Adelphi Press: 29 books

A humorous story about a manipulative mother's attempts to arrange a marriage between her beautiful daughter and a wealthy elderly nobleman. The story provides an brilliant insight into the desperation, psychology, gossip, and rivalry of provincial merchants trying to better their position in life.

Do honest thieves even exist? Dostoyevsky takes us through a journey of psychological exploration and discovery.

Prince Myshkin having spent some time in Switzerland recovering from his illness is now returning to Russia. He is the central character of the novel, a young man whose goodness, open-hearted simplicity and guilelessness lead many of the more worldly characters he encounters to mistakenly assume that...

Prince Alexey, aka Alyosha, the son of Prince Valkovsky is a naïve but loveable young man who is easily manipulated by his father. Alyosha runs away with his girlfriend Natasha and as a result, her father, Nikolai, curses her. The only friend that remains by Natasha's side is Ivan – her childhood...

The original iconic work of Fyodor Dostoevsky telling a thrilling story of mental anguish and moral dilemmas experienced by an inexperienced murderer. Raskolnikov, a former law student who lives in extreme poverty in a tiny, rented room in Saint Petersburg. Having failed in his attempts to support...

After teasing the crocodile, Ivan Matveich is swallowed alive. He finds the inside of the crocodile to be quite comfortable, and the animal's owner refuses to allow it to be cut open, in spite of the pleas from Elena Ivanovna. Ivan Matveich urges the narrator to arrange for the crocodile to be purchased and cut open, but the owner asks so much for it that nothing is done.

A government official Golyadkin has a formative discussion with his Doctor Rutenspitz, who fears for his sanity and tells him that his behaviour is dangerously antisocial. He prescribes 'cheerful company' as the remedy. Golyadkin resolves to try this, and leaves the office. He proceeds to a birthday...

Varvara Dobroselova and Makar Devushkin are second cousins twice-removed and live across from each other on the same street in terrible apartments. The novel follows their lives, their relationship with rich people, and poverty in general. A deep but odd friendship develops between them until Dobroselova...

The Seagull is one of the best ever dramas about the theatre, yet on the very first opening night it was a famous failure. The play triumphed later in Stanislavski's production and became one of the greatest events in the history of Russian theatre and one of the greatest new developments in the history of world drama.

The Cherry Orchard is one of the best known plays by the prolific Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. It has been translated into practically all languages and is part of the classic repertoire of all world stages. Chekhov is known for his art of subtlety, humour, stream of consciousness technique, and...

Uncle Vanya is different from Chekhov's other major plays as it is essentially an extensive reworking of his own other play published a decade earlier, The Wood Demon. By elucidating the specific changes Chekhov made during the revision process—these include reducing the cast-list from almost two...

Стоит ли ради мечты поступиться всем и вся? И стоит ли завидовать тем, кто по-настоящему может любить, отдаваясь этому чувству всецело? Или лучше быть человеком с материальными...

Дяде Ване уже 47 лет. Всю жизнь он, не выезжая из деревни, довольствуясь малым жалованием, трудился, как вол, чтобы содержать зятя-профессора, которого считал видной...

«Вишнёвый сад» — лирическая пьеса в четырёх действиях Антона Павловича Чехова, жанр которой сам автор определил как комедия. «Вишнёвый сад» — последняя пьеса Чехова,...