A lonely man walking down the streets of St. Petersburg saves a woman from being harassed, and over four nights, they slowly get to know each other (White Nights). Doctor Startsev moves to a small provincial town and falls hopelessly in love with the beautiful Ekaterina, but she has ambitions of her own (Ionitch). Mumu tells the sad tale of a destitute, hard-working serf named Gerasim and his bond with his dog Mumu.

This literary treasure trove contains ten of the finest Russian short stories ever written, comprising both lesser-known stories like Leonid Andreyev’s Lazarus, as well as more famous ones such as Nikolai Gogol’s The Cloak. Featuring a wide variety of authors including Maxim Gorky, Alexander Pushkin, and Anton Chekhov, this book serves as a holistic introduction to the wide spectrum of Russian literature.