A book of poetry on various themes. Springtime I shall wait for you springtimeWhen winter has passed awayRosebuds will be dancing in the nightBeneath the Milky Way Lovers kissing and holding handsWaltzing a brisk and lively danceUnderneath the crescent moon that shownAs Orpheus sings a joyful song Mockingbirds will send forth merry soundsAwakening nature's dreary brownChildren playing games while folksLaugh and tell their silly jokes

Paul Dirac?(1902–1984) was a brilliant mathematician and a 1933 Nobel laureate whose work ranks alongside that of Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton. Although not as well known as his famous contemporaries Werner Heisenberg and Richard Feynman, his influence on the course of physics was immense. His landmark book,?The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, introduced that new science to the world and his “Dirac equation” was the first theory to reconcile special relativity and quantum mechanics. Dirac held the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University, a position also occupied by such luminaries as Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking. Yet, during his 40-year career as a professor, he had only a few doctoral students due to his peculiar personality, which bordered on the bizarre. Taciturn and introverted, with virtually no social skills, he once turned down a knighthood because he didn’t want to be addressed by his first name. Einstein described him as “balancing on the dizzying path between genius and madness.” In?Simply Dirac, author?Helge Kragh?blends the scientific and the personal and invites the reader to get to know both Dirac the quantum genius and Dirac the social misfit. Featuring cameo appearances by some of the greatest scientists of the 20th century and highlighting the dramatic changes that occurred in the field of physics during Dirac’s lifetime, this fascinating biography is an invaluable introduction to a truly singular man.

Maria Rybakova’s Gnedich captures the reader’s attention in its first stanzas with a striking allusion to Homeric Greece: “The rage that killed so many/the wretched rage of Achilles/who knew that he would perish/ that he would perish young. This is a novel-in-verse about the first Russian translator of the Iliad, the romantic poet and librarian Nikolai Gnedich (1784-1833). Since Gnedich spent almost his entire life translating Homer’s epic poem, Maria Rybakova has chosen verse as the most appropriate stylistic means in recreating his life. To the English-speaking world, this genre of poetic biography is best exemplified by Ruth Padel’s Darwin – A Life in Poems. Like the Iliad itself, the novel consists of twelve Songs or Cantos, and covers the life of Gnedich from his childhood to his death. It depicts the lives of Gnedich and his best friend, the poet Batyushkov, who is slowly losing his sanity, and incorporates motifs from their poetry, from Homer’s epics, and from Greek mythology, as well as magnificent images of imperial Russia and the Homeric world. The space of the novel covers snowy Russian villages, aristocratic St. Petersburg salons, magnificent Italian landscapes, and the austere Greece of Homer’s heroes. Rybakova conjures a fittingly romantic vision of the dramatic lives of Gnedich and his best friend. A major part of the novel is the moving correspondence between the two poets. Philosophical reflections on the fate of the individual are intertwined with poignant stanzas devoted to the great but unhappy love to the tragic actress Ekaterina Semyonova that consumed Gnedich. The novel culminates in Batyushkov’s final breakdown in the lunatic asylum and Gnedich’s ruminations on Russia’s tragic future fate. The poetic language of Gnedich is refined: it combines the clarity of Rybakova’s syllabic verses and the sophistication of her metaphors with distinct, novelistic depictions of certain landscapes, people, and their interactions. The novel is spectacularly designed: Rybakova’s style resembles a movie projection with stop-cards at the key moments in Gnedich’s life, his long conversations with his friend, and particular striking sceneries. It creates a novelistic effect on the tale about Gnedich’s life, spanning over twenty years. The narrative is often interrupted by streams of consciousness and reminiscence by its main heroes. At the same time, it continues the traditions of Russian classic literature with its attention to detail and the psychology of the characters. A significant part of the novel is dedicated to the description of Gnedich’s friendship with Konstantin Batyushkov, a talented poet of the Pushkin epoch. Gnedich, disfigured by a childhood disease, was a librarian at the Imperial Library in St. Petersburg and became famous through his translation of the Illiad. Batyushkov, an officer of the Russian Imperial court who participated in military campaigns, as well as one of the best poets of the beginning of the 19th century, went through deep crisis and mental illness. The friendship between the two becomes one of the themes within the novel. Rybakova builds the novel-in-verse’s plot around Gnedich’s translation of the Illiad into Russian. The narrative progresses from the adult Gnedich’s recollection of his childhood in a small country estate in Ukraine in the first Song, his illness and discovery of the magnificent Greek epic about the siege of the Troy that changed his life forever, to the completion of his work on his translation as a final victory over his life’s circumstances. The titanic work on the translation continued for almost twenty-two years (1807-29).

“It would be hard to imagine Russian poetry in the last half century without Lydia Grigorieva,” writes eminent Russian poet and critic Konstantin Kedrov. Grigorieva is a uniquely individual voice, bucking the trends of modernist poetry to create her own distinctive and beguiling body of poetry. Her work draws on her own remarkable life to create startlingly arresting images and metaphors, full of beauty and power, from her series that emerged from her Arctic childhood, to the troubles that beset Ukraine. Her range of influences is wide, and Beethoven, Freud, Sylvia Plath and Byron all appear in her poems as well as more familiar Russian images. At the heart of Grigorieva’s poetry is what she calls its ‘musicality’ – her firm belief in the power of rhyme and rhythm in creating a poetic experience. In this first major collection of her work in English, English poet John Farndon, working with Grigorieva and co-translator Olga Nakston, has recreated this musicality in English so that English readers might experience for the first time what makes her work so revered in her Russian homeland. Translated by John Farndon with Olga Nakston. Maxim Hodak - Максим Ходак (Publisher), Max Mendor - Макс Мендор (Director), Ksenia Papazova (Managing Editor).

Dvestotu godi?njicu Njego?evog ro?enja 2013. Knji?evna radionica Ra?i? obele?ila je objavljivanjem elektronske knjige pod naslovom Dela Njego?eva. Ova knjiga sadr?i obiman izbor Njego?evih najva?nijih dela: Gorski Vijenac, Lu?a mikrokozma, La?ni car ??epan Mali, Slobodijada, Glas kamen?taka, Pustinjak cetinski, Kula ?uri?i?a -- ?ardak Aleksi?a, Prozni zapisi, No? skuplja vijeka, te Izabrana pisma.

Adrian Punescu scrie proz cu degetele arse de miracolul poeziei, i de aici succesul tulburtor, care, n loc s mntuie, nspimnt, oblig i rtcete. Poet al fluenelor de liliac n grle de piatr rar, al brumelor de bronz, al cderii n rnile dorului i n hohote de chihlimbar, grav despicat de neiertare i de rzvrtire, Adrian Punescu intr n hotarele prozei prin vijelia reportajului. (...) Puin i pas dac lumea l aplaud sau l njur, el vrea s rstoarne i s cldeasc, i n-are timp s cpieze stnd ntr-un picior, viaa e scurt i, dac nu vrea s se ndrepte prin cntec (i nu vrea), trebuie rezidit din mers i nvat s cnte. Reportajul lui Punescu e, nainte de toate, unul de atitudine, adevrul sare din pagin ca miezul dintr-o ceap zdrobit cu pumnul (...), fulgerul, aparent liric i aparent hrnit de curcubeie, e un arc al ndoielii, un crlig veninos umblnd prin crpturile pmntului, strigtul doare, suspinul are ghimpi n cretet, gerul frige, apsarea nghea.Durabila for a reporterului Adrian Punescu vine de acolo c el n-are chef, n nici o pagin, s fie ru de but n apte linguri, ci numai fluviu azvrlindu-se n mare, cu toate aluviunile i rzboaiele sufletului.“

Was ist es an ihm, dass ihn zu einem Superhelden macht? Was ist mit ihm, wenn er eine Idee in ein Mega-Unternehmen verwandeln kann? Was ist an ihm wie bei Ihnen und was nicht? Was k?nnen Sie von ihm lernen? Lesen Sie es und finden es heraus. Das Bedürfnis, diejenigen um uns herum zu verstehen, die jenseits unserer eigenen Vorstellungskraft Erfolg haben, ist uns allen inh?rent. Der angeborene Wunsch wird von unserem tiefen und grundlegenden Bedürfnis getrieben, bessere Wege zu finden, um unsere eigenen Ziele zu erreichen, unsere eigenen Tr?ume zu verstehen und uns unseren einzigartigen Herausforderungen zu stellen. In diesem Buch geht es um die zugrundeliegenden Ereignisse im Leben von Jeff Bezos und die Art und Weise, wie es sein Leben beeinflusste, wie er auf sie reagierte und wie er sie zu seinem Vorteil nutzte. Das Buch behauptet nicht, die Ideen zu kennen, die sein Herz füllen – das kann kein Mensch wissen. Aber wir schauen auf mehrere aneinander gereihte Ereignisse und sehen die Schatten, die sie werfen. All das, damit Sie eben jene Elemente in sich selbst finden k?nnen, die der Keim für Erfolg, Leistung und Gr??e sein werden. Die Geschichte von Bezos zeichnet seinen Weg durchs Leben als Jugendlicher nach, betrachtet sein Handeln und seine Leistungen und entschlüsselt die Existenz seiner gr??ten Leistung – Amazon – in einer Weise, die seinen Charakter, seinen Intellekt und seine Erziehung widerspiegelt. Seine Geschichte ist anders als jene, anderer erfolgreicher Menschen in der Geschichte. Seine Arbeitsmoral ist vertraut, aber anders. Warten Sie nicht l?nger! Scrollen Sie nach oben und klicken Sie auf

Hryhory Skovoroda is considered by many as the first great Slavic philosopher and poet. Written over a period stretching from the 1750s until 1785, his The Garden of Divine Songs is a unique collection of 30 poems, featuring a complex system of strophic structures and with only a few of the songs written in a traditional way. Skovoroda never repeats one and the same strophic structure; this being the case, his Garden of Divine Songs according to writer-scholar Valery Shevchuk functions as a “practical guide to the art of poetry”, exemplifying all the meters and strophic patterns that were possible in Ukrainian poetry of that time. The poet makes masterful use of the accomplishments of academic poetry; the so-called “songs of the world” are the most prominent poems in this collection. These songs are an expression of Skovoroda's views in poetic form, and many ideas from The Garden of Divine Songs, such as the search for happiness in the world in song 21, would later form the basis for some of Skovoroda’s philosophical treatises. Skovoroda’s originality, and his ability to approach the most cardinal problems of human existence, stem from his capacity to combine known motifs, borrowed from literary sources such as classical texts, the Bible, and ancient Ukrainian poetic works, with his own system of thinking that focuses on his philosophy of the heart. The complete poems of Skovoroda are appearing in their entirety here in English for the first time, accompanied by a guest introduction by prominent Ukrainian writer Valery Shevchuk. This title has been realised by a team of the following dedicated professionals: Translated by Michael M. Naydan with an introduction by Valery Shevchuk Translations Edited by Olha Tytarenko Maxim Hodak - Максим Ходак (Publisher), Max Mendor - Макс Мендор (Director), Ksenia Papazova (Managing Editor).

Edited, translated, and introduced by Anatoly Kudryavitsky, this bilingual anthology presents Russian short poems of the last half-century. It showcases thirty poets from Russia, and displays a variety of works by authors who all come from different backgrounds. Some of them are well-known not only locally but also internationally due to festival appearances and translations into European languages; among them are Gennady Aigi, Gennady Alexeyev, Vladimir Aristov, Sergey Biryukov, Konstantin Kedrov, Igor Kholin, Viktor Krivulin, Vsevolod Nekrasov, Genrikh Sapgir, and Sergey Stratanovsky. The next Russian poetic generation also features prominently in the collection. Such poets as Tatyana Grauz, Dmitri Grigoriev, Alexander Makarov-Krotkov, Yuri Milorava, Asya Shneiderman and Alina Vitukhnovskaya are the ones Russians like to read today. This anthology shows Russia looking back at itself, and reveals the post-World-War Russian reality from the perspective of some of the best Russian creative minds. Here we find a poetry of dissent and of quiet observation, of fierce emotions, and of deep inner thoughts.

The play follows the King of Navarre and his three companions as they attempt to forswear the company of women for three years of study and fasting, and their subsequent infatuation with the Princess of Aquitaine and her ladies. In an untraditional ending for a comedy, the play closes with the death of the Princess's father, and all weddings are delayed for a year. The play draws on themes of masculine love and desire, reckoning and rationalization, and reality versus fantasy.

An exciting collection of stories from W.W. Jacobs, a London based novelist famous for his horror and travel stories. This volume includes some of his iconic work: The Monkey's Paw, The Lady of the Barge, Bill's Paper Chase, The Well, Cupboard Love, In the Library, Captain Rogers, A Tiger's Skin, A Mixed Proposal, An Adulteration Act, A Golden Venture, and Three at Table.

An exciting collection of stories from W.W. Jacobs, a London based novelist famous for his humour, horror and travel stories. This volume includes some of his iconic work: Deserted, Homeward Bound, Self-help, Sentence Deferred, Matrimonial Openings, Odd Man Out, The Toll-house, Peter's Pence, The Head of the Family, Prize Money, Double Dealing, Keeping Up Appearances.

An iconic collection of fairy tales from the master of storytelling Charles Perrault including some of his best work: Little Red Riding-Hood, The Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Little Thumb, Cinderella, Blue Beard. This edition includes both English and Russian language texts.

The book presents the concept of representative government, the ideal form of government. Mill suggests that representative bodies such as parliaments and senates are best suited to be places of public debate on the various opinions held by the population and to act as watchdogs of the professionals who create and administer laws and policy.

ncepnd cu Grdina magistrului Thomas (1995), care reprezint debutul su editorial, tefan Borbély se recomand ca un critic eliberat de marotele locale, dezinhibat de complexe endemice i dotat cu o deschidere hermeneutic n care referinele creative principale par a fi acelea germane (Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, Kafka, Hermann Hesse i Thomas Mann). Autorul tezei de doctorat De la Herakles la Eulenspiegel. Eroicul (publicat sub form de carte n 2001) reuete s depeasc handicapul speculativ att de flagrant pentru critica noastr postbelic, rmas la stadiul unui orizont de ateptare provincialist, n imposibilitate de a lua contact cu ideile critice din alte pri i a se sincroniza normal cu demersul interdisciplinaritii. Alonja deschiderii comparatiste, ca i apetitul tririi nietzscheene a ideilor fac din tefan Borbély o personalitate critic n expansiune. El este un hermeneut de descenden eliadist care cerceteaz topologia auroral a umanitii, subsumnd-o categoriei eroicului, n perimetrul creia se pot decela fundamentele culturii i civilizaiei mediteraneene. Prin opera de cercettor i culturolog avizat, tefan Borbély este un exemplu important de integrare a criticii noastre postdecembriste n sfera hermeneuticii europene.“ – Marin Mincu

Alexandru Sf?rlea arat? ?ntr-o recent? recenzie a versiunii tip?rite a c?r?ii 101 poeme: ?[...] S? mai spun c? unii ?i al?ii s-au ?inspirat? din texte ale lui Vasile Poenaru pentru a-?i etala ?prospe?imile? propriilor crea?ii, ?n vreme ce acest excelent poet st?tea ?pitit? sub obrocul impasibilit??ii ?i ignor?rii tenace a criticilor?Pentru c?, ?n via?a noastr? literar?, am ajuns s? cred c? asemenea practici sunt uzitate cu... sistem?, ca s? zic a?a, pentru ca lipsi?ii de har ?i inspira?ie, proteja?ii ?i coteri?tii s?-?i ?edifice? constructele de chirpici lingvistic, cu o jalnic? ?i penibil? non?alan??, cu un tupeu de-a dreptul incalificabil!Se vorbe?te cu asiduitate ?n presa literar? despre c?r?i ale unor a?a-zi?i nou?zeci?ti sau dou?mii?ti lipsite de semnifica?ii, sens ?i substan?ialitate poetic? ?i care pur ?i simplu bat apa-n piu? ?i nu spun nimic dec?t, poate, celor ce nu vor s? aud? nimic, adul?nd – ?ntr-un nefericit paradox – nevolniciile , nonsensurile ?i vacuitatea, ?n timp ce sunt ignorate cu cerbicie c?r?i valoroase ale unor autentici poe?i, precum Vasile Poenaru. Iat? , ?nc? un elocvent fragment poenaristic: ?Mergeam pe str?zi de lung? diminea??/ Cu p?inea mea de poezie sub bra?,/ Mergeam pe str?zi de lung? diminea??/ ?i m? ardeau de foame ochii min?ii/ Mergeam pe str?zi de lung? diminea??/ Tot forfoteau p?rerile sub pietre/ Din loc ?n loc o balt? de adverbe/ Ca p?s?rile clocotitor ardeau/ Spre vie?i izvor?toare-n alte trupuri/ Mergeam pe str?zi de lung? diminea??/ ?i nu se mai cr?pa odat’ de ziu? / ?i m? ardeau de foame ochii min?ii/ ?i-am ?nceput s?-mi rod ?nt?i din unghii/ Apoi din os din inim? din creier/ Mergeam pe str?zi de lung? diminea?? (...)? (R?sfirare). Sau, ?nc?, ni?te versuri de-a dreptul subversive – s? nu uit?m c? volumul din care citez a ap?rut ?n 1984 – care, poate c? fie ?i numai acestea, ar fi trebuit s?-i r?m?n? precum o aur? de zv?cnire iconoclast?, de nu protestatar?, poetului Vasile Poenaru: ?(...) Ora?ul ?n care m-ai ademenit/ E o sonat? a mor?ii/ ?n care doar miezul vie?ii trozne?te,/ Toat? noaptea am s? ard de frig ?n avanscen?/ C-un dirijor mai lent ca o statuie (...)??n fine, ce pot s? mai spun dec?t c? – ?n acest areal literar rom?nesc care seam?n? izbitor cu cel politicesc – poetul Vasile Poenaru este un mare nedrept??it, pe care cititorii one?ti, dac? ar ajunge, sau ar vrea s? ?i citeasc? volumele de poezie, l-ar pre?ui la adev?rata sa valoare...“

ONE of the best things to be said of the stories in this volume is that, although they are not biographical, they are about real persons who actually lived and performed their parts in the great drama of the world's history. Some of these persons were more famous than others, yet all have left enduring "footprints on the sands of time" and their names will not cease to be remembered. ??In each of the stories there is a basis of truth and an ethical lesson which cannot fail to have a wholesome influence; and each possesses elements of interest which, it is believed, will go far towards proving the fallibility of the doctrine that children find delight only in tales of the imaginative and unreal. The fact that there are a few more than fifty famous people mentioned in the volume may be credited to the author's wish to give good measure.??SAVING THE BIRDS?ONE day in spring four men were riding on horseback along a country road. These men were lawyers, and they were going to the next town to attend court.?There had been a rain, and the ground was very soft. Water was dripping from the trees, and the grass was wet.?The four lawyers rode along, one behind another; for the pathway was narrow, and the mud on each side of it was deep. They rode slowly, and talked and laughed and were very jolly.?As they were passing through a grove of small trees, they heard a great fluttering over their heads and a feeble chirping in the grass by the roadside.? "Stith! stith! stith!" came from the leafy branches above them.?"Cheep! cheep! cheep!" came from the wet grass.?"What is the matter here?" asked the first lawyer, whose name was Speed.?"Oh, it's only some old robins!" said the second lawyer, whose name was Hardin. "The storm has blown two of the little ones out of the nest. They are too young to fly, and the mother bird is making a great fuss about it."?"What a pity! They'll die down there in the grass," said the third lawyer, whose name I forget.?"Oh, well! They're nothing but birds," said Mr. Hardin. "Why should we bother?"? "Yes, why should we?" said Mr. Speed.?The three men, as they passed, looked down and saw the little birds fluttering in the cold, wet grass. They saw the mother robin flying about, and crying to her mate.?Then they rode on, talking and laughing as before. In a few minutes they had forgotten about the birds.?But the fourth lawyer, whose name was Abraham Lincoln, stopped. He got down from his horse and very gently took the little ones up in his big warm hands.

When George Washington was a boy there was no United States. The land was here, just as it is now, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific; but nearly all of it was wild and unknown.??Between the Atlantic Ocean and the Allegheny Mo-untains there were thirteen colonies, or great settlements. The most of the people who lived in these colonies were English people, or the children of English people; and so the King of England made their laws and appointed their governors.??The newest of the colonies was Georgia, which was settled the year after George Washington was born.?The oldest colony was Virginia, which had been settled one hundred and twenty-five years. It was also the richest colony, and more people were living in it than in any other.??There were only two or three towns in Virginia at that time, and they were quite small.?Most of the people lived on farms or on big plantations, where they raised whatever they needed to eat. They also raised tobacco, which they sent to England to be sold.??The farms, or plantations, were often far apart, with stretches of thick woods between them. Nearly every one was close to a river, or some other large body of water; for there are many rivers in Virginia..

Nebunul indian este al treilea volum semnat de Ovidiu Raul Vasiliu ?i marcheaz? maturitatea liric? a t?n?rului poet ie?ean. Cartea con?ine peste 60 de poeme scrise ?n ultima perioad?, autorul exers?nd cu succes diverse registre stilistice ?i prozodice, ?n versuri ?sub a c?ror dexteritate formal? se ?ntrez?re?te ceea ce niciodat? nu poate fi exprimat p?n? la cap?t“ (Daniel Cristea-Enache).

ntunericul (noaptea i nebunia), abisul (mormntul) i focul (sngele) se ntreptrund, cele trei constituind treptat o adncire n infern, trei bolgii care se continu la nesfrit. Poetul i, odat cu el, cititorul, este obligat s le parcurg pe toate trei. Din infernul lui Bolea nu exist scpare… (Cristina Nemerovschi) Tocmai excesul de recuzit transform poemele din volum ntr-o parodie a reportajului mizerabilist cultivat de poeii promoiei 2000, lsnd n cele din urm sentimentul mistificrii, al farsei enorme, n timp ce poetul pare a da n permanen cu tifla unui cititor tot mai derutat, care nu mai tie dac autorul glumete sau vorbete serios, dac are de-a face cu un nihilist autentic sau cu un parodist care demonteaz mecanismele liricii autenticiste, i-i caricaturizeaz cu verv locurile comune. (Octavian Soviany) Rzboi civil mi amintete de black metal i de nordul fioros i ngheat. (iQ 666) Poemele lui tefan Bolea sunt o oglind n care se reflect luciul mizeriei contemporane, sunt un colaj de ridicol i neimportant”, de beie i metafizic, de sublim i grotesc, de ncruntare i de (ne)linite. Poate de aceea versurile lui au prospeimea (edenic) a celui care spune lucrurilor pe nume.(Petrior Militaru) Rzboi civil este, cu siguran, cartea resureciei, à rebours. Prin atitudinea ironic-demolatoare, debutul lui Stefan Bolea este unul ct se poate de interesant, l aeaz pe autor, n mod meritat, n rndurile din fa ale noii generaii. (Silviu Gongonea) Ghidul turistic, care este tefan Bolea, st la malul existenei noastre i ne ndeamn s intrm i noi, de fapt, s deschidem ochii i s vedem c suntem deja acolo, unii pn la glezne, alii pn la genunchi, unii mai norocoi pn la nas, unde mirosul aburind al noroiului se mperecheaz cu suflul nostru vital, contaminndu-se reciproc. (Drago Fabian) Pentru c nici un poet nu poate exista fr o poezie-manifest, care s-i defineasc crezul literar, Bolea are ca art poetic: Imn pentru generaia 2000+. Bolea devine un postmodernist extrem sau neo-avangardist n acest moment. (Marcela Iuga) Referindu-ne la concepia postmodern de chirurgie cosmetic, Bolea folosete aceast metod ntr-un mod manierist, efectund operaii cosmetice asupra textelor sale, jucndu-se constant cu dimensiunile i perspectiva, cu deformarea i hiperbola… (Eva Theodora)

n lucrarea sa, care a ctigat premiul Pulitzer n 1981, Robert K. Massie prezint detaliat viaa acestui captivant personaj istoric i evideniaz evenimentele cruciale care au transformat un biat ntr-o legend, inclusiv cltoriile sale incognito prin Europa, curiozitatea sa de nepotolit fa de obiceiurile occidentale, obsesia pentru mare i constituirea mreei flote ruseti, modul n care a creat o armat de nenvins i relaiile sale cu cei pe care i-a iubit cel mai mult: Ecaterina, iubita sa tandr, i Menikov, prinul fermector i lipsit de scrupule care a ajuns la putere prin intermediul prieteniei cu Petru. Un loc special n carte l ocup relaia dificil a lui Petru cu fiul su Aleksei, care a fost judecat i condamnat la moarte n 1718. Autorul nu neglijeaz nici viaa politic, social, cultural i religioas din Rusia pe parcursul jumtii secunde a secolului al XVII-lea i primei pri a secolului al XVIII-lea. Astfel, Massie i conduce cititorii n lumea ruseasc medieval i premodern schimbat iremediabil, uneori n mod violent, de reformele iniiate de monarhul autocrat Petru cel Mare. Fie c sunt schimbri care au afectat n primul rnd individul, precum obligativitatea tierii brbilor, sau iniiative care au vizat consolidarea forei statului, de exemplu, nfiinarea marinei ruseti i a Sankt-Petersburgului, reorganizarea administrativ inspirat de modelul occidental, toate acestea au transformat Rusia medieval ntr-un stat modern. n acelai timp, multe dintre reformele din timpul lui Petru au avut o influen ndelungat asupra societii ruseti. Cartea lui Massie nu ofer doar o perspectiv intern a societii ruseti, ci urmrete i aciunile lui Petru n planul politicii externe, la nivel european sau chiar global. Astfel, dou dintre cele cinci seciuni ale lucrrii se ocup de relaiile Rusiei cu celelalte state europene. Poate cel mai important conflict din timpul domniei lui Petru a fost cel mpotriva Suediei. n urma Marelui Rzboi Nordic (1700-1721), Rusia a obinut o serie de teritorii (Estonia, Livonia i Ingria). Totodat, deznodmntul acestui lung rzboi a nsemnat i ascensiunea Rusiei la rangul de putere continental. Pe plan militar, ns, domnia lui Petru nu a fost scutit de eecuri. Campania arului din Moldova, pornit mpotriva Imperiului Otoman, s-a terminat prin nfrngerea de la Stnileti (1711). Nu de puine ori, autorul american i aduce n prim-plan pe actorii politici importani din Europa sfritului secolului al XVIII-lea i nceputului secolului al XVIII-lea. Regi, comandani militari, nobili, toi sunt prezentai cititorilor, care pot astfel nelege mai bine aciunile sau atitudinile lor. arul Aleksei, tatl lui Petru, Ludovic al XIV-lea, Wilhelm de Orania, Carol al XII-lea, Augustus de Saxonia, ducele de Marlborough, prinul Eugeniu de Savoia sau feldmarealul Rehnskild se numr printre figurile ilustre descrise de Massie. De regul, atunci cnd analizeaz anumite perioade, istoricii pun accentul pe rolul proceselor i al fenomenelor de lung durat, lsnd cumva n umbr personalitile excepionale. Tocmai pentru a sugera impactul lui Petru cel Mare asupra istoriei Rusiei, n special, putem face apel la istoria contrafactual i s ne ntrebm: Cum ar fi artat Rusia contemporan dac n-ar fi existat Petru cel Mare