Ivan Petrovich Belkin left behind a great number of manuscripts....
Most of them, as Ivan Petrovich told me, were true stories heard from
various people.
First published anonymously in 1830, Alexander Pushkin's Tales of
Belkin contains his first prose works. It is comprised of an
introductory note and five linked stories, ostensibly collected by the
scholar Ivan Belkin. The stories center variously around military
figures, the wealthy, and businessmen; this beautiful novella gives a
vivid portrait of nineteenth century Russian life.
It has become, as well, one of the most beloved books in Russian
literary history, and symbolic of the popularity of the novella form in
Russia. In fact, it has become the namesake for Russia's most
prestigious annual literary prize, the Belkin Prize, given each year to
a book voted by judges to be the best novella of the year.
It is presented here in a sparkling new translation by Josh Billings.
Tales of Belkin also highlights the nature of our ongoing Art of the
Novella Series--that is, that it specializes in important although
albeit lesser-known works by major writers, often in new tranlsations.
The Art of The Novella Series
Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is
generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a
form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art
Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form
and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented
in book form for the first time.
