The book "Confession of a Toastmaster" can be considered the guide of the Fates, Names, unique Cultures of the multinational Russian Soul at the meeting-point of the author's fiction and publicism, where there is no explicit confrontation. And Shatakishvili performs with the apologia of the hidden decency: an aesthete, a fan and a true connoisseur of everything beautiful - from women's beauty to the ringing silence. And the poet said about such people: "Could you play nocturne on a flute of drainpipes?"

The generation that matured in the thirties of the last century fell on unprecedented ups and upheavals. All of them passed through the heart of Ivan Nikiforovich Medyanik. New cities are associated with his name: Ozersk in the Urals and Lermontov in the Caucasus. Whoever he has not been in his life: a blacksmith, tinker, driver, tractor driver, tankman, pilot, battalion commander, and senior manager who performed important tasks of the government. When many documents were declassified today, it became known that I.N. Medyanik is involved in those who created the country's nuclear shield.“The Most Russian Person” is one of the documentary stories of V. A. Shatakishvili, dedicated to famous people, participants and creators of history, people of amazing fate, whose meetings gave him life. Shatakishvili is objective and at the same time delicate, he speaks with enthusiasm and interest. His work is full of wisdom and joy, in a simple and an engaging way it conveys to the reader the impressions of the author and with them – the realities of the old, already unfamiliar life.

A death. A confession. And a little magic... Vianne Rocher has settled down. Lansquenet-sous-Tannes, the place that once rejected her, has finally become her home. With Rosette, her 'special' child, she runs her chocolate shop in the square, talks to her friends on the river, is part of the community. Even Reynaud, the priest, has become a friend. But when old Narcisse, the florist, dies, leaving a parcel of land to Rosette and a written confession to Reynaud, the life of the sleepy village is once more thrown into disarray. The arrival of Narcisse's relatives, the departure of an old friend and the opening of a mysterious new shop in the place of the florist's across the square - one that mirrors the chocolaterie, and has a strange appeal of its own - all seem to herald some kind of change: a confrontation, a turbulence - even, perhaps, a murder...

Nadja is a Surrealist romance, and has come to be known as a book which defined that movement's attitude towards life. With its blend of intimate confession and sense of the marvellous, Nadja weaves a myterious and compelling tapestry of daily life as seen through a magical perspective. Combining autobiographical fact with memory and imagination, Breton spins one of the most unusual love stories in modern literature.

The Original of Laura is Vladimir Nabokov's final, incredible unfinished novel in fragments. Dr Philip Wild, a man of brilliance, wit, fortune and tremendous bulk, is used to suffering humiliations at the hands of his wife, the younger, slender, and rudely promiscuous Flora. But in a novel, a 'maddening masterpiece' documenting her infidelities, written by one of her lovers and given to the doctor, she appears as My Laura. Dishonoured, Wild still finds pleasure in life, by indulging in self-annihilation, beginning with the removal of his toes. Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) was born in St Petersburg. He wrote his first literary works in Russian, but rose to international prominence as a masterly prose stylist for the novels he composed in English, most famously Lolita. Between 1923 and 1940 he published novels, short stories, plays, poems and translations in the Russian language and established himself as one of the most outstanding Russian emigre writers. Dmitri Nabokov was Vladimir Nabokov's son.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930) was an English writer best known for his detective stories about Sherlock Holmes. This volume includes a vast collection of intriguing short stories, such as "The Death Voyage", "The Confession" and "The Centurion", featuring a wide range of the author's literary talent written on paper.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930) was an English writer best known for his detective stories about Sherlock Holmes. This volume includes a vast collection of intriguing short stories, such as "The Death Voyage", "The Confession" and "The Centurion", featuring a wide range of the author's literary talent written on paper.

Describing Tolstoy's crisis of depression and estrangement from the world, A Confession is an autobiographical work of exceptional emotional honesty. It describes his search for 'a practical religion not promising future bliss but giving bliss on earth'. Although the Confession led to his excommunication, it also resulted in a large following of Tolstoyan Christians springing up throughout Russia and Europe. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

No marriage of a major twentieth-century writer lasted longer than Vladimir Nabokov's. Vera Slonim shared his delight at the enchantment of life's trifles and literature's treasures, and he rated her as having the best and quickest sense of humour of any woman he had met. From their meeting in 1921, Vladimir's letters to his beloved Vera form a narrative arc that tells a forty-six year-long love story, and they are memorable in their entirety. Almost always playful, romantic, and pithy, the letters tell us much about the man and the writer; we see that Vladimir observed everything, from animals, faces, speech, and landscapes with genuine fascination.

The shop owner Adolf Verloc, member of an anarchist group and secret agent for a foreign government, is summoned to meet Mr Vladimir, the country’s ambassador, who asks him to carry out a terrorist attack at a famous London landmark. Verloc has misgivings, but Mr Vladimir knows how to make people do what he wants, and when the plan goes wrong, it is Verloc – as well as his young wife, Winnie – who must deal with the consequences. A story of espionage, intrigue and corruption based on a real-life attempted terrorist attack in Victorian London, The Secret Agent was one of literature’s first political thrillers, and is widely considered to be among Conrad’s most compelling works.

In this non-fiction novel – road trip, confession, and erotic tour de force – Emmanuel Carrere pursues two consuming obsessions: the disappearance of his grandfather amid suspicions that he was a Nazi collaborator in the Second World War; and a violently passionate affair with a woman that he loves but which ends in destruction. Moving between Paris and Kotelnich, a grisly post-Soviet town, Carrere weaves his story into a travelogue of a journey inward, travelling fearlessly into the depths of his tortured psyche.

No marriage of a major twentieth-century writer is quite as beguiling as that of Vladimir Nabokov’s to Vera Slonim. She shared his delight at the enchantment of life’s trifles and literature’s treasures, and he rated her as having the best and quickest sense of humor of any woman he had met. From their first encounter in 1923, Vladimir’s letters to Vera chronicle a half-century-long love story, one that is playful, romantic, and memorable. At the same time, the letters reveal much about their author. We see the infectious fascination with which Vladimir observed everything — animals, people, speech, landscapes and cityscapes — and glimpse his ceaseless work on his poems, plays, stories, novels, memoirs, screenplays, and translations. This delightful volume is enhanced by twenty-one photographs, as well as facsimiles of the letters and the puzzles and drawings Vladimir often sent to Vera. With 8 pages of photographs and 47 illustrations in text .

No marriage of a major twentieth-century writer is quite as beguiling as that of Vladimir Nabokov’s to Vera Slonim. She shared his delight at the enchantment of life’s trifles and literature’s treasures, and he rated her as having the best and quickest sense of humor of any woman he had met. From their first encounter in 1923, Vladimir’s letters to Vera chronicle a half-century-long love story, one that is playful, romantic, and memorable. At the same time, the letters reveal much about their author. We see the infectious fascination with which Vladimir observed everything — animals, people, speech, landscapes and cityscapes — and glimpse his ceaseless work on his poems, plays, stories, novels, memoirs, screenplays, and translations. This delightful volume is enhanced by twenty-one photographs, as well as facsimiles of the letters and the puzzles and drawings Vladimir often sent to Vera. With 8 pages of photographs and 47 illustrations in text .

The shop owner Adolf Verloc, member of an anarchist group and secret agent for a foreign government, is summoned to meet Mr Vladimir, the country’s ambassador, who asks him to carry out a terrorist attack at a famous London landmark. Verloc has misgivings, but Mr Vladimir knows how to make people do what he wants, and when the plan goes wrong, it is Verloc - as well as his young wife, Winnie - who must deal with the consequences.A story of espionage, intrigue and corruption based on a real-life attempted terrorist attack in Victorian London, The Secret Agent was one of literature’s first political thrillers, and is widely considered to be among Conrad’s most compelling works.

A collection of masterful short stories in Julio Cortazar's sophistocated, powerful and gripping style. 'Julio Cortazar is truly a sorcerer and the best of him is here, in these hilariously fraught and almost eerily affecting stories' Kevin Barry A grieving family home becomes the site of a terrifying invasion. A frustrated love triangle, brought together by a plundered Aztec idol, spills over into brutality. A lodger’s inability to stop vomiting bunny rabbits inspires a personal confession. As dream melds into reality, and reality melts into nightmare, one constant remains throughout these thirty-five stories: the singular brilliance of Julio Cortazar’s imagination.

Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer best known for his detective fiction featuring the character Sherlock Holmes. His works also include fantasy and science fiction, as well as plays, romances, non-fiction and historical novels. "The Death Voyage" includes a vast collection of intriguing short stories, such as "The Confession" and "The Centurion," featuring a wide range of the author's literary talent written on paper.