A Treasury of Russian Life and Humor
Edited, with an Introduction by
COWARD-McCANN. $3.75
IN a book market almost overcrowded with anthologies, this one is a find. Kiev-born John Cournos—novelist, editor, translator, playwright, poet, biographer, critic, and member of a commission sent to Russia by the British Foreign Office in 1917-1918 — has gathered together representative selections, some cut overzealously, from all the categories of Russian literature. And in doing so, he has presented us with a 676-page survey of more than one hundred years of Russian life, letters, and literary tradition. Not only are the acknowledged “greats” here — Tolstoy, Pushkin, Gogel,Turgenev, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, and Gorky — but Russian authors of distinction who are comparatively unknown to the English-speaking world are also amply represented. There are excellent notes and a comprehensive introduction. This anthology has come, of course, at a most opportune moment for a world interested in knowing more about Russia and the Russians.