{"product_id":"tales-of-belkin-isbn-9781933633732","title":"Tales of Belkin","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIvan Petrovich Belkin left behind a great number of manuscripts.... Most of them, as Ivan Petrovich told me, were true stories heard from various people.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst published anonymously in 1830, Alexander Pushkin’s \u003ci\u003eTales of Belkin\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is presented here in a sparkling new  translation by Josh Billings. \u003ci\u003eTales of Belkin\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe Art of The Novella Series\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eToo 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.\"I wanted them all, even those I'd already read.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Ron Rosenbaum, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe New York Observer\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Small wonders.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eTime Out London\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\"\u003c\/i\u003e[F]irst-rate…astutely selected and attractively packaged…indisputably great works.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Adam Begley, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe New York Observer\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"I’ve always been haunted by Bartleby, the proto-slacker. But it’s the handsomely minimalist cover of the Melville House edition that gets me here, one of many in the small publisher’s fine 'Art of the Novella' series.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"The Art of the Novella series is sort of an anti-Kindle. What these singular, distinctive titles celebrate is book-ness. They're slim enough to be portable but showy enough to be conspicuously consumed—tiny little objects that demand to be loved for the commodities they are.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—KQED (NPR San Francisco)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Some like it short, and if you're one of them, Melville House, an independent publisher based in Brooklyn, has a line of books for you... elegant-looking paperback editions ...a good read in a small package.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlexander Pushkin\u003c\/b\u003e was born into the Russian nobility in Moscow in 1799. Educated by French tutors while learning Russian from the household serfs, he began publishing poems in his early teens and soon gained widespread recognition, especially for his use of vernacular. At 18 he received a government appointment in St. Petersburg and threw himself into cultural life, including associating with radical intellectuals. He published his first major work, the long poem \u003ci\u003eRusian and Ludmila\u003c\/i\u003e, in 1820, shortly before being banished from the capital for writing political poems such as\u003ci\u003eOde to Liberty\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eIn 1825 some friends were involved in the Decembrist uprising, and Pushkin’s restrictions were tightened. Yet he wrote some of his greatest work in exile, including his play\u003ci\u003eBoris Godunov\u003c\/i\u003e and his novel-in-verse \u003ci\u003eEugene Onegin\u003c\/i\u003e. Finally pardoned by the Tsar, he married Natalya Goncharova in 1831. They became regulars of court society, which soon impoverished Pushkin, and in 1837, scandalous rumors about Natalya prompted him to challenge an alleged paramour to a duel. Wounded, Pushkin died two days later. Fearing a public outpouring at his funeral, the government removed his body in the night, to be buried at his family’s distant estate.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJosh Billings\u003c\/b\u003e is a fiction writer and translator who lives in Maine. He is also the translator of the Melville House edition of \u003ci\u003eThe Duel\u003c\/i\u003e, by Aleksandr Kuprin.","brand":"Melville House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304451756261,"sku":"NP9781933633732","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781933633732.jpg?v=1767737752","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/tales-of-belkin-isbn-9781933633732","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}