Thomas Seltzer
For centuries, critics and fans alike have extolled the virtues of the Russian masters of fiction, with many ranking them among the foremost literary artists the world has ever produced. This volume collects finely crafted gems from the likes of Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
Although it may read to modern audiences like a hilarious slapstick comedy, The Inspector-General is actually much more than that. Famed Russian writer Nikolai Gogol intended it to be a veiled but pointed satire of the ineptitude, corruption, and greed that exemplified the Russian bureaucracy in the nineteenth century. The witty play was later used as the basis for a movie version starring Danny Kaye (1949).
Along with several collaborators, Russian-born chemist Wilhelm Ostwald is regarded as one of the key figures in developing the field now known as physical chemistry. In 1909, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on catalysis and several other key processes. In this comprehensive volume, Ostwald lays out a complete scientific system and relates it to many other topics, including cognition and probability.
