For those who cannot read the language of the original texts, the lively and varied world of eighteenth-century Russian literature has been largely inaccessible. In this valuable collection, expert translator David Gasperetti presents three seminal tales that express the major literary, social, and philosophical concerns of late-eighteenth-century Russia.
The country s first bestseller, Matvei Komarov s "Vanka Kain" tells the story of a renowned thief and police spy and is also an excellent historical source on the era s criminal underworld. Mikhail Chulkov s "The Comely Cook" is a...