Great Russian Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions: Short Stories)

I'm glad to have this in my book collection. Interesting stories by some of the most well known names in Russian literature. I recommend this to anyone interested in a simple overview of essential Russian short stories. A+

Again, the lure of the Dover Thrift Book catches me...This time, it is "Great Russian Short Stories." Featured here are some of the heavy hitters in Russian literature from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gorky, Dostoevsky and others.Some are very familiar, like the frequently anthologized Tolstoy story “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” and the heartrendingly simple story of love out of reach in Chekhov “The Lady with the Toy Dog.”There are also some surprises. Dostoevsky’s feverish “White Nights” arrives in the collection like a punch to the jaw. His stamp is so indelibly printed on this story that it stands nearly alone in the collection. Perhaps the other story that comes near to its dark vision is Andreyev’s “Lazarus” a strange tale of Lazarus’ post-resurrection life that very much resembles death.Again, for the price of a cup of coffee, you can have all these stories . These are the greats of a previous era in Russian literature at your finger tips.

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 AndreyevThis 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.

Russian literature is unparalleled in its depth, diversity and quality. One can read many stories of authors who are not known much outside of Russia. This book is highly recommended for lovers of real literature, not trendy books that become best-sellers.

Excellent to grab for a wonderful short reading session. A little bit of a downer, of course, but that's the genre, right? Marvelous that we can buy masterpieces like these for a few bucks.

This is a nice, cheap collection of Russian stories by a wide range of authors from the 19th and early 20th century, including some very nice tales by authors who are less famous (Garshin, Andreyev, Kuprin), in addition to gems by the well-known masters (Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov.) I would especially recommend "The Queen of Spades", a Pushkin ghost story that was turned into the great opera "Pique Dame" by Tchaikovsky, but one I've seldom seen anthologized.One problem: I found no information in the book about who translated the stories. There are some pretty bad translations in the public domain, especially by Constance Garnett, which were written long ago (under madly intense deadlines in Garnett's case) with stiff, Victorian dialogue and known to contain inaccuracies. So one should not get this book unless one needs a copy -- any copy -- of the stories in the list, many of which can be obtained for free from Project Gutenberg (Gutenberg.org), where the translator is at least usually listed (again, avoid translations by Garnett, and stick with Maude if possible.) And if money is no object up to $10-$15, then one should seek out more modern translations, which tend to be not only more readable, but also more accurate.Still, any differences in various translations will be slight, so this is a pretty good buy as a small gift for a casual fan of Russian Literature.

The book contains a work from each of the most well-known Russian writers. I purchased this for Kindle and the Kindle version is "clean" with no weird typos or awkward wording that one finds in some Kindle versions. It's a very fun collection to read while traveling in Russia. I don't know that it contains the definitive "best" of every writer, but all the stories give a good sense of each writer's style and sensibilities.

This is a nice selection of some classic Russian writers that's also translated well. A good "get your feet wet" for anyone who would like to see what Russian authors are like but doesn't want to commit to a long novel.

A mixed but readable collection

Product not in good shape. Ugly marks.

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