The Greatest Short Stories of World Literature Volume 1

[The Greatest Short Stories of World Literature Volume 1]

The Cloak by Nikolai Gogol is one of the greatest short stories which was originally published in Russian in 1843. It tells the story of Akakii Akakievich, a lowly, nondescript Russian bureaucrat whose mundane life is transformed by his obsession with purchasing a new coat, and then thrown into chaos when that coat is stolen. Through his interactions with high-ranking civil servants as he tries to figure out the proper procedure for getting his coat back, the author criticizes the ineffectiveness and heartlessness of both Russian bureaucracy and society as a whole.

"The Queen of Spades" is a short story with supernatural elements by Russian author Alexander Pushkin, written in 1833 and published in 1834 in the literary magazine Biblioteka dlya chteniya. The story centers on an elderly countess who is a skilled gambler. She never loses any card games, and reportedly has a secret card trick taught to her by a mysterious friend. When a man accosts her, demanding the secret to her success, he sets in motion a series of events that lead to his tragic downfall. Focusing on themes of human greed, the power of storytelling, and the blurred lines between what is real and what is supernatural, "The Queen of Spades" remains one of Pushkin's most widely read short stories, with Russian and Western literary analysts debating its meaning to this day.

THE DISTRICT DOCTOR BY IVAN S. TURGENEV is also among the best of world literature.

"The Amputated Arms" by Jorgen Wilhelm Bergsoe (1867) The mysterious disappearance of several anatomy skeleton's arms at a university leads a student to steal an arm bone from a body in the local graveyard. This leads to horrific nightmares, as the student wrestles with the supernatural cost of his actions.

Dr. Raina L. Woodward very selectively chooses these short stories from the casket of world literature in this present volume and more will follow in future. This is urgently needed so that readers from all ove the world can read and taste the fruits of different lands in a perfect edition.

Dettagli