Mad - Foolish - Ridiculous - I've been called many things.On an uneventful Wednesday in a drab Borough of East London, an ordinary man has a startling revelation: life is an unhappy accident in a meaningless universe.He gets himself a gun.But before he can use it, he dreams of an innocent, alternative earth, where people live in harmony with nature and each other. Elated, he sets out to tell the world about his dream and share his new vision of a happy planet.Dostoevsky's tragic-comic adventure The Dream of a Ridiculous Man is transported to 21st-century London in a one-person tale of wonder with an urgent warning for our world, adapted by Laurence Boswell. A funny and serious story of hope, that with love and trust we can build a better world. Maybe.This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at London's Marylebone Theatre in March 2024.

The story opens with the narrator wandering the streets of St. Peters burg. He is contemplating the ridiculousness of his own life, and his recent realisation that nothing matters to him any more. It is this revelation that leads him to the idea of suicide. He reveals that, some months before, he had bought a revolver with the intent of shooting himself in the head.Despite a dismal night, the narrator looks up to the sky and views a solitary star. Shortly after seeing the star, a little girl comes running towards him. The narrator surmises that something is wrong with the girl's mother. He shakes the girl away and continues on to his apartment.Once in his apartment, he sinks into a chair and places the gun on a table next to him. He hesitates to shoot himself because of a nagging feeling of guilt that has plagued him ever since he shunned the girl. The narrator grapples with internal questions for a few hours before falling asleep in the chair.He descends into a vivid dream. In the dream, he shoots himself in the heart. He dies but is still aware of his surroundings. He gathers that there is a funeral and that it is he who is being buried. After an indeterminate amount of time in his cold grave, water begins to drip down onto his eyelids.

A rich and idle man confronts his dead mistress's husband in this psychological novel of duality. Powerful and accessible, it offers a captivating and revealing exploration of love, guilt, and hatred.

This collection, unique to the Modern Library, gathers seven of Dostoevsky's key works and shows him to be equally adept at the short story as with the novel. Exploring many of the same themes as in his longer works, these small masterpieces move from the tender and romantic White Nights, an archetypal nineteenth-century morality tale of pathos and loss, to the famous Notes from the Underground, a story of guilt, ineffectiveness, and uncompromising cynicism, and the first major work of existential literature. Among Dostoevsky's prototypical characters is Yemelyan in The Honest Thief, whose tragedy turns on an inability to resist crime. Presented in chronological order, in David Magarshack's celebrated translation, this is the definitive edition of Dostoevsky's best stories.

Ivan Matveich was thinking it was a bad idea to see a live crocodile on the street as it swallowed him whole! Why couldn't it have eaten his wife Elena instead? What follows is an immensely humorous and satirical account of Ivan's new life from inside the crocodile, unable to get out because the owner refuses to kill the beast. A precursor to Kafka’s 'Metamorphosis', Dostoevsky’s short story is a farcical depiction and social criticism of Russian society at the time. The situation becomes a scene from the theatre of the absurd, making the tale a poignant finger wagging at the problems of humanity. Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was a famous Russian writer of novels, short stories, and essays. A connoisseur of the troubled human psyche and the relationships between the individuals, Dostoevsky’s oeuvre covers a large area of subjects: politics, religion, social issues, philosophy, and the uncharted realms of the psychological. There have been at least 30 film and TV adaptations of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s 1866 novel 'Crime and Punishment' with probably the most popular being the British BBC TV series starring John Simm as Raskolnikov and Ian McDiarmid as Porfiry Petrovich. 'The Idiot' has also been adapted for films and TV, as has 'Demons' and 'The Brothers Karamazov'.

Written close to the end of the great writer's life, Fyodor Dostoevsky's short story "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" tells of a transformation of the heart and a journey from despair to joy: a joy that can be known by all through the experience of God that transcends a simply rational discourse. In this eye opening literary study, the title character and his spiritual metamorphosis are examined in depth in light of the ancient concept of Nous as it developed from the Greek philosophers to the Christian fathers. By comparing the "Ridiculous Man" to similar characters in Dostoevsky's corpus, the author shows how an Orthodox Christian understanding of the Nous underpins Dostoevsky's own anthropology and how his literary works in turn guide the reader toward a truer vision of humanity.

Here begins an extraordinary alliance—and a brutal and tender, shocking, and electrifying adventure to end all adventures. It starts with a simple note. Roger Bascombe regretfully wishes to inform Celeste Temple that their engagement is forthwith terminated. Determined to find out why, Miss Temple takes the first step in a journey that will propel her into a dizzyingly seductive, utterly shocking world beyond her imagining—and set her on a collision course with a killer and a spy—in a bodice-ripping, action-packed roller-coaster ride of suspense, betrayal, and richly fevered dreams.

Winner, 2021 Reference & Bibliography Award in the 'Reference' Section, given by the Association of Jewish Libraries An unprecedented treasury of Yiddish children’s stories and poems enhanced with original illustrations While there has been a recent boom in Jewish literacy and learning within the US, few resources exist to enable American Jews to experience the rich primary sources of Yiddish culture. Stepping into this void, Miriam Udel has crafted an exquisite collection: Honey on the Page offers a feast of beguiling original translations of stories and poems for children. Arranged thematically—from school days to the holidays—the book takes readers from Jewish holidays and history to folktales and fables, from stories of humanistic ethics to multi-generational family sagas. Featuring many works that are appearing in English for the first time, and written by both prominent and lesser-known authors, this anthology spans the Yiddish-speaking globe—drawing from materials published in Eastern Europe, New York, and Latin America from the 1910s, during the interwar period, and up through the 1970s. With its vast scope, Honey on the Page offers a cornucopia of delights to families, individuals and educators seeking literature that speaks to Jewish children about their religious, cultural, and ethical heritage. Complemented by whimsical, humorous illustrations by Paula Cohen, an acclaimed children’s book illustrator, Udel’s evocative translations of Yiddish stories and poetry will delight young and older readers alike.

Although Russian fiction master Fyodor Dostoyevsky is best known for epic, sprawling novels that detail psychological and philosophical problems in minute detail, his more concise work is also remarkable in its scope and depth. This collection of stories will please fans of classic Russian literature and Dostoyevsky buffs who are interested in sampling the author's forays into another format.

Jack Truck and his best friend Dump Truck Dan are spending the day doing their favorite thing... Smashing and Crashing throughout the whole town! Along the way the meet up with their friends and give us a rollicking tour! But when a mysterious shadow falls and a strange voice calls, is the duo in trouble? Or has a new friend come to town to join in all the smashing fun.