By Stendhal
Published posthumously in 1930, Stendhal’s travel notes on his 1838 journey to southern France contain descriptions of cities such as Bordeaux, Toulouse and Marseilles, peppered with numerous personal digressions, anecdotes and cultural musings. Both an addition to the Stendhalian canon and a pionee…
READ MORE >
By Lucian
True Story, Lucian’s best-known and most entertaining work, is a parody of the tall stories of fantastic journeys narrated by famous poets and historians. With his trademark wit and humour, Lucian informs his readers that he means to tell nothing but lies and impossibilities, and warns them not to b…
READ MORE >
Around a love story very much of its time, Hoffman arranges a narrative that brings to mind the most successful elements of contemporary magical realism and surreal comedy. Always entertaining, yet capable of a focused though subtle morality, The King’s Bride brings disparate elements into a masterf…
READ MORE >
NEW TRANSLATION BY ROGER COCKRELL Feeling alone and abandoned by everyone, a young man and self-confessed dreamer decides to take to the streets of St Petersburg during one of its long summer nights. As he roams around the empty city, he chances on a weeping girl, whom he approaches and rescues from…
READ MORE >
Presented in a new translation by Roger Cockrell, The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants was originally conceived as a play and first published in 1859, shortly after the author’s release from forced military service. Gogolian in style and tone, and waspish in its description of the villai…
READ MORE >
Poverty-stricken and cut off from society, former law student Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov leads a desolate life in a dreary little room in St Petersburg. Having abandoned all hopes of sustaining himself through work, he now obsesses over the idea of changing his fortunes through an act of extreme…
READ MORE >
Presented in a brand-new translation by Roger Cockrell. Uncle’s Dream was written soon after Dostoevsky was released from the prison camp that inspired The House of the Dead. It shares very little of that novel’s gloomy tone and contains many elements of a light, drawing-room farce. Beneath the surf…
READ MORE >
The mayor and local officials of a small provincial town in Russia have got it made: corruption is rife and they have all the power. Yet, when they learn that an undercover government inspector is about to make a visit, they face a mad dash to cover their tracks. Soon, the news that a suspicious per…
READ MORE >
Chekhov’s second-longest prose work after The Steppe, Three Years is, in the author’s own words, “a novel of Moscow life” and an examination of its merchant classes. A powerful story of redemption and the nuances of human relationships, the novella helped cement Chekhov’s reputation as a major figur…
READ MORE >
Based on Dostoevsky’s own autobiographical experiences of penal servitude in Siberia, this genre-defying novel is not only an unflinching exposé of the conditions faced by prisoners during the Tsarist period, but also a call to see the human side in criminals and rediscover the values of forgiveness…
READ MORE >
Set in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev during the chaotic winter of 1918–19, The White Guard, Bulgakov’s first full-length novel, tells the story of a Russian-speaking family trapped in circumstances that threaten to destroy them. As in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, the narrative centres on the stark contr…
READ MORE >
By Leo Tolstoy
An uncompromising examination of lust, suspicion and infidelity which was once forbidden by censors in Russia and banned in the US due to its shocking content, Tolstoy’s controversial novella – here presented in a new translation, along with ‘The Prisoner of the Caucasus’, ‘Master and Man’ and ‘Afte…
READ MORE >
Set in 1928 but written four years earlier, during Stalin’s rise to power, The Fatal Eggs is both an early piece of science fiction reminiscent of H.G. Wells and a biting, brilliant satire on the consequences of the abuse of power and knowledge. Professor Persikov, an eccentric zoologist, stumbles u…
READ MORE >
Stylistically brilliant and brimming with humour and literary allusion, Notes on a Cuff is presented here in a new translation, along with a collection of other short pieces by Bulgakov, many of them – such as ‘The Cockroach’ and ‘A Dissolute Man’ – published for the first time in the English langua…
READ MORE >
This ample selection from the diaries and letters of the Bulgakovs, mostly translated for the first time into English, provides an insightful glimpse into a fascinating period of Russian history and literature, telling the tragic tale of the fate of an artist under a totalitarian regime. The career…
READ MORE >
Devils is at once a compelling political statement and a study of atheism and its calamitous effect on a country that is teetering on the edge of an abyss. Seen as Dostoevsky’s most powerful indictment of man’s propensity to violence, this darkly humorous work, shot through with grotesque comedy, is…
READ MORE >
Unpublished in Bulgakov’s own lifetime, Black Snow is peppered with darkly comic set pieces and draws on its author’s own bitter experience as a playwright with the Moscow Arts Theatre, showcasing his inimitable gift for shrewd observation and razor-sharp satire. After being saved from a suicide att…
READ MORE >
By Leo Tolstoy
Over the last fifteen years of his life, Tolstoy collected and published the maxims of some of the world’s greatest masters of philosophy, religion and literature, adding his own contributions to various questions that preoccupied him in old age, such as faith and existence, as well as matters of ev…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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….
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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,…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
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…
READ MORE >
The director Alain Resnais was already famous for films such as Hiroshima, Mon Amour when he asked Alain Robbe-Grillet – the author of several seminal novels, including Jealousy and The Voyeur, and the leader of the Nouveau Roman school – to write a script for him. The result was Last Year at Marien…
READ MORE >
When Mathias, a travelling watch salesman, returns after many years to the island of his birth, a young girl is found dead on the rocks. As Mathias makes an increasingly tense recapitulation of his movements on the day of the event, tiny details slowly and inexorably accumulate. Through the warped s…
READ MORE >
By Claude Simon
A groundbreaking work, for which Claude Simon devised a prose technique mimicking the mind’s fluid thought processes, The Flanders Road is not only a masterpiece of stylistic innovation, but also a haunting portrayal – based on a real-life incident – of the chaos and savagery of war. During the Germ…
READ MORE >
After a failed attempt on his life by an unknown terrorist cell, Professor Daniel Dupont decides to fake his own death. The government authorities, believing that the attack is part of a series of political assassinations, send Wallas, a recently promoted special investigator, to the provincial town…
READ MORE >
In his most famous and perhaps most typical work, Robbe-Grillet explores his principle preoccupation: the meaning of reality. The novel is set on a tropical banana plantation, and the action is seen through the eyes of a narrator who never appears in person, never speaks and never acts. He is a poin…
READ MORE >
Based on a famous Spanish folk tale and set in rural Andalusia, “The Three-Cornered Hat” recounts the tribulations of a lecherous local magistrate as he attempts to have his way with the miller’s beautiful but devoted wife, with unforeseen and hilarious consequences. Alarcon’s astute blend of slapst…
READ MORE >
Based on Dovlatov’s actual experience of being a prison guard in Soviet Russia in the 1960s, and full of comic and humane detail, The Zone depicts the absurd day-to- day life of a camp in an insightful and unusual way, challenging commonly held perceptions of the relations between incarcerators and…
READ MORE >
This volume, which also contains ‘Viola Tricolor’, the delightful story of a woman coming to terms with her stepdaughter, and ‘Curator Carsten’, a sombre account of a young man falling into a life of debauchery, provides a vivid introduction to one of the finest storytellers of German Romanticism.
READ MORE >
This multi-layered tale, first published in 1918, is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of Gerhart Hauptmann, the recipient of the 1912 Nobel Prize in Literature and one of the most important exponents of German Naturalism. When the young priest Francesco Vela becomes the incumbent of the p…
READ MORE >
Partly autobiographical, and the prototype for many later Romantic works in its depiction of the sensitive, tortured hero, Goethe’s seminal classic is a timeless masterpiece of world literature. Part of Alma Classics Evergreens series, this edition contains an extensive critical apparatus, extra rea…
READ MORE >
