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Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (/ˈtoʊlstɔɪ, ˈtɒl-/;[1] Russian: Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й, pronounced [lʲɛf nʲɪkɐˈlaɪvʲɪtɕ tɐlˈstoj]; 9 September [O.S. 28 August] 1828 – 20 November [O.S. 7 November] 1910), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian novelist today regarded as one of the greatest of all time. In the 1870s Tolstoy experienced a profound moral crisis, followed by what he regarded as an equally profound spiritual awakening. His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him to become a fervent Christian anarchist and pacifist. His new-found asceticism and determination to renounce his considerable wealth tipped his marriage into bitter turmoil, which continued right up to his death at the age of 82 in the waiting room of an, until then, obscure Russian railway station. Life and career Death Tolstoy's grave with flowers at Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoy died in 1910, at the age of 82. Personal life In films

Oscar Wilde Irish poet, playwright, and aesthete (1854–1900) Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of his criminal conviction for gross indecency for consensual homosexual acts in "one of the first celebrity trials",[1] imprisonment, and early death from meningitis at age 46. Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. Early life The Wilde family home on Merrion Square Oscar Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row, Dublin (now home of the Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College), the second of three children born to an Anglo-Irish couple: Jane, née Elgee and Sir William Wilde. Wilde was baptised as an infant in St. Fox described it in this way: University education: 1870s Trinity College Dublin

A Taste of Marmelodov: Crime and Punishment Essay | A Taste of Marmelodov: Crime and Punishment Summary: In Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel, Crime and Punishment, Marmeladov is a minor character whose story is told in only a few short chapters of the first two books, and yet, Marmeladov plays an important role in the novel. A Taste of Marmeladov In Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel, Crime and Punishment, Marmeladov is a minor character whose story is told in only a few short chapters of the first two books, and yet, Marmeladov plays an important role in the novel. Both Marmeladov and Raskolnikov are desperate men trying to function in a bleak world. Raskolnikov first meets Marmeladov at a dirty tavern.

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski;[1]:11–12 Berdichev, Imperial Russia, 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924, Bishopsbourne, Kent, England) was a Polish author who wrote in English after settling in England. He was granted British nationality in 1886, but always considered himself a Pole.[note 1] Conrad is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English,[2] though he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties (and always with a marked accent). He wrote stories and novels, often with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an indifferent universe. While some of his works have a strain of romanticism, his works are viewed as modernist literature. Early life[edit] Nowy Świat 47, Warsaw, where three-year-old Conrad lived with his parents in 1861 Though the vast majority of the area's inhabitants were Ukrainians, the land was almost completely owned by the Polish szlachta (nobility) that Conrad's parents belonged to.

George Eliot She used a male pen name, she said, to ensure her works would be taken seriously. Female authors were published under their own names during Eliot's life, but she wanted to escape the stereotype of women only writing lighthearted romances. An additional factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny and to prevent scandals attending her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes, with whom she lived for over 20 years.[1] Her 1872 work Middlemarch has been described by Martin Amis[2] and Julian Barnes[3] as the greatest novel in the English language. Life[edit] Early life and education[edit] Mary Ann Evans was the third child of Robert Evans (1773–1849) and Christiana Evans (née Pearson) (1788–1836), the daughter of a local farmer. The young Evans was obviously intelligent and a voracious reader. Move to Coventry[edit] Move to London and editorship of the Westminster Review[edit] Relationship with George Lewes[edit]

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Набо́ков, pronounced [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr nɐˈbokəf] ( ), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin; 22 April [O.S. 10 April] 1899c – 2 July 1977) was a Russian-American novelist.[1] Nabokov's first nine novels were in Russian. He then rose to international prominence as a writer of English prose. Nabokov's Lolita (1955) is his most famous novel, and often considered his finest work in English. Life and career[edit] Russia[edit] Nabokov was born on 22 April 1899 (10 April 1899 Old Style), in Saint Petersburg,b to a wealthy and prominent family of minor nobility. The Rozhdestveno mansion, inherited from his uncle in 1916: Nabokov possessed it for less than a year before the October Revolution Emigration[edit] In 1920, Nabokov's family moved to Berlin, where his father set up the émigré newspaper Rul' ("Rudder"). Berlin years (1922–37)[edit] United States[edit] In June 1953 Nabokov and his family went to Ashland, Oregon. Work[edit]

Ayn Rand Literary critics received Rand's fiction with mixed reviews,[6] and academia generally ignored or rejected her philosophy, though academic interest has increased in recent decades.[7][8][9] The Objectivist movement attempts to spread her ideas, both to the public and in academic settings.[10] She has been a significant influence among libertarians and American conservatives.[11] Life[edit] Early life[edit] Rand was born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum (Russian: Али́са Зиновьевна Розенбаум) on February 2, 1905, to a Russian Jewish bourgeois[12] family living in Saint Petersburg. The subsequent October Revolution and the rule of the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin disrupted the life the family had previously enjoyed. Along with many other "bourgeois" students, Rand was purged from the university shortly before graduating. Arrival in the United States[edit] Cover of Rand's first published work, a 2,500-word monograph on femme fatalePola Negri published in 1925.[26] Early fiction[edit] Reviews[edit]

Jean Webster Childhood[edit] Alice Jane Chandler Webster was born in Fredonia, New York. She was the eldest child of Annie Moffet Webster and Charles Luther Webster. She lived her early childhood in a strongly matriarchal and activist setting, with her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother all living under the same roof. Alice's mother was niece to Mark Twain, and her father was Twain's business manager and subsequently publisher of many of his books by Charles L. Alice attended the Fredonia Normal School and graduated in 1894 in china painting. College years[edit] Webster spent a semester in her junior year in Europe, visiting France and the United Kingdom, but with Italy as her main destination, including visits to Rome, Naples, Venice and Florence. Adult years[edit] Back in Fredonia, Webster began writing When Patty Went to College, in which she described contemporary women's college life. Death[edit] Jean Webster entered the Sloan Hospital for Women, New York on the afternoon of June 10, 1916.

Vasily Chapayev Сhapayev's birthplace (today the house-museum "Chapayevs' Log House") Vasily Ivanovich Chapayev or Chapaev (Russian: Василий Иванович Чапаев; February 9 [O.S. January 28] 1887 – September 5, 1919) was a celebrated Russian soldier and Red Army commander during the Russian Civil War. Biography[edit] Chapayev was born into a poor peasant family in a village called Budayka, now part of Cheboksary. On September 5, 1919, the divisional headquarters near Lbishchensk (now renamed Chapayev in his honour) were ambushed by White Army forces. Private life[edit] In 1908 Chapayev became acquainted with Pelageya Metelina, who was 18. Chapaev in Russian culture[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] External links[edit]

Franz Kafka Kafka was born into a middle-class, German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In his lifetime, most of the population of Prague spoke Czech, and the division between Czech- and German-speaking people was a tangible reality, as both groups were strengthening their national identity. The Jewish community often found itself in between the two sentiments, naturally raising questions about a place to which one belongs. Kafka himself was fluent in both languages, considering German his mother tongue. Kafka trained as a lawyer and after completing his legal education, obtained employment with an insurance company. Life[edit] Family[edit] Plaque marking the birthplace of Franz Kafka in Prague. The Kafka family had a servant girl living with them in a cramped apartment. Education[edit] Employment[edit] Former home of the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute. Private life[edit] Kafka had an active sex life. Miss FB.

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