Short Stories in Russian: New Penguin Parallel Text (Russian Edition) Kindle Edition

The translators, including editor Baer have done good work on the English language editions of these short stories. However, missing stress markers is only one of several problems. Especially in the Kindle, it does not work to put the Russian and English versions as complete stories following each other. We want to study each sentence and word, so the stories have to be published paragraph by paragraph – unless you can run two devices. The editor states he has selected stories about arms and hands, which is a strange limitation of the riches of Russian literature. It is not followed consistently either, the “Beast” story is rather about a defecating cat and to my mind the worst of a series of stories about endless misery and troubles. I managed to read the “Beast” version in English, but no way I shall risk depression by struggling with this story in Russian! I also disagree about the sequencing of the stories, where the “Arm” towards the end is easier reading than for instance the earlier “Hands” with page after page not separated into paragraphs. This dense text really shows why a thematic choice is a bad way of choosing short stories for pedagogical purposes. It is again both a difficult and a depressing story, about the executing of a dozen priests. The first story in the book “Don’t panic”, science fiction where a grandfather tells his grandson the story shows the kind of principles that work.The dictionary look-up function is a great Kindle tool, but the Russian/English dictionary that can be downloaded to the Kindle is quite inadequate. So many words are missing, especially prefixed Russian verbs, that the program frequently wants to check with Wikipedia, and there these words are not indexed either. I would rather put money into better dictionaries ...

This book was the perfect gift for a young Russian who is learning English (which seems to be everyone under 30 years old).

Great for side by side reading and checking translation. Perfect for an in-between beginner and intermediate skill level.

Thank you for the book ! Great edition !

Great for higher level learning of the Russian language.

Delivered as Promised

As learning material, this really needs to either have an audio track or stress marks, ideally both. I don't understand why so much Russian "learning" material has neither.

I have decided to update my review, having reached the end, because this book's problems are worse than just sloppy inaccuracies in the translations. In relation to these, for example, the first story ends with a child going hunting with his grandfather and being told to go in front because "you're young and very vulnerable". However in the Russian, the child is young and very poisonous (all part of the story). Likewise, in the second story, a North facing window is translated as West facing. The result is that one is left doubting the reliability of the translation throughout.However, it is even more bewildering to the student of Russisn because evidently no-one has bothered to proof-read the Russian text. It is littered with typos (medal printed as pedal being one of the sillier ones) and something happened when type-setting it, as a result of which, plenty of words are inexplicably split in two. This would be irritating for a native speaker but will leave the student completely lost.Avoid.

I was quite excited when I found this book, and since it was purchased with a gift card - I bought it.The blurb on the back states, 'offers students of all levels …' Well, for starters, unless you are of at least a very good intermediate level - forget it!The book has three fundamental faults: first, the Russian text DOES NOT HAVE STRESS MARKS - this is a fatal error if this book is for all levels. Second, the notes on the Russian texts are very poor: colloquialisms and idioms should have been fully included. Third, the actual level of the stories is more appropriate for advanced students of Russian.Anyone who is not at the level of a very good intermediate student will struggle with this book, and may, in all probability, abandon it.If you are an advanced level student, you will cope this book; otherwise, you will struggle to understand the Russian texts.

These ten short stories have been chosen carefully with thought, initially with the aim of reflecting the flavour of a "modern" post-USSR literature hopefully freed from the constraints of the Cold War. In the interesting introductory chapter, the editor describes how he found himself choosing the "eternal themes" of Russian literature, albeit with a late Soviet and early post-Soviet twist": problems of war and state-sponsored violence, influence of the past on culture, and conflict between the generations - also a Russian blend of tragedy and humour, and a nuanced sense of morality, in which winners and losers cannot readily be distinguished, all the inevitable outcome of trying to survive in a corrupt and repressive political system.To get the most from this book, one needs a good basic grasp of Russian e.g. familiarity with the meaning of the roots of words to work out the harder vocabulary, so I am saving it for a year or to when I shall be less reliant on the parallel text.

Good book. The parallel text is not a direct word for word translation, but is very readable in English. The Russian I am learning so cannot comment on the literary quality but it is of a standard that is fairly understandable, with some reference to the English, for a relative beginner, if not an absolute beginner. Makes a change from grammar books.I recommend it.

excellent product. excellent service.