Tales of Belkin and Other Prose Writings

by Pushkin, Alexander; Wilks, Ronald; Bayley, John

• ISBN13: 9780140446753
• ISBN10: 0140446753
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-07-01
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

Alexander Pushkin was Russia's first true literary genius. Best known for his poetry, he also wrote sparkling prose that revealed his national culture with elegance and understated humour. Here, his gift for portraying the Russian people is fully revealed. The Tales of Belkin, his first prose masterpiece, presents a series of interlinked stories narrated by a good-hearted Russian squire - among them 'The Shot', in which a duel is revisited after many years, and the grotesque 'The Undertaker'. Elsewhere, works such as the novel-fragment Roslavlev and the Egyptian Nights, the tale of an Italian balladeer seeking an audience in St. Petersberg, demonstrate the wide range of Pushkin's fiction. A Journey to Arzrum, the final piece in this collection, offers an autobiographical account of Pushkin's own experiences in the 1829 war between Russia and Turkey, and remains one of the greatest of all pieces of journalistic adventure writing.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
John Bayley
Further Reading	xx
Translator's Note	xxi
THE TALES OF THE LATE IVAN PETROVICH BELKIN
From the Editor	3	(4)
The Shot	7	(13)
The Blizzard	20	(13)
The Undertaker	33	(8)
The Postmaster	41	(13)
The Squire's Daughter	54	(21)
The History of the Village of Goryukhino	75	(17)
Roslavlev	92	(11)
Kirdzhali: A Tale	103	(8)
Egyptian Nights	111	(18)
A Journey to Arzrum at the Time of the 1829 Campaign	129	(51)
Notes	180