"In 1886, a twenty-six-year-old Anton Chekhov was publishing short stories, humor pieces, and articles at an astonishing rate, and was still a practicing physician. Yet as he honed his craft and continued to draw inspiration from the vivid characters in his own life, he found himself--to his surprise and occasional embarrassment--admired by a growing legion of fans, including Tolstoy himself. He had not yet succumbed to the ravages of tuberculosis....

"D. M. Thomas paints a deeply affecting portrait of the intricate relationship between Solzhenitsyn's life and his art, always framing this biography in the context of the historical times." "Indeed, Thomas tells not only the harrowing and sorrowful tale of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's life but also the painful story of Russia itself, a country perpetually at war with itself and its own diverse people. Beginning with the years of Revolution and Civil...

From one of the 20th century's great writers comes one of the finest autobiographies of our time. Speak, Memory was first published by Vladimir Nabokov in 1951 as Conclusive Evidence and then assiduously revised and republished in 1966. Nabokov's memoir is a moving account of a loving, civilized family, of adolescent awakenings, flight from Bolshevik terror, education in England, and émigré life in Paris and Berlin. The Nabokovs were eccentric,...

"Drawing on previously neglected family sources and original interviews, Boris's great-neice, Anna Pasternak, explores the hidden act of moral compromise by her great-uncle, and restores to history the passionate affair that inspired and animated 'Doctor Zhivago.'"--Front jacket flap.