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Anna Karenina
Beneath the glittering ballrooms and snowbound estates of imperial Russia, Anna Karenina unfolds as a sweeping tale of passion, betrayal, and the fragile architecture of human happiness. Caught between the demands of a rigid society and the call of her own heart, Anna dares to pursue love at any cost—only to find that desire can both liberate and destroy. Around her, lives intersect in a delicate ballet of hope and despair, raising a timeless question: can true fulfillment ever exist within the confines of duty, marriage, and convention? Lyrical and unflinching, Tolstoy’s masterpiece captures the full spectrum of the human soul, from ecstasy to ruin.
- Originally Published: 1873
- Publisher: Penguin Books, 2002
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 880
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-0140449174
- Access: Members
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Fathers and Sons
In Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev captures the eternal tension between generations through the story of Arkady Kirsanov, who returns from university with his radical friend Bazarov, a self-proclaimed “nihilist” who believes in nothing but science and rejects all traditional values. What begins as a clash between old aristocratic ideals and new revolutionary thinking evolves into something far more nuanced—a meditation on how love, family bonds, and human nature itself resist the neat categories we try to impose on them. Turgenev’s genius lies in his refusal to take sides, instead showing us how both the romantic idealism of the older generation and the harsh materialism of the young contain their own truths and blindnesses. Can any philosophy, no matter how logically constructed, truly account for the messy complexities of the human heart? This masterpiece of Russian literature offers no easy answers, but it provides something more valuable: a deeply compassionate understanding of why each generation believes it has discovered the key to life, and why each is both right and profoundly wrong.
- Originally Published: 1862
- Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 215
- BookType: Hardcopy (paperback)
- ISBN: 9780192833921
- Access: Members
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Pride & Prejudice
In a world where marriage is both a social ladder and a battlefield, Pride & Prejudice unfolds as a sparkling duel of intellect, wit, and wounded hearts. Elizabeth Bennet, fierce in mind and spirit, meets her match in the proud and enigmatic Mr. Darcy—yet behind their verbal skirmishes lies a deeper reckoning with class, character, and the illusions we cast on others and ourselves. Can love survive first impressions, or is true intimacy only forged through humility and hard-won understanding? With its graceful prose and sharp social commentary, this is a tale where decorum masks desire, and every glance or silence carries the weight of unspoken truths. Elegant, biting, and deeply human, it is a love story that resists simplicity—just like the people at its heart.
- Originally Published: 1813
- Publisher : Wordsworth Classics, 1993
- Pages: 325
- Genre: Fiction, Romance novel, Satire, Regency romance, Novel of manners
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN-13: 978-1853260001
- Access: Members
