Russian Short Stories Part 7: Two Anthologies

The title of this post indidcates that this is part seven in my series on Russian short stories, but it's really part eight if you count my essay about Ivan Turgenev's A Sportsman's Sketches from last March (and it certainly should be counted because it's an absolutely essential book). Beginning with the next post we'll step away from Russian literature and explore some other great books for the sake of variety. We'll return to Russia now and then, though.

Here are two excellent anthologies of Russian short stories to wrap things up.


Stories by Foreign Authors: Russian (1898) by Turgenev, Pushkin, Gogol & Tolstoy

This is a brief but very good Russian short story anthology that begins with "Mumu" a heart rending story by Turgenev from Torrents of Spring (1872). Pushkin's "The Shot" (1831), which is good example of the genius of this essential and influential author. Also included is the scary "St. John's Eve" (1831) by Gogol which we explored earlier in this series, and "An Old Acquaintance" (185?), a lesser known piece from Tolstoy's early years--an intriguing choice given the number of great stories he had penned by the time this volume was originally published. You really can't go wrong with a compilation of stories by these guys. Short but sweet and highly recommended.

Download Stories by Foreign Authors: Russian from Project Gutenberg


Best Russian Short Stories (1917) Compiled and edited by Thomas Seltzer

"Everything is subordinated to two main requirements—humanitarian ideals and fidelity to life. This is the secret of the marvelous simplicity of Russian literary art."—Thomas Seltzer

In his introduction, American translator and publisher Thomas Seltzer claims this volume is the greatest collection of Russian short fiction available in English, and he'll get no argument from me; ninety six years later, it's still fantastic. This volume presents a wide range of Russian authors, including a number of names that were famous at the turn of the twentieth century and are now unjustly forgotten. That's a shame, because the lesser known selections are good stuff indeed. Seeing stories by Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev and Chekhov juxtaposed by the works of Andreyev, Sologub, Saltykov, Gorky, Garshin and others gives us a mostly linear, highly condensed genealogy of Russian belles lettres from roughly 1830 to 1910.

It begins with "The Queen of Spades" (1834) by Pushkin, Russia's first writer to achieve rock star status. It's a ripping story with wickedly dry humor and a knockout ending. Although not characteristically Russian in form, there are hints of emergent realism in Pushkin that would find a voice in the work of Gogol, whose famous story "The Cloak" (1842) is also included. Turgenev's "The District Doctor", excerpted from A Sportsman's Sketches (1852), is a tale of a country doctor's unconsummated love for a dying patient. "The Christmas Tree and the Wedding" (1848) is a darkly funny, refreshingly brief and surprisingly focused story from Dostoyevsky, and Tolstoy's "God Sees the Truth But Waits" (1872) is a dire, heartfelt story of forgiveness and redemption that foreshadows his parables and religious writings after Anna Karenina.

"How a Muzhik Fed Two Officials" (18??) is a piece of sledgehammer satire by Saltykov about two brainless bureaucrats stranded on a desert island who are saved from starvation and toil by a peasant servant. On the surface "The Shades: A Phantasy" (18??) is about a dream in which a post-hemlock imbibing Socrates leads a deceased and devoutly conformist tanner out of Hades and toward the light of logic, leaving a pile of vanquished gods slain by reason and truth. This piece has obvious parallels to pre-revolutionary Russia that the Tsar's notoriously dim-witted censors had obviously missed. Vsevelod Garshin's "The Signal" (1877) contrasts passive and active modes of resistance to authority in the form of two track walkers who work for the Russian railroad. Garshin writes in a concise, elegant, thoroughly realist prose that wastes no words yet spares few details. One of my faves.

There are three stories included by Chekhov: "The Darling" (1899) is one which we explored together recently. "The Bet" (1889) is a tale about a man who bets an acquaintance two million rubles that the latter would be unable to withstand fifteen years of solitary confinement. Rod Serling adapted this story in his screenplay for "The Silence", a famous episode of "The Twilight Zone" that aired in 1961. "Vanka" (1886) is a tale about a young boy writing home to his grandfather begging to return home from his apprenticeship for the many abuses he has had to endure. These stories are fine examples of how Chekhov was able to condense complex stories and characters in a few pages that might take other authors a whole book to unfold.

Fyodor Sologub's "Hide and Seek" (19??) is one of the most disheartening, eerie and freaked out stories you're likely to read about the death of a child. You should read it because it's well worth reading, but you might want to avoid doing so before you go to sleep at night. (I speak from a position of experience). I. Potapenko's "Dethroned" (18??) is a worthy effort, but this story about a high society woman's comeuppance seems a bit trite when presented alongside the moral gravitas of the other stories. Sergey Semyonov's "The Servant" (18??) is an earnest morality tale told with a nod to Tolstoy while still asserting its own voice. 

Maxim Gorky's stories can be hit-and-miss for brilliance, but this collection has two of his best works of short fiction, "An Autumn Night" (1895) and "Her Lover" (1897). Leonid Andreyev's "Lazarus" (19??) is one of the most pleasing discoveries to be found here. It tells what happened to Lazarus after he was raised from the dead by Christ. Time no longer has meaning for him and he wanders through the world of the living with a hollow, vacant and contagious stare that fils everyone he meets with a similar feeling of hopelessness and existential dread. This is another one of my favorite discoveries in the collection.

Artzybashev's "The Revolutionist" is a chilling story about a teacher whose conscience prompts him to take armed action against the military after witnessing a group of soldiers execute a young boy and watching a public whipping of a group of peasants. Lastly, in Kuprin's "The Outrage" (19??), a group of thieves goes before a Russian court to demand that they be represented against slanderous charges by the press that they, professional and honest thieves who take pride in their craft, were in any way responsible for recent pogroms against the Jews in their community. This is well wielded satire in the comic tradition of Gogol, delivering irony with much moral force. 

This is a GREAT collection and you should download it immediately and start reading. So says I.

Download Best Russian Short Stories from Project Gutenberg


I hope you enjoyed our journey into Russian literature by way of the short story. As I've said, we'll return to Russia again as time goes by. Next time, I think we'll look at a vintage piece of non fiction.

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