Famous for his enormously influential poetry and plays, Alexander Pushkin is also beloved for his short stories. This collection showcases his tremendous range, which enabled him to portray the Russian people through romance, drama, and satire. The sparkling humor of the five “Tales of Belkin” contrasts with a dark fable of gambling and obsessive greed in “The Queen of Spades” and the masterful historical novella, “The Captain’s Daughter,” a story of love and betrayal set during a rebellion in the time of Catherine the Great. Translated by Natalie Duddington and T. Keane
"Pushkin was the first in Russia to write permanent fiction, the first truly original Russian novelist.... Pushkin's literary prose is rational, analytical, intentionally bald, pruned of all irrelevant ornament, and almost affected in its simplicity....
"The Captain's Daughter was the only work of Pushkin's that had a powerful influence on the next age -- it contains all the essence of what Russian realism was to become -- though it is still a story told in the orthodox manner, as a story should be.
Famous for his enormously influential poetry and plays, Alexander Pushkin is also beloved for his short stories. This collection showcases his tremendous range, which enabled him to portray the Russian people through romance, drama, and satire. The sparkling humor of the five “Tales of Belkin” contrasts with a dark fable of gambling and obsessive greed in “The Queen of Spades” and the masterful historical novella, “The Captain’s Daughter,” a story of love and betrayal set during a rebellion in the time of Catherine the Great. Translated by Natalie Duddington and T. Keane
Praise
"Pushkin was the first in Russia to write permanent fiction, the first truly original Russian novelist.... Pushkin's literary prose is rational, analytical, intentionally bald, pruned of all irrelevant ornament, and almost affected in its simplicity....
"The Captain's Daughter was the only work of Pushkin's that had a powerful influence on the next age -- it contains all the essence of what Russian realism was to become -- though it is still a story told in the orthodox manner, as a story should be.
