Books in the Russian Texts series

Pikovaia dama (The Queen of Spades) has continued to fascinate readers since its first publication in 1834, and has been successfully adapted to both operatic stage and screen. The most generally admired of Pushkin's stories, it has earned a high place amongst his works as a whole and in many ways is the embodiment of 'essential' Pushkin. With its play on both psychology and the fantastic, its tersely precise language and its openness to multiple readings, it continues to mesmerise critics, teachers and students alike.This book contains the complete text in Russian of The Queen of Spades, with an introduction to Pushkin's life and work. The text is also supplemented with extensive notes in English and a complete vocabulary.

This book contains the Russian text of Karamzin's Poor Liza, edited with an English language introduction and notes

A title in the BCP Russian Texts series, in Russian with English notes, vocabulary and introduction. In this play, the defeated Whites flee the Reds and emigrate to Constantinople and Paris. In the form of eight "dreams", it hovers between tragedy and comedy.

A fictional account of one woman's experience following the arrest of her son during the Yezhov purges. Written in 1939-40 but not published in the Soviet Union until 1988, the introduction tells the story of its publication, gives a brief biography of the author and a vocabulary and notes.

This edition contains three of Ta'tiana Tolstaia's stories: "Sweet Shura" ("Milaia Shura"), "Peters" ("Peters"), and "The Okkerril River" ("Reka Okkerril"). The book is in Russian language with English notes and vocabulary that explain Tolstaia's stylistic characteristics.

Nevsky Prospect, published in 1835, is Gogol's major contribution to the 'Petersburg' theme in Russian literature, a theme taken up and developed by Dostoevsky, Blok, Zamiatin and many others. By day, Nevsky Prospect, the capital's main thoroughfare, is thronged with people from all sections of Petersburg society. After dusk it is the haunt of prostitutes and the Devil holds sway. Gogol's story, which he eventually includes in the 'Petersburg' cycle of tales, is ostensibly two stories in one, linked by the slimmest of threads: the tragic tale of the flippant philanderer Pirogov. In the final paragraphs, another theme emerges: the struggle between Good and Evil or - in Gogol's terms - between Beauty and the Devil.Nevsky Prospect epitomizes much of what has come to be termed Gogolian, the inimitable prose style, the love hate relationship with Petersburg, and above all the preoccupation with poshlost (vulgar pretentiousness) in all its manifold forms.