The perfect introduction to the many talents of this iconic Russian writer: six short stories ranging from satire to tragedy

Dostevsky was a writer of unparalleld psychological intensity, capable of evoking startling absurdity and scorching social satire. In this collection of newly translated stories, scenes from the turbulent underbelly of St Petersburg are shot through with an acerbic, unforgiving humour, only to soften into moments of tragedy and unexpected tenderness.

An arrogant nobleman disgraces himself, and betrays his ideals, at an aide's wedding. A struggling writer stumbles upon a cemetery where the dead talk to each other. A civil servant finds unexpected clarity from inside the belly of a crocodile. These stories, by turns both wickedly sharp and unexpectedly charming, illuminate Dostoevsky's dazzling versatility as a writer.



FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY was born in Oscow in 1821. A strong critic of the tsarist regime, he spent four years in a Siberian prison camp followed by six years of military service in exile. A renowned writer and journalist, is masterpieces of psychological and existential fiction include Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov and Notes from the Underground.NICOLAS PASTERNAK SLATER, a bilingual nephew of Boris Pasternak, is a retired haemotologist. Published translations include Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, Tolstoy's short stories, and, for Pushkin Press, stories by Ivan Turgenev and Anton Chekhov.MAYA SLATER has published translations of Molière and other French writers, and co-translations with her husband Nicolas Pasternak Slater. She is a Senoir Research Fellow of Queen Mary University of London.