A Very Russian Christmas: The Greatest Russian Holiday Stories of All Time

Running the gamut from sweet and reverent to twisted and uproarious, and with many of the stories appearing in English for the first time, this is a collection that will satisfy every reader. Dostoevsky brings stories of poverty and tragedy, Tolstoy inspires with his fable-like tales, Chekhov's unmatchable skills are on full display in a story about a female factory owner and the wretched workers, Klavdia Lukashevitch delights with a sweet and surprising tale of a childhood in White Russia, and Mikhail Zoshchenko recounts madcap anecdotes of Christmas trees and Christmas thieves. There is no shortage of vodka or wit in this volume that proves, with its wonderful variety and remarkable human touch, that Nobody Does Christmas Like the Russians.

My Last Christmas

On this festive day, because of somebody's sin, it is we who must sit here like the wretched of the earth . . ."

The passengers looked at the fussy figure of the little old man with displeasure and irritation.

"Yes," the old man continued, "because of somebody's sins . . . We are used to watching our little children jump in indescribable delight around the Christmas tree . . . Out of human weakness, dear Sirs and Madams, we enjoy gobbling up ham with green peas and sausages one after another, and a slice of goose, and a tipple tipple of the you know what . . ."

"Tfu!" said the fishmonger, looking at the wee old man with disgust.

The passengers slid forward on their chairs . . .

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A Very Russian Christmas: The Greatest Russian Holiday Stories of All Time

Running the gamut from sweet and reverent to twisted and uproarious, and with many of the stories appearing in English for the first time, this is a collection that will satisfy every reader. Dostoevsky brings stories of poverty and tragedy, Tolstoy inspires with his fable-like tales, Chekhov's unmatchable skills are on full display in a story about a female factory owner and the wretched workers, Klavdia Lukashevitch delights with a sweet and surprising tale of a childhood in White Russia, and Mikhail Zoshchenko recounts madcap anecdotes of Christmas trees and Christmas thieves. There is no shortage of vodka or wit in this volume that proves, with its wonderful variety and remarkable human touch, that Nobody Does Christmas Like the Russians.

My Last Christmas

On this festive day, because of somebody's sin, it is we who must sit here like the wretched of the earth . . ."

The passengers looked at the fussy figure of the little old man with displeasure and irritation.

"Yes," the old man continued, "because of somebody's sins . . . We are used to watching our little children jump in indescribable delight around the Christmas tree . . . Out of human weakness, dear Sirs and Madams, we enjoy gobbling up ham with green peas and sausages one after another, and a slice of goose, and a tipple tipple of the you know what . . ."

"Tfu!" said the fishmonger, looking at the wee old man with disgust.

The passengers slid forward on their chairs . . .

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Overview

Running the gamut from sweet and reverent to twisted and uproarious, and with many of the stories appearing in English for the first time, this is a collection that will satisfy every reader. Dostoevsky brings stories of poverty and tragedy, Tolstoy inspires with his fable-like tales, Chekhov's unmatchable skills are on full display in a story about a female factory owner and the wretched workers, Klavdia Lukashevitch delights with a sweet and surprising tale of a childhood in White Russia, and Mikhail Zoshchenko recounts madcap anecdotes of Christmas trees and Christmas thieves. There is no shortage of vodka or wit in this volume that proves, with its wonderful variety and remarkable human touch, that Nobody Does Christmas Like the Russians.

My Last Christmas

On this festive day, because of somebody's sin, it is we who must sit here like the wretched of the earth . . ."

The passengers looked at the fussy figure of the little old man with displeasure and irritation.

"Yes," the old man continued, "because of somebody's sins . . . We are used to watching our little children jump in indescribable delight around the Christmas tree . . . Out of human weakness, dear Sirs and Madams, we enjoy gobbling up ham with green peas and sausages one after another, and a slice of goose, and a tipple tipple of the you know what . . ."

"Tfu!" said the fishmonger, looking at the wee old man with disgust.

The passengers slid forward on their chairs . . .


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781939931436
Publisher: New Vessel Press
Publication date: 10/18/2016
Pages: 160
Sales rank: 398,186
Product dimensions: 7.20(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

About The Author
Count Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 on the family estate of Yasnaya Polyana, in the Tula province, where he spent most of his early years, together with his several brothers. In 1844 he entered the University of Kazan to read Oriental Languages and later Law, but left before completing a degree. He spent the following years in a round of drinking, gambling and womanizing, until weary of his idle existence he joined an artillery regiment in the Caucasus in 1851.

He took part in the Crimean war and after the defence of Sevastopol wrote The Sevastopol Sketches (1855-6), which established his literary reputation. After leaving the army in 1856 Tolstoy spent some time mixing with the literati in St Petersburg before traveling abroad and then settling at Yasnaya Polyana, where he involved himself in the running of peasant schools and the emancipation of the serfs. His marriage to Sofya Andreyevna Behrs in 1862 marked the beginning of a period of contentment centred around family life; they had thirteen children. Tolstoy managed his vast estates, continued his educational projects, cared for his peasants and wrote both his great novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877).

During the 1870s he underwent a spiritual crisis, the moral and religious ideas that had always dogged him coming to the fore. A Confession (1879¿82) marked an outward change in his life and works; he became an extreme rationalist and moralist, and in a series of pamphlets written after 1880 he rejected church and state, indicted the demands of flesh, and denounced private property. His teachings earned him numerous followers in Russia and abroad, and also led finally to his excommunication by the Russian Holy Synod in 1901. In 1910 at the age of eighty-two he fled from home "leaving this worldly life in order to live out my last days in peace and solitude;" he died some days later at the station master's house at Astapovo.

Author biography courtesy of Penguin Books LTD.

Date of Birth:

September 9, 1828

Date of Death:

November 2, 1910

Place of Birth:

Tula Province, Russia

Place of Death:

Astapovo, Russia

Education:

Privately educated by French and German tutors; attended the University of Kazan, 1844-47

Table of Contents


Incomplete Table of Contents:
Lev Tolstoy: Dream of the Young Tsar
Lev Tolstoy: Where There is Love, There is God Too
Fyodor Dostoevsky: A Christmas Tree and a Wedding
Fyodor Dostoevsky: A Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree
Anton Chekhov: A Woman's Kingdom
Anton Chekhov:: The Boys
Anton Chekhov: At Christmastime
Klavdia Lukashevich: A Distant Christmas Eve
Mikhail Zoshchenko: The Tree
Mikhail Zoshchenko: My Last Christmas
Vladimir Korolenko: Makar's Dream
Nikolai Leskov: Offended Before Christmas
Daniil Kharms: Volodya at the Tree
Mikhail Saltykov Shchedrin: A Christmas Story
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