Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida (Penguin Classics)

A wonderful collection of Russian short stories. Mr Chandler presents a wide variety of authors and stories, and what is unusual in a short story collection I found none that I considered sub par or poor. Some are frankly classics but even the stories I had not read before were entertaining and thought provoking. I must say that I enjoyed every story. The editor also provided a short introduction to the authors which in many cases helped set the tone of the work. I highly recommend this collection of short stories. I read the kindle version and had no problems.

Russian short stories tend to be dark, but they give you a sense of what it was really like when Communism was in charge. There is one story that I absolutely loved, however, and it must have been a bear to translate because the protagonist uses malapropisms. How would one translate those into English? It was laugh-out-loud funny. Example: the man refers to a "nitroscope" . Why? Because it blows things up!

I really like the breadth and quality of the stories included in this volume. In fact, I plan to use this book in a college course I am teaching. Based on content alone, I would give the book five stars. But the quality of the book's construction leaves something to be desired. The pages are incredibly thin and flimsy. I am literally afraid to make any markings in the book out of fear that a page will tear. And the writing is so small that, if I didn't already wear glasses, I'd likely need them. For the book's construction quality, I am therefore docking it one star. That said, anyone who is looking for a good introduction to Russian short stories should consider purchasing the book. Just be careful how you handle it.

I'd been reading western authors, and the Russian psyche and point of view is a refreshing difference! I feel I have self discovered an unseen (to me) treasure and will be reading a lot more Russian literature. Most of all the stories are captivating, intriguing, and varied outcomes, you can be prepared for the unexpected!

Book arrived within the estimated time suggested. Book in good condition as summarized in write-up.

I read the first short story, Queen of Spades, and immediately fell in love with this book. The book is very readable and accessible. Other stories that stood out were Bobok and The Overcoat. I didn't particularly care for the Chekov piece which was kind of a disappointment. I haven't really read much Russian fiction before and this was a great introduction.

great Russian stories for my HUM class but it can be read for killing time its really a lot fun!!!

Great introduction to the Russian writers, especially if one had thought that the prospect of getting started was going to be too heavy. Wonderful insights into the culture of the day, interesting character portrayals and an amusing slant on the fact that human nature never changes. This is a book I will be keeping on my kindle as I am sure I will come back to it again.

I got this book a few years ago, and I still have it on my bed table, I still take it with me when I go away. Not only this collection of stories is great, but thanks to this book I have discovered writers I did not know and who became very important in my "reading life"...This is a collection of shorties by Russian writers. For those who don't know, short stories are big in Russia (as big as novels), and writers are big in the Russian cultures ("the prophetes").Now, 26 Russian writers are there, and for each writer there is a nice 1-2 pages introduction of the writer and of the following short story (stories).The important thing is that not only you will read great short stories by Tolstoi, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Tchekov, Solzhenitsyn and so on, but you will also discover authors you had never heard of before. And, you might make great discoveries... And you might then dig into the other works by these writers - this is what happened to me.So, for this, I would like to thank Robert Chandler.Robert Chandler is the one who put together these short stories. He also translated quite a few of them. He is also the translator of Grossman (read "Life and Fate" if you haven't!) and Platonov - his favourite.My impression (I don't know him) is that Chandler not only translates these books that he loves, he is also on a mission. That is, he is trying to make us discover those great not so well known writers. He knows that they are great but for some reason (*) they are not so well known, so he is "promoting" them (by editing this collection, and he also talked about it in a few interviews in the Guardian), he is giving them to us.(*) I am not sure why some of them are not so well known. Many of the communist area writers could not publish their work.. And when it came out later - smuggled to the West - there was not much publicity for them (cf again "Life and Fate").

Very happy with it

A wonderful treasure trove of Russian short stories. Prepare to be amused, moved and enchanted by the rich variety of writers and the breadth of topics and characters.

Brilliant. Wonderful examples of an almost unique Russian genre. Authors I had never heard of, never mind read

fantastic literature and stills reads so modern