Great Russian Short Stories

Book Overview

Among the country's greatest artistic contributions, twentieth-century Russian literature was revolutionary in its approach to realism, injecting characters with human weaknesses familiar to all. It provided fodder for such important concepts as existentialism and even passive resistance, which was rooted in the works of Tolstoy, and practiced resistance, which was rooted in the works of Tolstoy and practiced successfully by Gandhi and Martin Luther King. The twelve powerful short stories in this collection are excellent examples of writing by the foremost authors from Russia's Golden Age of Literature.
Included are "The Queen of Spades" by Alexander Pushkin, "The Overcoat" by Nikolai Gogol, "The District Doctor" by Ivan S. Turgenev, "White Nights" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Leo Tolstoy, "The Clothesmender" by Nicholay Leskov, "The Signal" by Vsevolod M. Garshin, "The Lady with the Toy Dog" by Anton Chekhov, "The White Mother" by Theodor Sologub, "Twenty-Six Men and a Girl" by Maxim Gorky, "The Outrage -- A True Story" by Aleksandr I. Kuprin, and "Lazarus" by Leonid Andreyev.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 048642992X
• ISBN13: 9780486429922
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

A nice no-frills collection of Russian short stories

The Dover Thrift Editions are great affordable collections of some of the world's literary masterpieces. Here we are treated to 12 Russian short stories by some renowned Russian masters and less familiar authors. The stories featured are: "The Queen of Spades" - Alexander Pushkin "The Overcoat" - Nikolai Gogol "The District Doctor" - Ivan S Turgenev "White Nights" - Fyodor Dostoyevsky "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" - Leo Tolstoy "The Clothesmender" - Nicholay Leskov "The Signal" - Vsevolod M Garshin "The Lady with the Toy Dog" - Anton Chekhov "The White Mother" - Theodor Sologub "Twenty-Six Men and a Girl" - Maxim Gorky "The Outrage - A True Story" - Alexander Kuprin "Lazarus" - Leonid Andreyev This is a nice volume for not only students of Russian literature, but also anyone interested in the genre. The only major flaw in this collection is that the names of the translators are not included.

Stories by great masters, and stories of Incident primarily

'Dover Editions' do not provide the frills. We do not get a real introduction to the stories, to the Russian story in particular. We do not get notes on the stories. And we do not even get the names of the translators. But we do get some of the finest of all Russian stories. These include those by the great masters Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Gorky. I did not compare translations of the stories with those by well- known translators of Russian Literature. I focused on reading and enjoying stories by writers whose work I do not know Vsevolod M. Garshin, Theodor Sologub, Alexander I. Kuprin, Leonid Andreyev. Each of these stories has a narrative and characters which held my attention. They were story- stories whose focus seemed to be on incident and outcome- and not in revealing as in Gogol's 'Overcoat' or Chekhov's " Lady with a Dog" complex character and relationships. I enjoyed most of these stories and believe most readers will also.