Anthony Briggs

'It was like walking along the knife-edge of the highest possible mountain range, seeing life on one side and death on the other in the form of two deep, gorgeous and gleaming seascapes.' This astonishing novella from 1908, newly translated for Little Black Classics by War and Peace translator Anthony Briggs, probes the emotions and experiences of seven people condemned to death in Tsarist Russia. With a powerful and subtle exploration of the morality of capital punishment, it was a best-seller at the time, and, in a strange quirk of history, influenced the conspirators in the cataclysmic assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. One of 46 new books in the best-selling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

A new short biography of the author of "Crime and Punishment" and "The Brothers Karamazov," by a preeminent Russian scholar In this compelling new biography Anthony Briggs explores the effect of Dostoevsky's turbulent life on his literary genius. Described by one contemporary as "the Shakespeare of the lunatic asylum," Dostoevsky famously divided critics during his lifetime. His childhood and family life have been the subject of scrutiny, most famously in inspiring Freud's essay "Dostoevsky and Parricide." In later life his membership of the Petrashevsky Circle of liberal intellectuals resulted in his prosecution by the authorities: he was forced to attend a mock execution and then exiled for four years to a Siberian prison camp.

Born in central Russia in 1828, Tolstoy saw action as a soldier before becoming a writer. His two novels, "War and Peace "and "Anna""Karenina," are among the best loved in world literature. Anthony Briggs compares these works and describes many others. He also considers why such a strong character as Tolstoy welcomed into his life two appalling individuals whose malign influence changed him and his literary career forever.