Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

Contains a selection of the short stories of Ivan Turgenev, a 19th century writer of tales of Russian peasants and aristocrats.

A diary by a man who has a few days left to live as he recounts incidents of his life. He is intelligent, well-educated, and informed but incapable, for reasons as complex as Hamlet's, of engaging in effective action. The story has become the archetype for the Russian literary concept of the superfluous man.

When a young graduate returns home he is accompanied, much to his father and uncle's discomfort, by a strange friend "who doesn't acknowledge any authorities, who doesn't accept a single principle on faith." Turgenev's masterpiece of generational conflict shocked Russian society when it was published in 1862 and continues today to seem as fresh and outspoken as it did to those who first encountered its nihilistic hero.

"In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders guides the reader through seven classic Russian short stories he's been teaching for twenty years as a professor in the prestigious Syracuse University graduate MFA creative writing program. Paired with stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, these essays are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it's more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. Saunders approaches...

Tiger at the gates--The lark--A Month in the country--My three angels--Ondine --The Madwoman of Chaillot--No exit-Jacobowsky and the Colonel--The sea gull --Noah--Volpone--(etc.).