The stories in this collection range from impossible fantasy to scorching satire. A civil servant finds a new passion for his work when he's swallowed alive by a crocodile. A struggling writer stumbles on a cemetery where the dead still talk to each other. An arrogant but well-intentioned gentleman provokes an uproar at a subordinate's wedding, and in the marital bed. And a young boy finds unexpected salvation on a cold and desolate Christmas Eve.
This vivid translation by Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater illuminates Dostoevsky's dazzling versatility as a writer. His remarkable short fiction swings from wickedly sharp humour to gripping psychological intensity, from cynical social mockery to moments of unexpected tenderness.
Arvustused
"A sprightly new translation... reminds us how extremely funny [ Dostoevsky] could be". --Times Literary Supplement
A Bad Business 7
Conversations in a Graveyard (Bobok) 101
A Meek Creature 130
The Crocodile 204
The Heavenly Christmas Tree 267
The Peasant Marey 275
Translators Acknowledgement 285
FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY was born in Moscow in 1821. A strong critic of the tsarist regime, he spent four years in a Siberian prison camp followed by six years of military service in exile. A renowned writer and journalist, his masterpieces of psychological and existential fiction include Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov and Notes from Underground.
NICOLAS PASTERNAK SLATER, a bilingual nephew of Boris Pasternak, is a retired haemotologist. Published translations include Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, Tolstoy's short stories, and, for Pushkin Press, stories by Ivan Turgenev and Anton Chekhov.
MAYA SLATER has published translations of Molière and other French writers, and co-translations with her husband Nicolas Pasternak Slater. She is a Senior Research Fellow of Queen Mary University of London.
