Product Description: The title story of this enthralling compilation spins the tale of a boy growing into adolescence whose body appears to have been taken over by a colony of ants. His diary—initially expressed in the barely literate tones of a young child—becomes more accomplished and assured as the protagonist matures and eventually begins to give way to the voice of the ruler of the anthill...read more

Product Description: 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 historical crises of the preceding decades, this collection of short fiction centres around dark, erotic liaisons...read more

Product Description: One of the most exquisitely constructed novellas by Tolstoy is presented alongside The Devil, a further work exploring the powerful and destructive nature of obsession   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...read more

Product Description: The five, irreverent, satirical and imaginative stories contained in "Diaboliad" caused an uproar upon the book's first publication in 1925. Full of invention, they display Bulgakov's breathtaking stylistic range, moving at dizzying speed from grotesque satire to science fiction, from the plainest realism to the most madcap fantasy...read more

From one of the world's greatest prose writers, this is a remarkable psychological novel examining the duality of the human consciousness. Velchaninov, a rich and idle man undergoing a moral crisis, is confronted in St. Petersburg by Trusotsky, the loyal husband of Velchaninov’s former lover. Trusotsky informs Velchaninov that his wife has died, and from here this fascinating novella charts the development of the two men’s lives. Beautifully portraying the confused and changing feelings the two men have for one another, this work moves through guilt, hatred, and love. This is Dostoevsky at his best, engaging with his favored themes of tortured minds and neurosis, and treating them in a captivating and highly revealing way.

Product Description: One of the most accessible and entertaining works by the author of Crime and Punishment and The Karamazov Brothers Inspired by Dostoevsky's own gambling addiction and written under pressure in order to pay off his creditors and retain his rights to his literary legacy, this tale is set in the casino of the fictional German spa town of Roulettenburg and follows the misfortunes of the young tutor Alexei Ivanovich...read more

Product Description: A brand-new translation provides an invaluable glimpse into a pivotal moment in the writer’s literary career   The third collection of short stories compiled by Anton Chekhov himself, was his first major success and won him the prestigious Pushkin Prize when it was published in 1887...read more

Product Description: While at a party organized by the local landowner for the officers of his brigade, the shy and awkward Ryabovich is suddenly kissed by an unknown woman in a dark room. This unexpected, electrifying encounter, which he relives in his mind day after day, marks a turning point for Ryabovich, showing him that everything in life - joy, sorrow, hope - is equally pointless and subject to chance...read more

As a mysterious gentleman and self-proclaimed magician arrives in Moscow, followed by a most bizarre retinue of servants, the Russian literary world is shaken to its foundations. It soon becomes clear that he is the Devil, and that he has come to wreak havoc among the cultural elite of the disbelieving capital.

Product Description: A bizarre and deeply disturbing account of a young man’s descent into addiction, this story brilliantly mirrors the tumultuous events of early 20th-century Russian history. Struggling with the confusion and insecurities that adolescence brings, Vadim seeks an outlet for his frustration...read more

Combining psychological detail with a strong sense of place and time, this tale 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, ultimately, assassinating him. But the young man entrusted with the task—an ailing, world-weary "nobody"—seized with the purposelessness of life and a sense of his own impending death, gradually becomes disillusioned with his mission, and decides to embark on a new path which will lead him to tragedy. 

Combining psychological detail with a strong sense of place and time, this tale 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, ultimately, assassinating him. But the young man entrusted with the task—an ailing, world-weary "nobody"—seized with the purposelessness of life and a sense of his own impending death, gradually becomes disillusioned with his mission, and decides to embark on a new path which will lead him to tragedy. 

Combining psychological detail with a strong sense of place and time, this tale 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, ultimately, assassinating him. But the young man entrusted with the task—an ailing, world-weary "nobody"—seized with the purposelessness of life and a sense of his own impending death, gradually becomes disillusioned with his mission, and decides to embark on a new path which will lead him to tragedy. 

Product Description: An entertaining parody of small-town manners and morals, this comic novella is a revelation When the aging Russian Prince, Prince K., arrives in the town of Mordasov, Marya Alexandrovna Moskaleva, a doyenne of local society life, takes him under her protection, with the aim of engineering his marriage with her 23 year old daughter Zina...read more

Product Description: Set during the 1905 Revolution in southwest Russia, this is a bleak and uncompromising portrayal of the lives of two peasant brothers, “characters sunk so far below the average of intelligence as to be scarcely human.” With brutal honesty it reveals the pettiness, violence, and ignorance of rural farm life...read more

Vanya Smurov is deeply attached to his mentor, Dr Stroop. Initially appalled by the discovery of Stroop's homosexual leanings, Vanya abandons him to pursue a 'normal' existence. In turn disgusted by ensuing encounters, he returns to Dr Stroop and accompanies him to Italy where he begins his real education: in the world of art and of hedonism.