A child was born, in the dead of night, to a wealthy family in the South-West Territory. The young mother lay sunk in heavy languor; but when the infant's first cry sounded, low and plaintive, she began to toss feverishly on her bed. Her eyes were shut, but her lips moved, whispering, and her pale face, still soft of outline almost as a child's, twisted as though in suffering and impatient prot…
Cerpen-cerpen dalam antologi ini mempresentasikan perkembangan kesusastraan Rusia dan juga kondisi masyarakatnya, mulai awal abad XIX hingga masa Perang Dunia I dan masa Revolusi. Beragam perspektif dan gaya, mulai dari Pushkin yang romantis, Gogol dengan tragedinya, Tolstoy yang bijak, Chekov yang penuh satir jenaka nan pahit, Korolenko yang sentimentil, hingga Gorky sang realis, kesemuanya me…