Little Russian Masterpieces (Volume 2) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1920. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... Introduction MORE than ninety per cent, of the Russian people never read "short stories." They create them, tell them, listen to them. The popular Russian short story, is the skazka or fairy tale, which belongs to the province of folklore, probably the richest, most varied, wise, and clever of all folklores of Europe, having absorbed all the richest elements of the East and some of the West. But the short story in the sense in which it is understood by Americans, is the product of the journalization of literature, of the daily press, which did not develop in Russia until the seventies of the nineteenth century. The predecessor of the newspaper, the big monthly, created the "serial," the three-volume novel, usually covering the year with its twelve voluminous instalments. Up to the eighties of the last century life moved in the immense country at a slow pace; time was cheap, and the middle and higher classes demanded of writers either big novels or stories of some thirty to forty pages, which could be read through in the course of a long winter evening around the family samovar. Modern Russian literature took its beginning from the great Pushkin who produced matchless examples not alone of poetry, but also of prose. He gave us our first short stories, those selected for the present set. But all that is really great in Russian literature must be sought in novels, not in stories. Until quite lately, the latter were but crumbs from the rich banquet of Russian literature. To select from these crumbs what is most typical, most beautiful, most artistic, what gives the deepest insight into the Russian national character and nature, what is finest not alone as to mastery of form, but also as to matter--such is the object of the present collection. Russia is a deep, wide, ...