{"product_id":"the-night-before-christmas-isbn-9780143122487","title":"The Night Before Christmas","description":"\u003cb\u003eOne of six beloved Christmas classics in collectible hardcover editions\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWritten  in 1831 by the father of Russian literature, this uproarious tale tells  of the blacksmith Vakula’s battle with the devil, who has stolen the  moon and hidden it in his pocket, allowing him to wreak havoc on the  village of Dikanka. Both the devil and Vakula are in love with Oksana,  the most beautiful girl in Dikanka. Vakula is determined to win her  over; the devil, equally determined, unleashes a snowstorm to thwart  Vakula’s efforts. Zany and mischievous, and drawing inspiration from the  folk tales of Gogol’s far-flung village in Ukraine, \u003ci\u003eThe Night Before Christmas\u003c\/i\u003e is the basis for many movie and opera adaptations, and is still read aloud to children on Christmas Eve in Ukraine and Russia.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePenguin Christmas Classics\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eGive the gift of literature this Christmas.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003ePenguin  Christmas Classics honor the power of literature to keep on giving  through the ages. The six volumes in the series are not only our most  beloved Christmas tales, they also have given us much of what we love  about the holiday itself. \u003ci\u003eA Christmas Carol\u003c\/i\u003e revived in Victorian  England such Christmas hallmarks as the Christmas tree, holiday cards,  and caroling. The Yuletide yarns of Anthony Trollope popularized  throughout the British Empire and around the world the trappings of  Christmas in London. \u003ci\u003eThe Life and Adventures of Santa Claus \u003c\/i\u003ecreated the origin story for the presiding spirit of Christmas as we know it. The holiday tales of Louisa May Alcott shaped the  ideal of an American Christmas. \u003ci\u003eThe Night Before Christmas\u003c\/i\u003e brought forth some of our earliest Christmas traditions as passed down through folk tales. And \u003ci\u003eThe Nutcracker\u003c\/i\u003e inspired the most famous ballet in history, one seen by millions in the twilight of every year.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBeautifully  designed hardcovers—with foil-stamped jackets, decorative endpapers, and  nameplates for personalization—in a small trim size that  makes them perfect stocking stuffers, Penguin Christmas Classics embody  the spirit of giving that is at the heart of our most time-honored  stories about the holiday.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eCollect all six Penguin Christmas Classics:\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Christmas Carol\u003c\/i\u003e by Charles Dickens\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChristmas at Thompson Hall: And Other Christmas Stories\u003c\/i\u003e by Anthony Trollope\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Life and Adventures of Santa Claus \u003c\/i\u003eby L. Frank Baum\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Merry Christmas: And Other Christmas Stories\u003c\/i\u003e by Louisa May Alcott\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Night Before Christmas\u003c\/i\u003e by Nikolai Gogol\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Nutcracker\u003c\/i\u003e by E. T. A. Hoffmann\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.“For lit nerds and loved ones who are notoriously hard to shop for, you can’t go wrong with these festively bound classics. . . . Their size makes them perfectly stocking-stuffable.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly, \u003c\/i\u003e“The Must List”\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Leave it to the folks at Penguin—who gave us Gothed-out editions of horror classics for Halloween—to package these . . . slim Yuletide-themed volumes.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNewsday, \u003c\/i\u003e“Best Books to Give as Holiday Gifts”\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Remember how Christmas was celebrated before Black Friday with these 19th-century authors, in small uniform volumes wrapped in pretty jackets.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eUSA Today, \u003c\/i\u003e“Holiday Gift Books So Pretty, No Need to Wrap”\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Beautifully designed.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eNikolai Gogol\u003c\/b\u003e (1809–1852) was the son of a Ukrainian gentleman  farmer who was the author of several folk comedies. He attended a  variety of boarding schools, where he proved an indifferent student but  was admired for his theatrical abilities. In 1828 he moved to St.  Petersburg and began to publish stories, and by the mid-1830s he had  established himself in the literary world and been warmly praised by  Pushkin. In 1836, his play \u003ci\u003eThe Inspector-General \u003c\/i\u003ewas attacked as  immoral, and he left Russia, remaining abroad for most of the next dozen  years. During that time he wrote two of his best-known stories, “The  Nose” and “The Overcoat,” and in 1842 he published the first section of  his masterpiece \u003ci\u003eDead Souls\u003c\/i\u003e. Gogol became increasingly religious  as the years passed, and in 1847 he became the disciple of an Orthodox  priest who influenced him to burn the second part of\u003ci\u003e Dead Souls\u003c\/i\u003e and then abandon writing altogether. After undertaking an extreme fast, he died at the age of forty-two.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnna Summers\u003c\/b\u003e (translator) is the editor and translator of two books by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, \u003ci\u003eThere Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children, Until They Moved Back In: Three Novellas \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThere Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister’s Husband, and He Hanged Himself: Love Stories, \u003c\/i\u003eand the coeditor and cotranslator of Petrushevskaya’s \u003ci\u003eThere Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales. \u003c\/i\u003eBorn and raised in Moscow, she now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is the literary editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Baffler.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKonstantin Makovsky \u003c\/b\u003e(illustrator; 1839–1915)\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003ewas one of the most celebrated artists in the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIgor Grabar \u003c\/b\u003e(illustrator; 1871–1960)\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003ewas  a student of Konstantin Makovsky’s, and a celebrated painter in his own  right.  He later became one of the premier art administrators in the  Soviet Union, personally advising Joseph Stalin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAleksei Kivshenko \u003c\/b\u003e(illustrator; 1851–1895) was a Russian painter acclaimed for his depictions of historical subjects, especially battles.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTHE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTHE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePENGUIN BOOKS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTHE DAY OF CHRISTMAS EVE ENDED, AND the night began, cold and clear. The stars and the crescent moon shone brightly upon the Christian world, helping all the good folks welcome the birth of our Savior. The cold grew sharper, yet the night was so quiet that one could hear the snow squeak under a traveler’s boots from half a mile away. Caroling hadn’t yet begun; village youths weren’t yet crowded outside the windows waiting for treats; the moon alone peeked through, as though inviting the girls to finish up their toilette and run out onto the clean, sparkling snow. Just then one of the chimneys began to belch clouds of black smoke, and along with them, straddling a broom, flew out a witch. If Sorochintsy’s property assessor happened to be passing by on a troika of horses in his resplendent winter attire, he surely would have noticed the witch, for that remarkable man noticed everything: every piglet, every bolt of cloth in a housewife’s trunk, each household article her husband left at the tavern on Sunday. But, unfortunately, the assessor wasn’t anywhere in the vicinity, and why would he be? He had his own district to mind.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303908430053,"sku":"NP9780143122487","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780143122487.jpg?v=1767740706","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-night-before-christmas-isbn-9780143122487","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}