Hugh Aplin
Hugh Aplin worked at the Universities of Leeds and St Andrews before taking up his current post as Head of Russian at Westminster School, London. His previous translations are too many to mention, but include books by Chekhov, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Zamyatin, Bulgakov, Tolstoy, Bunin and, more recently, Gorky.
BOOKS BY THIS TRANSLATOR

The Story of a Nobody
Part of Alma’s 101 Pages series, The Story of a Nobody bears all the hallmarks of Chekhov’s genius, and perfectly captures the political and social tensions of its day. A secret terrorist group infiltrates the household of a government official’s son, with a view to spying on the father and, ultimat…
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The Eternal Husband
Compelling, gripping, darkly humorous, The Eternal Husband – composed by the author at the peak of his writing powers, between The Idiot and Devils, and described by Dostoevsky’s biographer Joseph Frank as “a small masterpiece” – shows Dostoevsky at his best as a ruthless dissector of the quirks and…
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The Abyss and Other Stories
Haunting, disquieting, shocking, ‘The Abyss’ – one of the most powerful short stories ever written – is accompanied in this volume by fifteen other stories by Andreyev, including ‘Silence’, ‘The Thief’ and ‘Lazarus’, some of them never translated before into English. Together, they provide a clear a…
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The Forged Coupon
By Leo Tolstoy
Published only in 1911, after Tolstoy’s death, The Forged Coupon examines the deep, unpredictable consequences of every human act, revealing the Russian master’s moral preoccupations in the last years of his life, as well as his rejection of Christianity’s simplistic division between good and evil….
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Plays: New Translation
Collected in this volume are Chekhov’s four most celebrated plays – The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard – in a brand-new translation by Hugh Aplin. In these personal stories of unfulfilled love, failed ambition and existential ennui, set against a background of unsettling…
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We: New Translation
We takes place in a distant future, where humans are forced to submit their wills to the requirements of the state, under the rule of the all-powerful Benefactor, and dreams are regarded as a sign of mental illness. In a city of straight lines, protected by green walls and a glass dome, a spaceship…
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The Village
By Ivan Bunin
Ivan Bunin’s first published work, The Village is a bleak and uncompromising portrayal of rural life in south-west Russia. Set at the time of the 1905 Revolution and centering on episodes in the lives of two peasant brothers – “characters sunk so far below the average of intelligence as to be scarce…
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The Mother
By Maxim Gorky
A book of the utmost importance, in the words of Lenin, and a landmark in Russian literature, The Mother – here presented in a brilliant new version by Hugh Aplin, the first English translation in almost a century – will enchant modern readers both for its historical significance and its intrinsic v…
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The Master and Margarita
Part of Alma Classics Evergreens series, this Ten-Year Anniversary Edition contains an extensive critical apparatus, extra reading material including a section of photographs and notes. Both a satirical romp and a daring analysis of the nature of good and evil, innocence and guilt, The Master and Ma…
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The Kiss and Other Stories
One of Chekhov’s most admired stories, ‘The Kiss’ is joined in this volume by five equally celebrated tales in a brand-new translation by Hugh Aplin: ‘The Lady with the Little Dog’, ‘Ward Number Six’, ‘The Black Monk’, ‘The House with the Mezzanine’ and ‘The Peasants’ – making this an indispensable…
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The Gambler
With an unforgettable cast of fellow gamblers and figures from European high society, this darkly comic novel of greed and self-destruction reveals Dostoevsky at his satirical and psychological best. Part of Alma Classics Evergreens series, this edition contains extra material on Dostoevky’s life an…
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The Double
The Double, Dostoevsky’s second published work of fiction, which foreshadows in its themes many of his mature novels, is the surreal and hallucinatory tale of an unfortunate anti-hero, at once chilling in its depiction of the dark sides of human nature and exuberantly comical. This edition is part o…
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The Death of Ivan Ilyich and The Devil
By Leo Tolstoy
The judge Ivan Ilyich Golovin has spent his life in the pursuit of wealth and status, devoting himself obsessively to work and often neglecting his family in the process. When, after a small accident, he fails to make the expected recovery, it gradually becomes clear that he is soon to die. Ivan Ily…
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Poor People
Presented as a series of letters between the humble copying clerk Devushkin and a distant relative of his, the young Varenka, Poor People brings to the fore the underclass of St Petersburg, who live at the margins of society in the most appalling conditions and abject poverty. As Devushkin tries to…
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In the Twilight
This edition presents the sixteen tales of the original collection – ranging from well-known and acknowledged gems such as ‘Agafya’ and ‘On the Road’ to others which will be fresh even to many seasoned readers of Chekhov – in a brand-new translation by Hugh Aplin, providing an invaluable glimpse int…
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Faust
In a series of nine letters, the narrator tells his friend how he introduced Vera Nikolayevna, a married woman who had been forbidden as a child to read fiction and poetry, to the intellectual pleasures of Goethe’s masterpiece. Opening up in front of Vera’s eyes is not only the realm of imagination,…
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Diaboliad and Other Stories
This early satirical story, reminiscent of Gogol and Dostoevsky, was first published in 1924 and incurred the wrath of pro-Soviet critics. Along with the three other stories in this volume, which also explore the themes of the absurd and bizarre, it provides a fascinating glimpse into the artistic d…
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Dark Avenues
By Ivan Bunin
One of the great achievements of twentieth-century Russian émigré literature, Dark Avenues – translated here for the first time into English in its entirety – took Bunin’s poetic mastery of language to new heights. Written between 1938 and 1944 and set in the context of the Russian cultural and hist…
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A Young Doctor’s Notebook
In this collection of short stories, drawing heavily from the author’s own experiences as a medical graduate on the eve of the Russian Revolution, Bulgakov describes a young doctor’s turbulent and often brutal introduction to his practice in the backward village of Muryovo. Using a sharply realistic…
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