New Classics

Hailed as one of the world's supreme masterpieces on the subject of death and dying, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his death so much as a passing thought. But one day death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise, he is brought face-to-face with his own mortality. How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth? Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

Taras Bulba describes the life of an old Zaporozhian Cossack, Taras Bulba, and his two sons, Andriy and Ostap. The sons study at the Kiev Academy and then return home, whereupon the three men set out on a journey to Zaporizhian Sich located in Southern Ukraine, where they join other Cossacks and go to war against Poland. Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

The Tinderbox is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a soldier who acquires a magic tinderbox capable of summoning three powerful dogs to do his bidding. When the soldier has one of the dogs transport a sleeping princess to his room, he is sentenced to death but cunningly summons the dogs to save his life. The tinderbox - a box to kindle a flame - is the equivalent of the wonderful lamp, the witch is the evil magician, and the dogs with swirling eyes take the place of the two genies of the lamps.

The "Viy" is a monstrous creation of popular fancy. It is the name which the inhabitants of Little Russia give to the king of the gnomes, whose eyelashes reach to the ground. The following story is a specimen of such folklore. Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

This collection of short stories includes the works of three famous American writers who contributed a great deal to world literature.

Oblomov is the best known novel by Russian writer Ivan Goncharov, first published in 1859. Oblomov is also the central character of the novel, often seen as the ultimate incarnation of the superfluous man, a symbolic character in 19th-century Russian literature. Oblomov was compared to Shakespeare's Hamlet as answering "No!" to the question "To be or not to be?" Oblomov is a young, generous nobleman who seems incapable of making important decisions or undertaking any significant actions.

The Interpretation of Dreams is a book by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. The book introduces Freud's theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation, and also first discusses what would later become the theory of the Oedipus complex. Dreams, in Freud's view, are all forms of "wish fulfillment" attempts by the unconscious to resolve a conflict of some sort, whether something recent or something from the recesses of the past. Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

"A superbly atmospheric story set in the old Prague ghetto featuring the Golem, a kind of rabbinical Frankenstein's monster, which manifests itself every 33 years in a room without a door. Stranger still, it seems to have the same face as the narrator. This extraordinary book combines uncanny psychology of doppelganger stories with expressionism and more than a little melodrama...Meyrink's old Prague - like Dicken's London - is one of the great creations of City writing...." (Phil Baker in The Sunday Times)

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime. Shakespeare's use of his poetic dramatic structure, especially effects such as switching between comedy and tragedy to heighten tension, his expansion of minor characters, and his use of subplots to embellish the story, has been praised as an early sign of his dramatic skill.

Ocherk Moj Pushkin - ne literaturovedcheskaya rabota. Eto skoree psihologicheskij etyud, popytka voskresit i vosproizvesti detskoe vospriyatie pushkinskogo tvorchestva, kotoroe - pri vsej naivnosti etogo vospriyatiya - okazyvalos' pervoj, na vsyu zhizn' neizgladimoj shkoloj ne tol'ko poticheskih vpechatlenij, no i nravstvennyh ponyatij.

The Possessed, also called Demons, is Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel about life in Russia at the end of the 19th century. In this highly political novel, Dostoevsky portrays the revolutionaries as demons or devils as they plot ruin and eventually turn on each other. Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

This short novel, published after Tolstoy's death, is the last novel the great author wrote. It tells the true story of Hadji Murad (or Hadji Murat, alternatively), an Avar who commanded the peoples of Dagestan and Chechnya in their resistance against assimilation into the Russian empire. Tolstoy had first heard of Murad during his travels, and the author became inspired by Murad's refusal to give in to the demands of a corrupt world. Hadji Murad shares many of the same themes found in War and Peace.

Far away, in the fairy country, there lived a king and Queen; they have no children. Went to the king in foreign lands, far to the sides, for a long time the house had never been; at that time the Queen bore him a son, Ivan Tsarevich, and the king was about to say something and does not know.

This publication presents the following works: "Antonovsky Apples", "Mitya's Love", "Suhodol", "Zahar Vorobiev", "The Gentleman from San Francisco", "Brothers", "Lirnyk Rodion", "Grammar of Love", "Dark Alley", "Clean Monday", "Sunstroke", "Light Breath", "Ida", "Numbers", and selected poems. This audiobook is read by V. Gerasimov. Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

The Queen of Spades stands at the peak of Pushkin's achievement in prose writing. The story was popular with the general reading public at the time, particularly for its striking plot. The story opens with a number of young officers conversing after a card game. One of them, Narumov, wonders why his grandmother, who possesses the secret of winning at the game of faro, never plays. Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

The Duel takes place in a small and peaceful town by the Black Sea. Two friends chat while swimming. Ivan Laevsky, 28, reveals his private secrets to Samoilenko, an army doctor. He reveals that, two years ago, he began an affair with a married woman. They fled to the Caucasus to get a fresh start. But the town and its inhabitants turned out to be dull, and Laevsky did not like it there. He does not see any future for himself and Nadezhda Fyodorovna, only more and more lies.

In The Merchant of Venice, the path to marriage is hazardous. To win Portia, Bassanio must pass a test prescribed by her father's will, choosing correctly among three caskets or chests. If he fails, he may never marry at all. Bassanio and Portia also face a magnificent villain, the moneylender Shylock. Portia is most remembered for her disguise as a lawyer, Balthazar, especially the speech in which she urges Shylock to show mercy that "[D]roppeth as the gentle rain from heaven". Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

Tolstoy's final work - a gripping novella about the struggle between the Muslim Chechens and their inept occupiers - is a powerful moral fable for our time. Inspired by a historical figure Tolstoy heard about while serving in the Caucasus, this story brings to life the famed warrior Hadji Murat, a Chechen rebel who has fought fiercely and courageously against the Russian empire. After a feud with his commander, he defects to the Russians, only to find that he is now trusted by neither side.

The poem has always been attributed to Ivan Semenovich Barkov, who died 30 years before the birth of Pushkin. But Barkov, by all indications, couldn't have written it. Recent studies suggest the collective work of Prov Sadovsky and his comrades, the Maly Theatre actors. So, this work will most likely came into being around the mid-19th century and then evolved over time.

Retold by Marion Palmer from the original Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris. This audiobook is adapted from the characters and backgrounds created for the Walt Disney motion picture Song of the South and other Walt Disney adaptations of the original Uncle Remus stories. Stories include "Who Was Uncle Remus?"; "De Tar-Baby"; "Brer Terrapin's Tug-of-War"; and many more. Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.