Shelfology Book Pairing

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Crime and Punishment is the story of a murder committed on principle, of a killer who wishes to set himself outside and above society. It is marked by Dostoevsky's own harrowing experience, and yet there are moments of wild humour. This authoritative translation comes with a challenging new introduction and helpful annotation.

by graf Leo Tolstoy

Often called the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoy's genius is seen clearly in the multitude of characters in this massive chronicle--all of them fully realized and equally memorable. Out of this complex narrative emerges a profound examination of the individual's place in the historical process, one that makes it clear why Thomas Mann praised Tolstoy for his Homeric powers and placed War and Peace in the same category as the Iliad": " "To read him . . . is to find one's way home . . . to everything within us that is fundamental and sane."