Russian Short Story, The - The Complete Edition

The Russian novel has a reputation that is immense, both in narrative and in length. Unquestionably though the ideas, themes and characters make many novels rightly revered as world class, as icons of literature. Perhaps an easier way to enjoy a wider selection of the Russian heritage, with its varied and glorious literary talents, is with the short story. These gems sparkle and beguile the mind with their characters and narrative, exploring facets of society and the human condition that more Western authors somehow find more difficult to navigate, or to explore, explain and relate to. The Russian short story is, in many respects, in a genre of its own. It is at its captivating best whether it’s an exploration of real-life experiences, through fantasy and fables and on to total absurdity. In a land so vast it is unsurprising that it is a world almost unto itself. Cultures and landscapes of differing hues are packed together bound only by the wilful bonds and force of Empire. The stories in this collection traverse the decades where one might be a serf under an absolute monarch, and the reality of that was pretty near to slavery, into an emancipation of sorts in the fields, or towns under the despotic will of landowners and the rich into the upheavals of Empire and then the overthrow of the ruling class and its replacement by the communists, who promised equality for all and delivered a society where the down-trodden remained the lowest yet vital cog of the state machine and its will. Whilst Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Chekhov are a given in any Russian collection we also explore and include Andreyev, Korolenko, Turgenev, Blavatsky and many others to create a world rich and dense across a sprawling landscape of diverse people, riddled with the class and unfairness in perhaps some of the most turbulent times that Russia has ever experienced. 01 - The Russian Short Story - The Complete Edition - An Introduction 02 - The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin 03 - The Stationmaster by Alexander Pushkin 04 - The Blizzard by Alexander Pushkin 05 - The Coffin Maker by Alexander Pushkin 06 - The Shot by Alexander Pushkin 07 - St Johns Eve by Nikolai Gogol 08 - The Cloak by Nikolai Gogol also known as 'The Overcoat' 09 - Old Fashioned Landowners by Nikolai Gogol 10 - The Nose by Nikolai Gogol 11 - Diary of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol 12 - Taman by Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov 13 - The Jew by Ivan Turgenev 14 - The Rendezvous by Ivan Turgenev 15 - A Strange Story by Ivan Turgenev 16 - Mumu by Ivan Turgenev 17 - The District Doctor by Ivan Turgenev 18 - The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 19 - The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 20 - An Honest Thief by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 21 - The Crocodile. An Extraordinary Incident - Part 1 by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 22 - The Crocodile. An Extraordinary Incident - Part 2 by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 23 - Bobok by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 24 - How a Muzhik Fed Two Officials by Nikolai Schedrin 25 - Diary of a Lunatic by Leo Tolstoy 26 - Aloysha the Pot by Leo Tolstoy 27 - How Much Land Does A Man Need by Leo Tolstoy 28 - The Snowstorm - Part 1 by Leo Tolstoy 29 - The Snowstorm - Part 2 by Leo Tolstoy 30 - God Sees The Truth But Waits by Leo Tolstoy 31 - The Sentry by Nikolai Lyeskov 32 - A Witch's Den by Helena Blavatsky 33 - The General's Will by Vera Jelihovsky 34 - The Old Bell Ringer by Vladimir Korolenko 35 - The Shades, A Phantasy by Vladimir Korolenko 36 - The Signal by Vsevolod Garshin 37 - Dethroned by I N Potapenko 38 - The Kiss by Anton Chekhov 39 - The L