justice, of the magical deeds of a wondrous wife, and of the cruel war...

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest works of fiction, written long before Homer's ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey,’ the greatest literary masterpiece of the Ancient East, which for the first time describes the myth of the Great Flood. The reader is presented with the story of the glorious deeds of the demigod king-warrior Gilgamesh (whose image is based on a real historical figure, Bilgames, the...

Why did European, and later Euro-Atlantic, civilizations achieve the most spectacular successes in the history of mankind? Why was it Europe, first independently and later together with the United States of America, that created the world in which we live today? What predetermined the global hegemony of the European worldview – industry, military power, or something else? And what influence...

When Theodore Dreiser's epic first novel stormed onto the literary scene in 1900, it was a breath of fresh air in more ways than one. Celebrated for the vibrant and gritty realism of its portrayal of city life, Sister Carrie also gave the world an unforgettable heroine—a thoroughly modern young woman who turned the traditional cautionary tale of the fallen woman on its head.

Nietzsche's mature masterpiece, Beyond Good and Evil considers the origins and nature of Judeo-Christian morality; the end of philosophical dogmatism and beginning of perspectivism; the questionable virtues of science and scholarship; liberal democracy, nationalism, and women's emancipation.

Lotte in Weimar’ is an elegant and captivating novel by the great Thomas Mann, in which profound reflections on the artist, his often painful existence in the real world, and the true meaning of life are closely intertwined with an interesting and slightly ironic plot – a meeting in Weimar between the aging and celebrated Goethe and his former beloved... Did this meeting actually happen? And if...

Pushkin's great novel in verse, ‘Eugene Onegin,’ seems simple and straightforward, but this is deceptive. In reality, its text holds many mysteries, the meaning of which often eludes the modern reader. Numerous allusions, hidden references, a multitude of people, concepts, and objects that were obvious to people of that era but are now unknown to the general public – all this does not prevent...

The right of nations to self-determination is what formed the basis of the USSR and what ultimately led to its collapse. But what did the founder of the USSR think about the national question? This collection includes works by V.I. Lenin: ‘On the Right of Nations to Self-Determination,’ ‘Critical Remarks on the National Question,’ ‘On the National Pride of the Great Russians,’ and others.

First published in 1951, before the achievement of space flight, Arthur C. Clarke created this visionary tale. Renowned science fiction writer Martin Gibson joins the spaceship Ares, the world’s first interplanetary ship for passenger travel, on its maiden voyage to Mars. His mission: to report back to the home planet about the new Mars colony and the progress it has been making.