Russian Stories: A Dual-Language Book

This book works on two levels: One, these short stories are by the Russian masters of the genre. In English translation, they are powerful, evocative, and moving, on their own. There is a reason why Pushkin, Chekhov, and Dostoevsky are still popular: Those guys didn't write any garbage. They set the bar for all writers as high as it could go. I would especially recommend "Sleepy" by Anton Chekhov. Read it on Halloween night, as I did, for a good old fashioned fright. Secondarily, for those of us learning Russian, these short stories provide fascinating and very challenging works to translate. Be advised, this is a high level of Russian literature, written for educated and literate native speakers, so it's a big challenge. Pack a lunch. The short story format is especially beneficial. If you can get through one story, believe me, you are ready for the psychological reward of starting a new story.

Got this book a while ago, its way too hard for me for my level but the good thing is you can work through at a slow pace and still get a lot out of it. Stress marks are very helpful, would have been useless to me without them basically, and the glossary is also helpful although it doesn't include everything (good to have a dictionary nearby). Layout is good, that is, having the english on the adjacent page, makes for very easy reference to the english. Archaic language is usually noted and explained as such, which is useful. Great for reading practice, highly recommendable book for all skill levels (i have only been learning for around 6 months but have still got a lot out of it so far). Good selection of stories and enough to keep an beginner reader going for a long time!

This book is a wonderful rare find. I am a friend/neighbor of highly educated recent Russian immigrants with limited expertise in English. Although they are taking English classes, it is almost impossible for them to find interesting books to read in English beyond those of a childrens book reading level. Having to use a Russian/English dictionary while reading eliminates a lot of the simple pleasures that reading provides. This book's dual language format is absolutely perfect. They can finally enjoy a book written in English that reflects their reading interests due to the fact that the exact Russian version resides on the opposing page. This dual language format is also an absolutely perfect tool for English students learning the Russian language. It gave me so much pleasure to provide them with this opportunity to both practice and better enjoy reading books in English. I only wish that there were a lot more books available in this style for my friends to enjoy....

That's what this is, the perfect language learning tool for a student of the russian language, with one or two years of college level russian who wants to continue their study of the language. I would be surprised if universities did not use this text for intermediate level students. The only thing more that I could wish for would be an audio version of this book, which would help me to consolidate, and strengthen the knowledge it gave me, by allowing me to listen to the stories it contains in Russian, as well as being able to read them.

With stories by Tolstoy, Pushkin, Gogol and Chekov this is a great book to help you improve your Russian skills and read the masterworks in the original. It's a great way to check your Russian against the English tranlsation on the opposite page. The book itself has been around for several years and while it is a bit expensive for what you get used editions are fairly common. My only real criticism is that this is one of the few dual readers available in the US on the Russian language. Hopefully the publishers will remedy this by printing another volume. A real must for Russian language students.