A Dog’s Heart: An Appalling Story by Mikhail Bulgakov

  This hilarious, brilliantly inventive novel by the author of “The Master and Margarita” tells a surreal of a renowned Moscow doctor who befriends a stray dog named Sharik and performs on it a human transplant - with disastrous consequences. Thanks to the doctor’s skills Sharik is transformed into a lecherous, vulgar man who spouts Engels and inevitably finds his niche in the bureaucracy as the government official in charge of purging the city of cats. The “dog” escapes, wreaking havoc for the professor and possibly for humanity.
  The story is a grimly comic allegory of the Russian Revolution.

A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov

  “A Hero Of Our Time” (1839) is the only novel written by one of Russia’s greatest Romantic poets, Mikhail Lermontov - considered by many to be the Russian counterpart of Lord Byron - who died in a duel at the age of 26, leaving behind an unforgettable literary legacy.
  This beloved classic has everything for the modern reader - dangerous liaisons, elegant psychological complexity, dark passion, emotional tension, romantic duels and deception, fiery action in the Caucasus, beautiful and exotic women with flair… And the sexiest Byronic anti-hero in all of Russian literature.

An Anthology Of Russian Literature From Earliest Writings To Modern Fiction

  Russia has a rich, huge, unwieldy cultural tradition. How to engage it? This pathbreaking reader was designed to respond to that challenge. The literary works selected for inclusion in this anthology introduce the core cultural and historical themes of Russian civilization. Each text has resonance throughout the arts - in Rublev’s icons, Meyerhold’s theater, Mousorgsky’s operas, Prokofiev’s symphonies, Fokine’s choreography, and Kandinsky’s paintings. They are supported by introductions, helpful annotations, bibliographies of resources, and a companion multimedia CD that brings the anthology’s cultural references to life.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

  One of the greatest and worldwide recognized Tolstoy’s novels, translated into numerous languages and made various film versions of.
  “Anna Karenina” tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel’s seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, playing out the contrasts of city and country life and all the variations on love and family happiness.
  While previous versions have softened the robust, and sometimes shocking, quality of Tolstoy’s writing, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have produced a translation true to his powerful voice. This award-winning team’s authoritative edition also includes an illuminating introduction and explanatory notes. Beautiful, vigorous, and eminently readable, this “Anna Karenina” will be the definitive text for generations to come.

Anton Chekhov’s Short Stories

  This collection of thirty-four stories by the Russian dramatist and short story master span the author’s creative career, beginning with early sketches and including major stories often anthologized such as “Ward No. 6” and “The Lady with the Little Dog”. His subjects are doctors, peasants, petty officials, ferrymen, monks, nannies, soldiers, patients, artists, society folks. His topics are as broad - fidelity, integrity, meaning, duty, survival, faith, class. There are stories about a medical student and an artist whose servant is almost beneath notice but is the story’s subject; a woman who marries a doctor but squanders her life searching for a celebrity among her artist friends who might be a hero; a coffin maker and musician who is a tragic bully but lives to bestow a gift on a victim of his bullying; and stories about a factory heir who is ill and might never survive to inherit her factory; a pair of lovers who court despite the displeasure of the woman’s older sibling.
  They are all artful, disciplined stories with little that appears false or contrived. Reading this selection, it is easy to see why modern short story writers view him not just as an influence, but a continuing resource for pleasure, insight, and the study of the craft of storytelling.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Through the story of the brilliant but conflicted young Raskolnikov and the murder he commits, Fyodor Dostoevsky explores the theme of redemption through suffering. “Crime and Punishment” put Dostoevsky at the forefront of Russian writers when it appeared in 1866 and is now one of the most famous and influential novels in world literature.
  The poverty-stricken Raskolnikov, a talented student, devises a theory about extraordinary men being above the law, since in their brilliance they think new thoughts and so contribute to society. He then sets out to prove his theory by murdering a vile, cynical old pawnbroker and her sister. The act brings Raskolnikov into contact with his own buried conscience and with two characters the deeply religious Sonia, who has endured great suffering, and Porfiry, the intelligent and discerning official who is charged with investigating the murder both of whom compel Raskolnikov to feel the split in his nature. Dostoevsky provides readers with a suspenseful, penetrating psychological analysis that goes beyond the crime which in the course of the novel demands drastic punishment to reveal something about the human condition: The more we intellectualize, the more imprisoned we become.

Dead Souls: A Novel by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

  Since its publication in 1842, “Dead Souls” has been celebrated as a supremely realistic portrait of provincial Russian life and as a splendidly exaggerated tale; as a paean to the Russian spirit and as a remorseless satire of imperial Russian venality, vulgarity, and pomp. As Gogol’s wily antihero, Chichikov, combs the back country wheeling and dealing for “dead souls” - deceased serfs who still represent money to anyone sharp enough to trade in them - we are introduced to a Dickensian cast of peasants, landowners, and conniving petty officials, few of whom can resist the seductive illogic of Chichikov’s proposition.
  This lively, idiomatic English version by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky makes accessible the full extent of the novel’s lyricism, sulphurous humor, and delight in human oddity and error.

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin

  Still the benchmark of Russian literature 175 years after its first publicationanow in a marvelous new translation.
  Pushkin’s incomparable poem has at its center a young Russian dandy much like Pushkin in his attitudes and habits. Eugene Onegin, bored with the triviality of everyday life, takes a trip to the countryside, where he encounters the young and passionate Tatyana. She falls in love with him but is cruelly rejected. Years later, Eugene Onegin sees the error of his ways, but fate is not on his side. A tragic story about love, innocence, and friendship, this beautifully written tale is a treasure for any fan of Russian literature.

Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy

  “Resurrection” combines a love story with a ferocious attack on the Russian regime. Prince Dmitrii Nekhliudov is a member of a jury trying Katiusha Maslova for murder. Before long, though, he puts himself on trial and condemns all of upper-class and official Russia. Meanwhile, once convicted, Maslova evolves from prostitute to revolutionary. In the stories of Maslova and other convicts, Leo Tolstoy depicts the hard lot of women and the disenfranchised in nineteenth-century tsarist Russia.

Russian Fairy Tales

  The magical, traditional tales in this collection include “The Frog Princess”, “Vassilissa the Beautiful”, and “The White Duck”. Ivan Bilibin’s magnificent, jewel-like illustrations enhance every story. Though “Russian Fairy Tales” is a book for adults, it has sold over 30,000 copies.

Russian Fairy Tales and Folklore

  The oral folk tradition in Russia was truly a magic spring. As in the fairy tale, it flowed inexhaustibly, reviving, consoling, and enlightening all who partook of it… these stories have an ingenuity that marks them as uniquely Russian.
  This book includes nearly 200 characteristic and colorful traditional folk and fairy tales are brought together in the only comprehensive edition available in English. It’s noteworthy that this collection was created before the USSR came into existence so it has lots of tales which were censored out later on.

Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida

  From the reign of the Tsars in the early 19th century to the collapse of the Soviet Union and beyond, the short story has long occupied a central place in Russian culture. Included are pieces from many of the acknowledged masters of Russian literature - including Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Solzhenitsyn - alongside tales by long-suppressed figures such as the subversive Kryzhanowsky and the surrealist Shalamov. Whether written in reaction to the cruelty of the bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy of communism or the torture of the prison camps, they offer a wonderfully wide-ranging and exciting representation of one of the most vital and enduring forms of Russian literature.

Russian Stories: A Dual-Language Book

  Twelve superb tales by Chekhov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Bunin, other masters. Excellent word-for-word English translations on facing pages. Also teaching and practice aids, Russian-English vocabulary, biographical/critical introductions to each selection, study questions, more. Especially helpful are the stress accents in the Russian text, usually found only in primers.

Selected Lyric Poetry of Alexander Pushkin

  A new translation of Russia’s greatest poet. Included are many famous poems well known to, and often memorized by, every educated Russian, as well as lighter, more occasional pieces.
  Renowned translator James Falen’s collection of 167 of Pushkin’s lyrics is arranged chronologically, beginning with verse written in the poet’s teenage years - Pushkin published his first poem at fifteen and was widely revered by his later teens - and closing with lines composed shortly before his death. As a whole, these selections reveal Pushkin’s development as a poet, but they also capture the wide range of subjects and styles in Pushkin’s poetry.

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

  The award-winning translation of Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel. It remains true to the verbal inventiveness of Dostoevsky’s prose, preserving the multiple voices, the humor, and the surprising modernity of the original.
  “The Brothers Karamazov ” is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons - the atheist intellectual Ivan, the sensual and hot-blooded Dmitry, and the saintly novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, its social and spiritual strivings, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture.

The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol

  This collection, which is divided into Ukrainian tales and Petersburg tales, includes “The Overcoat”, Gogol’s masterly story about an obscure St. Petersburg bureaucrat. Gogol has been called the father of Russian modernism and realism. His stories, with their humor and archetypal Russian characters, had a profound influence on Dostoevsky, Nabokov, and others.
  Together in this collection are collected some of the best of these stories, they include the following: “Old Fashioned Farmers”, “How the Two Ivans Quarrelled”, “The Nose”, “The Overcoat (The Cloak)”, “St. John’s Eve”, “The Night of Christmas Eve”, “The Mantle”, “The Diary of a Madman”, “The Viy”, “The Mysterious Portrait”, “The Fair of Sorotchinetz”, “An Evening in May”, “Mid-Summer Evening”, and “The Carriage (The Calash)”.

The Complete Plays by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

  The most complete collection of the Russian playwright’s repertoire.
  This stunning new translation presents the only truly complete edition of the plays of one of the greatest dramatists in history. Anton Chekhov is a unique force in modern drama, his works interpreted and adapted internationally and beloved for their brilliant wit and understanding of the human condition. This volume contains work never previously translated, including the newly discovered farce “The Power of Hypnotism,” the first version of “Ivanov,” Chekhov’s early humorous dialogues, and a description of lost plays and those Chekhov intended to write but never did.

The Complete Tales of Alexandr Sergeyevitch Pushkin

  Writing with lyrical simplicity, Pushkin laid the foundations of an indigenous national literature. Considered in his day Russia’s greatest poet, Pushkin was famous not only for works that inspired ballets and operas, such as “Eugene Onegin” and “Boris Godunov”, but for his stories - “The Queen of Spades” and many others - all of which are collected here in a translation that captures their grace and vitality.

The Fatal Eggs by Mikhail Bulgakov

  An early novel of one of the most famous and mysterious Russian writers of the 20th century, Mikhail Bulgakov.
  As the turbulent years following the Russian revolution of 1917 settle down into a new Soviet reality, the brilliant and eccentric zoologist Persikov discovers an amazing ray that drastically increases the size and reproductive rate of living organisms. At the same time, a mysterious plague wipes out all the chickens in the Soviet republics. The government expropriates Persikov’s untested invention in order to rebuild the poultry industry, but a horrible mix-up quickly leads to a disaster that could threaten the entire world.
  A poignant work of social science fiction and a brilliant satire on the Soviet revolution, it can now be enjoyed by English-speaking audiences through this accurate new translation.

The Golden Age: Readings in Russian Literature of the Nineteenth Century

  Why not develop both linguistic and literary skills at the same time? “The Golden Age” is an interactive approach to studying language using the best-known Russian literary works of the nineteenth century. Highlights of major works like “Sevastopol” and “The Fatalist” introduce students to the literary canon, while raising their reading skills to the advanced level. Rosengrant and Lifschitz apply the techniques of language instruction to studying literature with over 300 questions pertaining to the readings, and a glossary of important words and how to use them properly.
  After completing this book students will say with confidence, “Yes, I can read Russian literature. “

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot” is a powerhouse novel of passion and spiritual purity. Prince Myshkin, a Christ-like figure, is the meek yet steadfast holy fool who changes the lives of desperate men, fallen women, and yet stands a helpless witness to their passionate self-destruction.
  “The Idiot” is possibly the only novel by Dostoevsky which does not merely dwell on the darkness but wrenches the reader’s heart in an emotional and uplifting catharsis. A passionate masterpiece by one of Russia’s classical masters of the intense psychological novel.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

  Suppressed in the Soviet Union for twenty-six years, Mikhail Bulgakov’s masterpiece is an ironic parable of power and its corruption, good and evil, and human frailty and the strength of love. Featuring Satan, accompanied by a retinue that includes the large, fast-talking, vodka drinking black tom cat Behemoth, the beautiful Margarita, her beloved - a distraught writer known only as the Master - Pontius Pilate, and Jesus Christ, “The Master and Margarita” combines fable, fantasy, political satire, and slapstick comedy into a wildly entertaining and unforgettable tale that is commonly considered one of the greatest novels ever to come out of the Soviet Union.
  The story combines two parts: one set in contemporary Moscow and the other in ancient Jerusalem, each full of incident, and with historical, imaginary, frightful and wonderful characters. “The Master and Margarita” is a fantastic read - the kind of novel you sort of expect from Russian writers: sprawling, philosophical, packed with characters of every description with names and nicknames you can hardly keep straight, comic, tragic, rollicking, digressive, transgressive - in other words, something you don’t see much in other literatures.

The Portable Nineteenth-Century Russian Reader

  “The Portable Nineteenth-Century Russian Reader” magnificently represents the great voices of this era. It includes such masterworks of world literature as Pushkin’s poem “The Bronze Horseman”; Gogol’s “The Overcoat”; Turgenev’s novel “First Love”; Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya”; Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilych”; and The Grand Inquisitor episode from Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov”; plus poetry, plays, short stories, novel excerpts, and essays by such writers as Griboyedov, Pavlova, Herzen, Goncharov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, and Maksim Gorky. Distinguished scholar George Gibian provides an introduction, chronology, biographical essays, and a bibliography.

The Portable Twentieth-Century Russian Reader

  From the reign of the Tsars in the early 19th century to the collapse of the Soviet Union and beyond, the short story has long occupied a central place in Russian culture. This original anthology of short stories covers two centuries of Russian literary tradition. and includes not only well-known classics but also modern masterpieces (many of them previously censored) of Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Solzhenitsyn - alongside tales by long-suppressed figures such as the subversive Kryzhanowsky and the surrealist Shalamov.
  Whether written in reaction to the cruelty of the bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy of communism or the torture of the prison camps, they offer a wonderfully wide-ranging and exciting representation of one of the most vital and enduring forms of Russian literature.

The Tale of Tsar Saltan by Alexander Pushkin

  One of the most beloved folktales by Pushkin’s, the first lines of which (Три девицы под окном пряли поздно вечерком... ) are stuck to the memory of every Russian.
  The story is one of betrayal by two jealous sisters whose younger sister marries Tsar Saltan. They hatch a scheme to drown the tsarina and her son. Unbeknownst to the sisters (and the tsar), mother and son are aided by a magical swan, who eventually helps reunite the royal family and - transformed into a beautiful princess - marries the tsarevitch.
  Highly acclaimed Russian illustrator Gennady Spirin brilliantly illuminates the tale. Each picture is richly detailed and full of expression. Spirin’s work reflects the Russian origins of the story with the opulence of the tsar’s court and remarkable detail in costume and architecture.

Verses and Versions: Three Centuries of Russian Poetry Selected and Translated by Vladimir Nabokov

  Vladimir Nabokov was hailed by Salman Rushdie as the most important writer ever to cross the boundary between one language and another. A Russian emigre who began writing in English after his forties, Nabokov was a trilingual author, equally competent in Russian, English, and French. A gifted and tireless translator, he bridged the gap between languages as nimbly and joyously as one of his beloved butterflies might flit from flower to flower.
  Here, collected for the first time in one volume, are Nabokov’s English translations of Russian verse, presented next to the Russian originals, as well as three never-before-published poems written in English by Nabokov himself. Here, also, are some of his notes on the dangers and thrills of translation. Collected and edited by Brian Boyd, author of the prize-winning biography of Nabokov, “Verses and Versions” is a momentous and authoritative contribution to Nabokov’s published works.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

  Often called the greatest novel ever written, “War and Peace” is at once an epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoy’s genius is seen clearly in the multitude of fully realized and equally memorable characters that populate this massive chronicle.
  Out of this complex narrative emerges a profound examination of the individual’s place in the historical process, one that makes it clear why Thomas Mann praised Tolstoy for his Homeric powers and placed “War and Peace” in the same category as the “Iliad”: “To read him… is to find one’s way home… to everything within us that is fundamental and sane.”