Penguin Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida

She turned into a frog, into a lizard, into all kinds of other reptiles and then into a spindle. In these tales, young women go on long and difficult quests, wicked stepmothers turn children into geese and tsars ask dangerous riddles, with help or hindrance from magical dolls, cannibal witches, talking skulls, stolen wives, and brothers disguised as wise birds. Half the tales here are true oral tales, collected by folklorists during the last two centuries, while the others are reworking of oral tales by four great Russian writers: Alexander Pushkin, Nadezhda Teffi, Pavel Bazhov and Andrey Platonov. In his introduction to these new translations, Robert Chandler writes about the primitive magic inherent in these tales and the taboos around them, while in the afterword, Sibelan Forrester discusses the witch Baba Yaga

A landmark anthology that will introduce many extraordinary, unknown Russian writers to an English-language readership for the first time • 'I remember Moscow in disarray-the smoke and fire of explosions above the cupolas, the glint of the Kremlin eagles shining out of the black night, the flashing of crosses and towers' • Fleeing amid the chaos of the 1917 revolutions and subsequent Civil War, many Russian writers went on to settle in Paris, Berlin and elsewhere. In exile, they worked as taxi drivers, labourers and film extras, and wrote some of the most brilliant and imaginative works of Russian literature. This new collection includes stories by the most famous emigre writers, such as Vladimir Nabokov and Ivan Bunin, and introduces powerful lesser known voices, some of whom have never been available in English before

Originally written to entertain, move or chill, the eight short stories in this collection accompanied by parallel English translations now also help students gain deeper insights into French literature and life • Arranged in approximate order of difficulty, the range of stories is wide, from the stylized wit of Raymond Queneau to the beautifully written ambiguities of Philippe Sollers, from Pierre Gascar’s exploration of childhood as a background to a tale of infidelity to Henri Thomas’s gentle, ironic look at war. All make wonderful reads in either language

Much maligned in pre-war Germany, the short story enjoyed a creative rebirth in 1945. Initially imported by the Allies, the form also matched perfectly the prevailing mood of irony, objectivity and mistrust of the didactic • With the original German text running alongside English translations, this collection features stories from eight outstanding post-war authors including Heinrich Boll, Ilse Aichinger and Reinhard Lettau which students will find both educational and engrossing. Boll’s opening story 'Pale Anna' follows a soldier returning home, his situation comparable to that of the writer in the first months of peace: he knows no-one and has few words not linked to painful memories. This poignant narrative is followed by a variety of tales representing the diversity of the time and including satires, explorations of private obsessions and experiments in form and language

One of the greatest French novelists, Balzac was also an accomplished writer of shorter fiction. This volume includes twelve of his finest short stories - many of which feature characters from his epic series of novels the Comedie Humaine. Compelling tales of acute social and psychological insight, they fully demonstrate the mastery of suspense and revelation that were the hallmarks of Balzac's genius. In The Atheist's Mass, we learn the true reason for a distinguished atheist surgeon's attendance at religious services; La Grande Breteche describes the horrific truth behind the locked doors of a decaying country mansion, while The Red Inn relates a brutal tale of murder and betrayal. A fascinating counterpoint to the renowned novels, all the stories collected here stand by themselves as mesmerizing works by one of the finest writers of nineteenth-century France

This second volume of Italian Short Stories, with its parallel translations aims - as the first volume did - to exemplify the richness and variety of Italian writing of the twentieth century. In this volume, however, some of the language used is a little more advanced and the translations slightly less literal. Moravia and Calvino, both well known to British and American readers, appear again along with Italo Svevo, Comisso, Vittorini, Rigoni - Stern, Fenoglio and Pasolini so that the literature of both Rome and the provinces is fully represented. There are also discussions of the less familiar words and dialect expressions in the Italian text

В своих коротких рассказах Вирджиния Вулф нередко выходила за рамки привычного художественного вымысла, используя новые способы выражения чувств и мыслей и воссоздавая в своих произведениях знакомую всем читателям жизненную суматоху. Истории, вошедшие в сборник, нельзя отнести к какому-то определенному жанру или направлению. Здесь есть как и более традиционные рассказы, такие как «Реальные предметы», так и более экспериментальные – от импрессионистских «Садов Кью» до абстрактного «Пятна на стене». Книга станет прекрасным подарком для поклонников творчества писательницы • Книга на английском языке • Virginia Woolf tested the boundaries of fiction in these short stories, developing a new language of sensation, feeling and thought, and recreating in words the 'swarm and confusion of life'

The eight stories in this volume offer a varied and representative collection of twentieth century German authors from a range of political and cultural backgrounds. Styles include the non-fictional manner of Kluge's montage technique and the contrasting classical storytelling of Penzoldt • With reading notes and parallel texts in German and English, this anthology is valuable to the German student of English as well as the English student of German. Reflecting trends in German literature, the stories have been selected for their quality as well as their readability, and will enhance the appreciation of both languages

The eight stories in this collection, by Moravian, Pavese, Pratolina, and other modern writers, have been selected as being representative of contemporary Italian writing. The English translations provided are literal rather than literary, and there are notes and biographies to help the student of Italian. However, the volume can also be helpful to Italians, who can improve their English by studying a strict rendering of stories with which thet may already be familiar

These eight stories by leading 20th century French writers offer fascinating insights into French life and literature and are accompanied by a parallel English text, making them valuable for both French and English language students • Among the diverse and entertaining stories in the collection are the wistful masterpiece ‘Green Tobacco’ by Clair Sainte-Soline; the exuberant tale of ‘The Ants’ by the post-war king of cafe society, Boris Vian, and a suspense in the nineteenth-century erotic tradition from Andre de Mandiargues

A unique new volume illuminating the philosophy of the ancient Greek and Roman Cynics • From their founding in the fifth century BC and for over 800 years, the Cynic philosophers sought to cure humanity of greed and vice with their proposal of living simply. They guaranteed happiness to their adherents through freedom of speech, poverty, self-sufficiency and physical hardiness. In this fascinating and completely new collection of Cynic writing through the centuries, from Diogenes and Hipparchia, to Lucian and the Roman emperor Julian, the history and experiences of the Cynic philosophers are explored to the full

"When it comes to love, there are a million theories to explain it. But when it comes to love stories, things are simpler. A love story can never be about full possession. Love stories depend on disappointment, on unequal births and feuding families, on matrimonial boredom and at least one cold heart. Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name . . . .It is perhaps only in reading a love story (or in writing one) that we can simultaneously partake of the ecstasy and agony of being in love without paying a crippling emotional price. I offer this book, then, as a cure for lovesickness and an antidote to adultery. Read these love stories in the safety of your single bed. Let everybody else suffer."—Jeffrey Eugenides, from the introduction to My Mistress's Sparrow Is DeadAll proceeds from My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead will go directly to fund the free youth writing programs offered by 826 Chicago