Synopses & Reviews
For fans of fairy tales and the literary supernatural: a unique collection of Russian short stories from the last 200 years In these folk tales, young women go on long and perilous quests, wicked stepmothers turn children into geese, and tsars ask dangerous riddles, with help or hindrance from magical dolls, cannibal witches, talking skulls, stolen wives, and brothers disguised as wise birds. Some of the stories here were collected by folklorists during the last two centuries, while the others are reworkings of oral tales by four of the greatest writers in Russian literature: Nadezhda Teffi, Pavel Bazhov, Andrey Platonov, and Alexander Pushkin, author of
Eugene Onegin, the classic Russian novel in verse. Among the many classic stories included here are the tales of Baba Yaga, Vasilisa the Beautiful, Father Frost, and the Frog Princess.
Synopsis
This original anthology of short stories covers two centuries of Russian literary tradition, from the early nineteenth century to the collapse of the Soviet Union and beyond, and includes not only well-known classics but also modern masterpieces—many of them previously censored.
- First time in Penguin Classics
- Features an introduction to the history of the Russian short story, prefaces to the individual writers, chronology, explanatory notes, and suggestions for further reading
Synopsis
From the reign of the Tsars in the early nineteenth century to the collapse of the Soviet Union and beyond, the short story has long occupied a central place in Russian culture. Included here are pieces from many of the acknowledged masters of Russian literature--including Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Solzhenitsyn--alongside tales by long-suppressed figures such as the subversive Kryzhanowsky and the surrealist Shalamov. Whether written in reaction to the cruelty of the bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy of communism, or the torture of the prison camps, they offer a wonderfully wide-ranging and exciting representation of one of the most vital and enduring forms of Russian literature.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Synopsis
For fans of fairy tales and the literary supernatural: a unique collection of Russian short stories from the last 200 years In these folk tales, young women go on long and perilous quests, wicked stepmothers turn children into geese, and tsars ask dangerous riddles, with help or hindrance from magical dolls, cannibal witches, talking skulls, stolen wives, and brothers disguised as wise birds. Some of the stories here were collected by folklorists during the last two centuries, while the others are reworkings of oral tales by four of the greatest writers in Russian literature: Nadezhda Teffi, Pavel Bazhov, Andrey Platonov, and Alexander Pushkin, author of
Eugene Onegin, the classic Russian novel in verse. Among the many classic stories included here are the tales of Baba Yaga, Vasilisa the Beautiful, Father Frost, and the Frog Princess.
Synopsis
This original anthology of short stories covers two centuries of Russian literary tradition, from the early nineteenth century to the collapse of the Soviet Union and beyond, and includes not only well-known classics but also modern masterpieces—many of them previously censored.
- First time in Penguin Classics
- Features an introduction to the history of the Russian short story, prefaces to the individual writers, chronology, explanatory notes, and suggestions for further reading
About the Author
Robert Chandler is an award-winning poet and translator from Russian, French, and Greek, and the editor of Penguin Classics’
Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida. He lives in the U.K.
Sibelan Forrester is a professor of Russian at Swarthmore College. She lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.