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
(Tags : The Russian Short Story - The Complete Edition: A Chronological History – The Complete Edition Alexander Pushkin to Isaac Babel Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol & Alexander Pushkin Audiobook, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol & Alexander Pushkin Audio CD )
