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Alex and Emma - THE REAL EMMA
With less than a month to go before The Gambler was due, Dostoevsky worked on one novel during the day and another (Crime and Punishment) at night. His personal gambling experiences, and his tumultuous relationship with Polina, provided him with the substance of his new story. But it took a fictiona...
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Alex and Emma - DEATH BY THE FIRING SQUAD
Dostoevsky and his friends did not know it, but they were about to be traumatized. Who would have believed that reading a letter to a group of people - even if it was a banned document - could result in a death sentence? Who would have imagined that intellectuals could be arrested for merely discus...
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Alex and Emma - THE REAL ALEX
Who was Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky - the famous 19th century Russian writer whose real-life story has been adapted into the movie Alex and Emma? Most people recognize his name or may have read one of his acclaimed books: Crime and PunishmentNotes From the UndergroundDemons(also translated as T...
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Alex and Emma - STORY PREFACE
One had to come to terms with it...To look at his gambling passion as a diseasefor which there was no cure.Anna DostoevskyReminiscences It was the end of September, 1866, and Fyodor Dostoevsky was in serious trouble. Desperate for money the prior year, he had made a bad bargain with a rogue pub...
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Alex and Emma - ON TIME
With Anna's help, the novel took shape. Always more practical than her future husband, Anna gave Dostoevsky good advice. Stellovsky didn't want the book on time - he wanted unfettered rights to all Fyodor's work for the next decade. Would the publisher anxiously await the manuscript - or - would he ...
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Alexander the Great - VICTORY IN INDIA
Ever the brilliant strategist, Alexander realized he would need a different type of army to fight in India. No Macedonian had ever been this far east. Alexander and his men had no pre-tested battle plans to adapt. Instinctively, Alexander knew he had to cut personnel, burn excess baggage and elimina...
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Alexander the Great - CHASING DARIUS III
Of all the foes Alexander wanted to best, his primary objective was Darius III. Head of the Persian Empire, Darius was used to winning his battles. But he was not accustomed to opposing adversaries whose military genius and strategy were equal to, or better than, his own. While Alexander used the st...
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Alexander the Great - THE YOUNG ALEXANDER
When he was a boy, and a man, Alexander had the same favorite book: The Iliad, by Homer. Since Olympias believed that she was descended from Achilles, her son claimed the same ancestor. It is said that Alexander's tutor, Lysimachus, gained great favor when he nicknamed his young charge "Achilles." (...
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Alexander the Great - THE REST OF THE STORY
After Alexander's untimely death, what happened to those closest to him? What of his wives and children? His mother? Ptolemy? Some managed to survive; others were not so fortunate. Alexander's empire thus ended as it began - with much death. Olympias - Protecting the legacy of her son as best she...
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Alexander the Great - ELEPHANTS IN WAR
Although Alexander and his troops first encountered elephants at Gaugamela, scholars believe those 15-20 animals were not a major factor in the fight. That would come later, in India, at the battle of the Hydaspes. Horses, not accustomed to the sight of elephants and unfamiliar with their scent, ca...
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