Presented here in a brand-new translation, The Forged Coupon examines the deep, unpredictable consequences of every human act, revealing the Russian master’s moral preoccupations in the last years of his life, as well as his rejection of Christianity’s simplistic division between good and evil.

An uncompromising examination of lust, suspicion and infidelity which was once forbidden by censors in Russia and banned in the US due to its shocking content, Tolstoy's controversial novella is here presented in a new translation, along with 'The Prisoner of the Caucasus', 'Master and Man' and 'After the Ball'.

One of Tolstoy's last published works of fiction, The Devil revolves around the young landowner Yevgeny's irrepressible lust for Stepanida, a sensual peasant woman. Even when he gets married to a respectable upper-class lady, he finds himself unable to put an end to his encounters with Stepanida, and becomes increasingly consumed by guilt.

'The Death of Ivan Ilyich - is usually regarded as an amazing narrative of the experience of dying, a search for the meaning of death. It is all that, and more: it's a great questioning of what is and what ought to be in a human life.' Nadine Gordimer