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Evan Shively (Perseus271)

An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.

Twenty-Five Hundred years ago, Sun Tzu wrote this classic book of military strategy based on Chinese warfare and military thought. Since that time, all levels of military have used the teaching on Sun Tzu to warfare and civilization have adapted these teachings for use in politics, business and everyday life. The Art of War is a book which should be used to gain advantage of opponents in the boardroom and battlefield alike.

The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats includes all of the poems authorized by Yeats for inclusion in his standard canon. Breathtaking in range, it encompasses the entire arc of his career, from luminous reworking of ancient Irish myths and legends, to passionate meditations on the demands and rewards of youth and old age, from exquisite, occasionally whimsical songs of love, nature, and art to somber and angry poems of life in a nation torn by war and uprising. In observing the development of rich and recurring images and themes over the course of his body of work, we can trace the quest of this century's greatest poet to unite intellect and artistry in a single magnificent vision.Revised and corrected, this edition includes Yeat's own notes on his poetry, complemented by explanatory notes from esteemed Yeats scholar Richard J. Finneran. The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats is the most comprehensive edition of one of the world's most beloved poets available in paperback.

The Winding Stair and Other Poems by W. B. Yeats contains a myriad of poems the manage to be both mired in their time and timeless. Yeats takes ordinary events in ordinary lives and writes about them in poems that touch people's hearts and minds even years after they were written. While one might not know the characters about whom he writes, the experiences feel all too real reminding the reader that there are certain experiences that transcend time, boundaries, and locale. With lines that demand the reader read them one, twice, thrice just to feel the entirety of their meaning, The Winding Stair and Other Poems often feels like it's pushing beyond the page and into the shared experience of being human even while searching for what that shared experience really means.

When I am sad and wearyWhen I think all hope has goneWhen I walk along High HolbornI think of you with nothing onThere are almost as many definitions and different sorts of love as there are poets. Edited on the assumption that any poem which speaks of one human’s desire for another is a qualifying factor, this rich and diverse anthology ranges through time and fashion to best represent ‘man’s changeless responses to the changeless changing seasons of his heart’.Wine comes in at the mouthAnd love comes in at the eye;That’s all we know for truthBefore we grow old and die.I lift the glass to my mouth,I look at you, and I sigh.Edited with an Introduction by Jon Stallworthy

When this little play was performed in London, some friends of W.B. Yeats discovered much detailed allegory, the Headman being one principle of social life, the Curdseller or the Gaffer another; but the meaning is less intellectual, more emotional and simple. On the stage the little plays shows that it is very perfectly constructed, and conveys to the right audience an emotion of gentleness and peace.

The first edition of W. B. Yeats's The Tower appeared in bookstores in London on Valentine's Day, 1928. His English publisher printed just 2,000 copies of this slender volume of twenty-one poems, priced at six shillings. The book was immediately embraced by book buyers and critics alike, and it quickly became a bestseller.  Subsequent versions of the volume made various changes throughout, but this Scribner facsimile edition reproduces exactly that seminal first edition as it reached its earliest audience in 1928, adding an introduction and notes by esteemed Yeats scholar Richard J. Finneran.  Written between 1912 and 1927, these poems ("Sailing to Byzantium," "Leda and the Swan," and "Among School Children" among them) are today considered some of the best and most famous in the entire Yeats canon. As Virginia Woolf declared in her unsigned review of this collection, "Mr. Yeats has never written more exactly and more passionately."

A strange, virtually unknown short novel. Basically this is like a ladies little black book – a chronicle, almost diary style diatribe of all the men that have come and gone in the protagonist’s life. It is very modern prose, witty but unfortunately lacks the sharpness or spunk of similar style writers, such as Muriel Spark, Stella Gibbons, Barbara Pym or Eelizabeth Thurkell. Clearly ahead of it’s time though! From the little I know of Parker, she was a bit of a trail blazer (and ball buster?) it seems! I assume some of her chunkier novels are, while similar in style, more in depth and would be worth reading. 

NOW AVAILABLE!Walt Whitman’s poem, which would eventually become “Song of Myself,” had no title in the 1855, first edition of Leaves of Grass. In the 1856 edition, it was “A Poem of Walt Whitman, an American.” In 1860, the title changed to “Walt Whitman.” It wasn’t until 1871 that Whitman changed the title to “Song of Myself.” Along with the changes in title were changes made over the course of time to the poem itself. Whitman’s “I” is a spectator, a commentator of what he sees, seeing them all, rich, poor, black, white, all religions, all races, all the good and the bad, revealing them all, and then moving on. In the early part of this poem, Whitman shows the reader how the physical self, the “I,” encompasses the universe and also is interchangeable with the universe. How every element in nature is in us, and when we have no further use of our bodies they return to the earth to once again be a part of the universe. We are all part of this cycle, and therefore equal. Grass, the ultimate symbol of democracy. There’s more, there’s so much more. But, for me, this time it was the predominant “take-away.” The commentary of the poem is broken down by section, with a Critical Commentary followed by an Afterword. These are both elucidating. The Commentary focusing on “translating” the section, and the Afterword occasionally sharing a life experience that sheds more light on the section. My grandfather figures predominantly in my love of poetry, and more specifically in the love of Whitman’s poetry. As a child, I sat beside him as he wrote his own poems, line by line, asking this much younger version of me what words I thought he should use. Including me in the process. When he wasn’t writing, or we weren’t polishing the pews or some such thing, he was reading poetry to me. In this case, I remember a lot of it discovered under his loving eye as he broke this down, line by line, first asking, and then helping me discover what this poem was about. For him, the equality of all men was the paramount message. My grandfather was poor, growing up in rural West Virginia in a house his father had lovingly built with his own hands. His parents had lived on his grandfather’s farm when they were first married, but moved to “town” in 1902 when Salem College was being built nearby, they wanted a college education for themselves and their children. I had started reading another book around the same time, Rick Bragg’s “All Over But the Shoutin,’” and then a day or so later, I began in small bits reading “The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks” by Jesmyn Ward. It made for an interesting combination, from the 1850s to now, words, ideas and ideals shared by Whitman. Bragg, echoing the same thoughts throughout his memoir. Ward, one of today’s authors, asking the same questions. Whitman’s celebration of the self includes everyone, regardless of race, morality, identity, religion, sexual orientation, or social standing. To paraphrase the last line of an old Peter, Paul &amp; Mary / Pete Seeger song: When will we ever learn? Pub Date: 15 October 2016Many thanks to University of Iowa Press (The Iowa Whitman Series), NetGalley, and to Ed Folsom and Christopher Merrill. 

Here, in its original and complete form, is the edition of the American masterpiece that inspired Emerson to write his famous words to Whitman: "I greet you at the beginning of a great career..."As Malcolm Cowley says in his Introduction, the first edition of Leaves of Grass "might be called the buried masterpiece of American writing," for it exhibits "Whitman at his best, Whitman at his freshest in vision and boldest in language, Whitman transformed by a new experience." Cowley has taken the first edition from its narrow circulation among scholars, faithfully edited it, added his own Introduction and Whitman's original Introduction (which never appeared in any other edition during Whitman's life), and returned it to the common readership for whom the great poet intended it."One of the most important literary events in twentieth-century poetry and criticism." -Karl Shapiro

The Divine Comedy describes Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide; his ascent of Mount Purgatory and encounter with his dead love, Beatrice; and finally, his arrival in Heaven. Examining questions of faith, desire and enlightenment, the poem is a brilliantly nuanced and moving allegory of human redemption. Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265 and belonged to a noble but impoverished family. His life was divided by political duties and poetry, the most of famous of which was inspired by his meeting with Bice Portinari, whom he called Beatrice,including La Vita Nuova and The Divine Comedy. He died in Ravenna in 1321.

"The Outsider" is a short story by American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written between March and August 1921, it was first published in Weird Tales, April 1926. In this work, a mysterious man who has been living alone in a castle for as long as he can remember decides to break free in search of human contact. "The Outsider" is one of Lovecraft's most commonly reprinted works and is also one of the most popular stories ever to be published in Weird Tales.

"The Pit .. " is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. It centres around the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. You are sure to find it especially effective at inspiring fear in readers due to its heavy focus on the senses, thus emphasizing reality. It is different from many other Poe stories which are aided by the supernatural. It's considered one of his best.Librarian's note: this entry relates to the story "The Pit and the Pendulum." Collections of short stories by the author can be found elsewhere on Goodreads.

Dive into this classic from the singular mind of Edgar Allan Poe, who is widely regarded as the master of short horror fiction. "The Fall of the House of Usher" recounts the terrible events that befall the last remaining members of the once-illustrious Usher clan before it is -- quite literally -- rent asunder. With amazing economy, Poe plunges the reader into a state of deliciously agonizing suspense. It's a must-read for fans of the golden era of horror writing.

The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his abbey. He, along with many other wealthy nobles, has a masquerade ball within seven rooms of his abbey, each decorated with a different color. In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure disguised as a Red Death victim enters and makes his way through each of the rooms.  The story follows many traditions of Gothic fiction and is often analyzed as an allegory about the inevitability of death, though some critics advise against an allegorical reading. Many different interpretations have been presented, as well as attempts to identify the true nature of the titular disease.

In Gustave Doré, one of the most prolific and successful book illustrators of the late 19h century, Edgar Allan Poe's renowned poem The Raven found perhaps its most perfect artistic interpreter. Doré's dreamlike, otherworldly style, tinged with melancholy, seems ideally matched to the bleak despair of Poe's celebrated work, among the most popular American poems ever written.This volume reprints all 26 of Doré's detailed, masterly engravings from a rare 19th-century edition of the poem. Relevant lines from the poem are printed on facing pages and the complete text is also included. Admirers of Doré will find ample evidence here of his characteristic ability to capture the mood and meaning of a work of literature in striking imagery; lovers of The Raven will delight in seeing its mournful musing on love and loss given dramatic pictorial form.

Religion is a very personal matter and all too often a very controversial one at that. My ancestors practiced a variety of different faiths, but I was raised in the Catholic Church. I attended Catholic school from kindergarten through the 12th grade and, like many “reformed Catholics,” I swallowed what was fed me at first, without really questioning why it might be good for me or what it might do to me spiritually or psychologically. But with knowledge of the hard and social sciences and evident contradictions in the formal church, I strayed further and further from organized religion.I know I’ve not addressed Tolstoy’s work yet specifically, but I’m getting to it in a roundabout way, with an introduction to my review that is structurally very similar to the way that Tolstoy opens “A Confession” (the introductory lines of which I include later on). It is perhaps because of my own experiences with organized religion in my youth that I found the work so intriguing. And although I have since distanced myself from Catholicism as an organized religion, it is not something I can really escape from entirely. I can no more escape from Catholic guilt, which was instilled in me from my childhood into my early adult years, than I can from accepting the mathematical truth that 2 + 2 = 4, similar to points made by some of my favorite Catholics in the world of cinema, Federico Fellini, Martin Scorsese and Roger Ebert. Though I was born in a different era, having been raised in a Catholic family and sent to a Catholic school, the rituals and dogmas of the Church are part of the mold in which I was shaped and although I can try to bury them, renounce them or ignore them, I can never erase them, for they were such an essential (if contradictory) part of my life growing up. For me, one of my earliest disillusionments with organized religion that I can recall occurred at the age of nine. Here’s the background, in brevity: When I was two-years (too young to remember), the priest of our church was embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal involving teenage altar boys in the parish. This was a few decades before sexual abuse in the Catholic Church gained prominence in the national and world headlines, and (as was often the case in those days) the diocese simply swept the matter under the rug and moved the priest to a new parish, where his impulses led him soon enough back to his old ways, only to be once again hushed up by the church hierarchy. The priest who came in after him was not only a reformer and a new thinker, but he was very critical of the hypocrisy within the church. He often used the pulpit to speak about these injustices, fully aware that the church was giving pedophile priests the opportunity to act again. He wrote letters, met with officials and otherwise caused a good deal of trouble for those higher up. And with his vocal opposition to what the church was doing, he soon began receiving threats on his safety and life in the form of letters and phone calls, some of them originating from those higher up in the church hierarchy. Rather than backing down, this priest informed the parishioners of these threats, which continued to increase. I didn’t realize much of what he spoke of in his sermons as a child, but I recognized that there was a contradiction between what the church preached and what the church, as an organized body, did. When I was nine-years old I attended the church with my mother (this was a rare occasion, as it was usually my grandmother who took me church) and my mother and many others in the pews wept as the priest delivered his final homily. In it he summed up, with wet eyes, the history of abusive acts committed by the former priest, the actions taken by the church to hide the priest’s crimes and sins, the actions he took as a pastor to bring the actions of the former priest and of the church itself to light and the threats on his life that he had been receiving. In response to the growing threats on his life he announced that he was stepping down from the priesthood. This was a rattling moment for me. Why was a priest who was trying to do something right being threatened by those within the church organization? Isn’t the church supposed to be a voice of moral goodness? It didn’t make sense. A couple of years later one of the staff members at our school was dismissed for her refusal to stop referring to God as “She.” And this was followed through the years by a number of other contradictions: a progressive nun (who taught us sexual education because she believed that abstinence only policies were nonsensical!) who was fired for her progressive views because her teachings were opposed to Church doctrine, a theology teacher who introduced us to the teachings of Marx and the liberation theologians (things that would never be mentioned from the priest’s pulpit), a theology teacher who organized student protests and a female teacher who was fired for her refusal to condemn homosexuality and later threatened for becoming ordained as a priest, challenging the Catholic Church’s stance that only men can be ordained. People were openly challenging the dogma and hierarchy of the Church, while still embracing faith and what they saw as the essential principles of Christianity (much like Tolstoy). These events, combined with insights gained through studies of history, anthropology, sociology and the “hard sciences” drew me further and further away from any sort of organized religion. So, with that lengthy, personal, and perhaps roundabout introduction to this review, how does this relate back to Tolstoy? In this book, A Confession and Other Religious Writings Tolstoy discusses many religious and social ideas – some which I agree with to some extent, and others which I find a bit questionable – ranging from the perversion of Christianity in the hands of the Church (i.e., organized religion is not representative of ‘true religion’); his own path away from religion and back to it; the need to abolish governments, all of which are based on violence; realizing the kingdom of God on earth (very similar to the liberation theologians who would follow); and, most importantly, his search for an answer to the question of the meaning of life. Tolstoy was undoubtedly very polarizing at this time and caused concern particularly for the Russian government, which wanted to censor him but feared that doing so could incite an unwanted response from his many followers. In works like War &amp; Peace and Anna Karenina characters such as Pierre and Levin sought answers to questions similar to those that Tolstoy posed in many of his religious works and these fictional characters are widely believed to be representative of the author and the struggles that were already beginning in his troubled soul. By the time that his religious writings came around, Tolstoy had renounced many of the literary masterpieces that we have come to know and love him for, seeing them as a shallow attempt to deliver some truth (that he didn’t even know) to the public. Before his great literary achievements were translated in English, Tolstoy was already known for his controversial religious views in much of the Western world. Today, as society seems to be moving further away from religion, it is Tolstoy’s great works of fiction that he is remembered for, and his religious and philosophical works – which first established his reputation in the West – have in many ways become obscured. Though it was existential and religious questions that Tolstoy was mostly concerned with even in his fictional works, at least as much time and effort (probably more) is spent discussing Tolstoy’s art (his writing style and use of repetition and very short sentences), his character development, and so on. And when we do discuss his philosophy, it is often as it is represented by his rich characters and their existential struggles (like Levin, Pierre or Prince Andrei) or his views on free will and determinism, as laid out in War &amp; Peace. But it was his views on religion that Tolstoy wanted most to be remembered for (hence when he thought he was close to death he took up a pen and wrote down his last thoughts on religion, which he felt he very much needed to share with the world, as represented by the last essay in this collection, “The Law of Love and the Law of Violence,” which he concludes succinctly with the words, “This is what I wanted to say to my fellow men before I die”). This collection of essays contains several pieces of a religious nature. They include (in order): “A Confession”; “What is Religion and of What Does Its Essence Consist?”; “Religion and Morality”; and “The Law of Love and the Law of Violence.” The essays are followed with helpful endnotes courtesy of the translator, Jane Kentish. “A Confession” begins: “I was baptized and brought up in the Orthodox Christian faith. I was instructed in it both as a child and throughout my boyhood and youth. But when at the age of eighteen I left university in my second year, I no longer believed in any of the things I had been taught. . . . Judging from various memories, I had never believed very seriously but had merely trusted in what I was taught and in what was professed by my elders; but this trust was very unstable.” Perhaps I was hooked from the beginning because I could very much relate – but whereas Tolstoy has made his way back to religion (though rejecting the Church), I continue to struggle with questions about the meaning of life, though less resolutely than Tolstoy. As the piece unfolded, it felt to me very personal. Tolstoy shared his doubts about the merits of his artistic works and even admitted that suicide was an idea that often presented itself to him in moments of grave existential uncertainty. Reading this piece was like having a very personal conversation with a close friend. At times I disagreed with his reasoning – as I have in my readings of others like Freud and Hegel, who have also presented me with ideas that I have questioned but have nonetheless caused me to reevaluate my own philosophical positions – and other times I agreed wholeheartedly (as was the case with passages such as: “Nowadays, as before, the public declaration and confession of Orthodoxy is usually encountered among dull-witted, cruel and immoral people who tend to consider themselves very important. Whereas intelligence, honesty, straightforwardness, good-naturedness and morality are qualities usually found among people who claim to be non-believers” or “[I]n much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow”).Tolstoy concludes in this piece:“I had come to faith because apart from it I had found nothing, absolutely nothing, other than destruction; it was therefore impossible to give up faith, and so I submitted. . . .” For him, faith in God was necessary to live. But, I do not think this is the case for all and I think it is possible to find meaning in life outside of religion. The second piece, “What is Religion and of What Does Its Essence Consist?” was also a very fascinating essay, and I again found myself nodding in agreement at times and other times arguing with the author in my mind, just as before. Namely I felt that some of his points about religion – such as the claim that it has been around from the beginning of humankind – run contrary to today’s anthropological consensus. But his arguments were very interesting even if not always entirely agreeable. In this essay he presents a definition of religion: “a relationship established between man, everlasting life, and God in conformity with reason and contemporary knowledge, and which alone pushed humanity forwards to its destined aim.” He also raises many points that were then and continue to be provocative, points raised before him by many of the Deists (notably Jefferson and Paine), about such things as St. Paul’s perversion and misrepresentation of Christ’s teachings, and the illogical/nonsensical teachings of the Church (including, but not limited to “the creation of light before the sun, the creation of the world six thousand years ago, the housing of all of the animals in the ark . . . the various immoral atrocities [of the Old Testament] . . . . the absurdity of the sacrament of . . . eating your own God” and so on). In the very short piece, “Religion and Morality,” written in 1893, Tolstoy attempts to provide answers to questions put to him by a German ethical cultural society about his understanding of the word ‘religion’ (a definition provided in the previous essay and reiterated here) and whether or not he feels that morality can exist outside of religion – he does not. On this matter I again disagreed with many of the points used in his argument, but appreciated the fact that he got my mental processes set in motion at full speed. For a great writer (like a great filmmaker for that matter) needs not write something that one agrees with, but need only make a compelling or moving case. I am troubled by the racist elements of many of the films of John Ford and by D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation as much as I am by some of Freud’s racist and sexist views and by Hegel’s conclusions in Reason in History but these are works with great artistic and/or philosophic merit. They may be “unenlightened,” as film critic Roger Ebert writes of Ford’s films, but they are still great works of art. And great works of art and philosophy are not “perfect,” but they do what they do well, using imagery, poetry or arguments that make a compelling case or make an impact on one’s life and outlook. Tolstoy’s views in this particular piece, and elsewhere, are a bit troubling for me, but his arguments are well-constructed and well-supported and he challenges me – as just one of his many readers – to see the world in a different way. I found myself underlining passages, making notes in the margins and dog-earring pages as much, if not more, when I disagreed with something as when I found myself approving of Tolstoy’s line of reasoning. The final essay in this collection, “The Law of Love and the Law of Violence,” was written near the end of Tolstoy’s life, in 1908, and its critique of organized religion (namely Christianity) is as damning as, if not more so than his earlier religious essays. Again, there is much here that challenges my own worldviews and religious outlook, but the work is in many ways prophetic and Tolstoy’s well-supported and incendiary arguments against the Church are spot on. Tolstoy’s arguments against slavery and capitalism in this essay are very similar to those made by Marx, another great nineteenth century thinker. But whereas Marx is a materialist, Tolstoy’s approach is, as Jane Kentish writes in the introduction: “spiritual, anti-materialist, based on universal truths of love, non-violence and moral perfection.” In this essay Tolstoy takes aim at class oppression, the exploitation of the poor and working classes at the hands of the rich and very notably against the hypocrisy of so-called Christian nations and their embrace of things such as war and militarism, police brutality and capital punishment. At the heart of all these essays are questions of religion and life purpose and an embrace of Christian principles—the necessity of creating the kingdom of God on earth and the importance of the Golden Rule and Christ’s ‘Sermon on the Mount’ more than any other teaching(s), i.e., the necessity of non-violence in all cases. In many ways, as can be evidenced from these essays, Tolstoy’s ideas were shaped by thinkers before him, including Blaise Pascal, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, the Deists and others. Many of his ideas were not new in the world, but he revived and refined them and brought these controversial issues to the forefront in late 19th century and early 20th century Russia and also to places like India, where Tolstoy and the non-violent civil disobedience of Henry David Thoreau, would shape the philosophies of the young M.K. Gandhi (whose life was captured wonderfully in film by director Richard Attenborough, who just yesterday passed). And they would also find expression in some of the liberation theologians (though some have been more willing to embrace violence in self-defense than Tolstoy ever would have permitted) and the teachings of Martin Luther King. War &amp; Peace might be considered Leo Tolstoy’s magnum opus. Anna Karenina is up there, too (undoubtedly among the greatest novels of the 19th century, and likely of all time). But these were not the works for which Tolstoy wanted to be remembered. Not only as a service to him, but to ourselves, Tolstoy’s philosophical and religious works deserve to be read at least once if not repeatedly. And perhaps my own experiences with religion and the contradictions of the church and my general interests in matters of philosophy, ethics and religion make me more interested than others would be. Yet even if not for the merits of the ideas themselves, from a literary perspective these essays deserve to be read as a key to the torments experienced by characters like Levin and Pierre on their paths of spiritual development. It is unlikely that many readers today will agree with all or even most of what Tolstoy preaches in these works. But, I think it can be agreed that, as in his works of fiction, Tolstoy here proves his thoroughness, craft and skill as a writer and thinker capable of not only setting the workings of the mind in motion, but also the inner-workings of the soul, which can but needn’t have solely a religious connotation. 

During the decades of his world fame as sage &amp; preacher as well as author of War &amp; Peace &amp; Anna Karenina, Tolstoy wrote prolifically in a series of essays &amp; polemics on issues of morality, social justice &amp; religion. These culminated in What is Art?, published in 1898. Although Tolstoy perceived the question of art to be a religious one, he considered &amp; rejected the idea that art reveals &amp; reinvents through beauty. The works of Dante, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Baudelaire &amp; even his own novels are condemned in the course of Tolstoy's impassioned &amp; iconoclastic redefinition of art as a force for good, for the improvement of humankind.

Leo Tolstoy, or Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910), was a Russian writer widely regarded as among the greatest of novelists for his masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina. War and Peace's vast canvas includes 580 characters, many historical, others fictional. The story moves from family life to the headquarters of Napoleon, from the court of Alexander I of Russia to the battlefields of Austerlitz and Borodino. The novel explores Tolstoy's theory of history, and in particular the insignificance of individuals such as Napoleon and Alexander.

When an open-minded Jewish librarian and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor, and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.

1997 Italian film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni

A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.

1999 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes

24 hours in the lives of three young men in the French suburbs the day after a violent riot.

Twin boys move to a new house with their mother after she has face-changing cosmetic surgery, but under the bandages is someone the boys don't recognize.

2014 film by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala

A French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war.

After a magical night together, Adri voluntarily turns himself into the psychiatric institution where Carla lives.

The fractious family of a father and his two sons confront their different feelings and memories of their deceased wife and mother, a famed war photographer.

A fictitious love story loosely inspired by the lives of Danish artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. Lili and Gerda's marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili's groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.

Tony is admitted to a rehabilitation center after a serious skiing accident. Dependent of medical staff and painkillers, she takes the time to remember the tumultuous love story she lived with Georgio.

Sátántangó (Hungarian: [ˈʃaːtaːntɒŋɡoː]; meaning 'Satan's Tango') is a 1994 Hungarian drama film directed by Béla Tarr. Shot in black-and-white, it runs for more than seven hours. It is based on the 1985 novel Satantango by Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai, who had been providing Tarr with stories since his 1988 film Damnation. Tarr had wanted to make the film since 1985 but was unable to proceed with the production due to the strict political environment in Hungary.In the years since its release, Sátántangó has received wide acclaim from film critics. In 2012, it appeared in the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound critics' top fifty films.In a desolate Hungarian village, after the collapse of a collective farm, Futaki is trysting with Mrs. Schmidt (Éva Almássy Albert), as he is awakened at dawn by the ringing of church bells. Mr. Schmidt (László Lugossy) conspires with another co-worker named Kráner to steal the villagers' money and flee to another part of the country. As Futaki is sneaking out of the Schmidt home, he overhears Schmidt's plans, after which he demands to become part of the scheme — all this being watched by a lonely drunken man known as the Doctor (Peter Berling), who writes the events down in a notebook.

Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.

2019 South Korean black comedy thriller film

Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (French pronunciation: ​[lez‿amɑ̃ dy pɔ̃ nœf]) is a 1991 French film directed by Leos Carax, starring Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant. The film follows a love story between two young vagrants: Alex, a would be circus performer addicted to alcohol and sedatives and Michele, a painter with a disease that is slowly turning her blind. The film had 867,197 admissions in France where it was the 34th highest earning film of 1991.The title refers to the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris. The North American title of the film is The Lovers on the Bridge, and, in a mistranslation of the original title, the Australian title is Lovers on the Ninth Bridge (instead of "Lovers on the New Bridge").

A family moves into a new neighborhood, and a 10-year-old named Laure deliberately presents as a boy named Mikhael to the neighborhood children.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (French: Portrait de la jeune fille en feu, lit. 'Portrait of the Young Lady on Fire') is a 2019 French historical romantic drama film written and directed by Céline Sciamma, starring Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel. Set in France in the late 18th century, the film tells the story of a lesbian affair between an aristocrat and a painter commissioned to paint her portrait.Portrait of a Lady on Fire was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. The film won the Queer Palm at Cannes, becoming the first film directed by a woman to win the award. Sciamma also won the award for Best Screenplay at Cannes. The film was theatrically released in France on 18 September 2019.

A young American studying in Paris in 1968 strikes up a friendship with a French brother and sister. Set against the background of the '68 Paris student riots.

Two teenage girls in small-town Sweden. Elin is beautiful, popular, and bored with life. Agnes is friendless, sad, and secretly in love with Elin.

A young woman engaged to be married finds herself in an affair with her soon-to-be stepmother's lesbian daughter.

After refusing to attack an enemy position, a general accuses the soldiers of cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.

1957 Anti-war film directed by Stanley Kubrick

Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.

Travis Henderson, an aimless drifter who has been missing for four years, wanders out of the desert and must reconnect with society, himself, his life, and his family.

Centers around a three-way romantic relationship involving a loving suburban married couple and another woman.

Following the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol by the Cylons, a rag-tag fugitive fleet of the last remnants of mankind flees the pursuing Cylons while simultaneously searching for their true home: Earth.

Documentary series looking at the influence of art on the current day situation of our society.

Androids are tasked with raising human children on a mysterious planet.

Seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland, the remnants of humanity inhabit a perpetually-moving train that circles the globe, where class warfare, social injustice and the politics of survival play out.

American dystopian thriller television series

Upon escaping after decades of imprisonment by a mortal wizard, Dream, the personification of dreams, sets about to reclaim his lost equipment.

When The Sandman is pulled from his realm and imprisoned on Earth, he languishes for decades before finally escaping.

When a famous horror writer goes back to her hometown, she finds out that the evil spirit that plagues her dreams is also there in real life.

French serial about the lives and jobs of people working at a talent agency.

The rich Collins family of Collinsport, Maine is tormented by strange occurrences.

Flashing between past and present, a fractured family confronts haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it.

Explorer Sir Malcolm Murray, American gunslinger Ethan Chandler, scientist Victor Frankenstein and medium Vanessa Ives unite to combat supernatural threats in Victorian London.

2014 British-American horror drama television series

Elliot, a brilliant but highly unstable young cyber-security engineer and vigilante hacker, becomes a key figure in a complex game of global dominance when he and his shadowy allies try to take down the corrupt corporation he works f

American drama–thriller television series

A recently released ex-convict named Shadow meets a mysterious man who calls himself "Wednesday" and who knows more than he first seems to about Shadow's life and past.

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