Valerian Pidmohylnyi’s The City was a landmark event in the history of Ukrainian literature. Written by a master craftsman in full control of the texture, rhythm, and tone of the text, the novel tells the story of Stepan, a young man from the provinces who moves to the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, and achieves success as a writer through a succession of romantic encounters with women.

Mit großer Leidenschaft erzählt Remarque die Geschichte des Arztes Ravic, der nach Paris emigriert und hier den Vorabend des Zweiten Weltkrieges erlebt. Aus Liebe zu zwei Frauen und dem Hass auf einen Gestapo-Agenten entwickelt sich das Drama eines Exilschicksals, in dessen Realität sich der Aufstand gegen den Terror einer ganzen Epoche spiegelt.

Inspired by the true story of a political murder that horried Russians in 1869, Fyodor Dostoevsky conceived of Demons as a ‘novel-pamphlet’ in which he would say everything about the plague of materialist ideology that he saw infecting his native land. What emerged was a prophetic and ferociously funny masterpiece of ideology and murder in pre-revolutionary Russia.

«Прощавай, зброє» — один із найвидатніших американських романів про Першу світову війну. Захоплива, частково біографічна оповідь Ернеста Гемінґвея висвітлює жорстокі реалії війни. У ній знаменитий гемінґвеївський телеграфний стиль перемежовується вкрапленнями потоку свідомості, і від того емоції твору сприймаються особливо гостро. Це історія мужності і страху, побратимства, любові та болю....

Sometimes called the ‘last epos in world literature,’ Pan Tadeusz (first published in Paris in 1834) is a classic tale of romance, mystery, war, and patriotism set in the turbulent Napoleonic era. The old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lies dismembered and erased from the political map of Europe by the great powers of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. A brief ray of hope rekindles national...

This sampling of Gogol’s works includes the increasingly fantastic entries of ‘The Diary of a Madman,’ followed by the wonderfully surrealistic ‘The Nose,’ in which the title character embarks on some unlikely activities when separated from its owner’s face. In ‘The Carriage,’ a pompous landowner gets his comeuppance when he attempts to impress a general. Rounding out the collection are the...

Written in 1914, The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with...

Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella of unexplained horror and nightmarish transformation became a worldwide classic and remains a century later one of the most widely read works of fiction in the world. It is the story of traveling salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect. This hugely influential work inspired George Orwell, Albert Camus, Jorge...