Prospero’s Isle

Most recent articles

• "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy (1869)

  6 June, by Leo Tolstoy

  Written by Tolstoy to mark the 50th anniversary of the invasion of Russia by Napoleon, this massive work, one of the longest novels ever written, magnificently captures the drama of men and women caught up in the sweep of a major upheaval that dwarfs the individual and his fate in the face of events that can destroy the very basis of the world they live in.
  Tolstoy paints a very broad canvas of people living and loving and longing and working out their individual destinies against the (…)

• "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1868)

  1 June, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

  The central figure in Dostoevsky’s masterpiece, Prince Myshkin, is perhaps the single most moving and unforgettable character in all fiction, the central theme of a saintly man subtly challenging by his very integrity the values of his time is immensely powerful, the very many characters that people this panoramic novel are all vibrantly brought to life by dialogues and descriptions that just couldn’t be better, there’s a special tone of import and intense significance throughout this long (…)

• "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866)

  26 May, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

  This is a very Russian novel, as the hero Raskolnikov commits his crime – a terrible one that has one wondering how one could ever find pity in one’s heart for a man who has committed such a monstrous and premeditated act in cold blood – early on and thereafter this rightly celebrated novel concentrates on the inner workings of the mind of the articulate, intelligent and almost likeable young man, on his intense relationships with his mother and his beautiful and greatly endangered sister, (…)

• "Oblomov" by Ivan Goncharov (1859)

  20 May, by Ivan Goncharov

  If you’ve ever had trouble getting out of bed in the morning you’ll appreciate the long first chapter of this marvellous book, wholly devoted to the efforts of our hero Oblomov — whose very name has entered the Russian language to symbolise a somewhat slothful and pleasure-first side of the Russian temperament — to raise himself from a horizontal position to a vertical one so as to get the day off to a start with his morning cup of chocolate.
  He’s surrounded by vigorous, dashing friends (…)

• "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev (1862)

  15 May, by Ivan Turgenev

  A seminal work revolving around one of the most famous characters in the whole of Russian literature: the self-proclaimed “nihilist” – a term introduced into the Russian language and all the others too by this novel – Bazarov, a very cynical and anti-establishmentarian medical student strongly critical of established ideas and values and non-scientific peccadillos of all sorts such as art and amour for example, who accompanies Arkady, a fellow student and devout follower of his advanced (…)

• "Spiegel the Cat" by Gottfried Keller (1856) – a marvelous Swiss story now at long last available in English

  1 May, by Gottfried Keller

  Spiegel, a starving but very resourceful cat, strikes a bargain with the town sorcerer to be fed and fed and fed again until such time as he becomes nice and round and plump with cat’s fat – an essential ingredient for the sorcerer’s witchcraft –, but when the fatal day finally comes for Spiegel after a glorious period of sumptuous dining and chasing after the feminine element of the cat world, the sorcerer discovers to his eternal dismay that he had woefully underestimated Spiegel’s (…)

• "A Village Romeo and Juliet" by Gottfried Keller (1856)

  25 April, by Gottfried Keller

  Two farmers in the Swiss countryside who had always lived and worked in harmony fall into disagreement over the stretch of abandoned land between their properties, and the dispute degenerates into a bitter feud between their families, including notably their children Sali and Vreni who had always played together on that abandoned piece of land and who were becoming ever closer as they advanced in age.
  Under the elegant, ever-so-charming pen of the author of the unforgettable Clothes Make (…)

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  "The Downfall of a Heart" by Stefan Zweig (1927)

  23 April, by Stefan Zweig

  An elderly man is deeply shocked when in the middle of the night he sees his nineteen-year-old daughter coming out of the bedroom of another guest of the hotel in an Italian coastal resort where he’s on vacation with his family for health reasons. The shock is severe and affects both his physical and psychic equilibrium as he comes to grips with the relational and moral gulf between himself and the rest of his family.
  A dramatic story most effectively translated by Eden and Cedar Paul in (…)

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  "Confusion" by Stefan Zweig (1927)

  21 April, by Stefan Zweig

  A university professor reflects on his career when honoured by his colleagues and students with an elaborate 200-page biography on the occasion of his sixtieth anniversary, and is struck by the contrast between the outward image he has represented to the world and his inner vision of himself.
  In particular he remembers his tumultuous first year as a student and his life-changing encounter with an inspired professor with whom he had had the most important relationship in his life, a (…)

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  Seven more of Jack London’s best stories

  17 April, by Jack London

  Our final anthology of Jack’s best stories. TABLE OF CONTENTS
  1. Sakaicho, Hona Asi and Hakadaki A young American sailor in Yokohama is invited by his rickshaw driver to visit the latter’s home in a poor quarter of the city, and samples the traditional hospitality of that intriguing and fast-rising nation. The proud parents present their ten-year-old son, whose education is the unique focus of the sacrifices and efforts of the household; but when the sailor comes back for another visit (…)