Tales of Belkin (The Art of the Novella)

I guess since this was Pushkin’s first work, I should have expected an adolescent effort. It’s good to know that even the greatest writers had to start somewhere.

Alexander Pushkin is considered one of Russia’s great authors of short stories and Tales of Belkin are considered among his earlier and better-known collections. The only uniting thread to the five stories is as we are told in the somewhat comic introduction supposedly in Pushkin’s own voice is that all of these stories were collected by a third person, the landowner nice guy but mostly bland Belkin. We are to believe that these are all true stories but passed directly or indirectly to the real author/editor Belkin, now deceased. We are to believe these are all true stories but all links to their sources are broken.Among the more common themes is Russian fiction is a duel. And it is with a duel that the collection begin. Called The Shot, it starts as another view into life among under employed Army officers but ends continues with the more unusual concept of an incomplete duel.Given Russian weather it is also common to have a short story about or called The Blizzard. Something of a serio-comic romance misadventure.The Undertaker is not surprising, a Ghost Story. But Pushkin starts with the typical and takes it into hisown direction.The Station Master is perhaps the most complex of these stories. It begins with a discussion of Russian Civil Service and the lowly role of one of its most junior professions, the station master. Our story teller relates the story of what he experienced as well as heard from one that is worth telling. Thinking again on the collection, Pushkin would have it understood that P is publishing the stories as told to Belkin and in this case involving both first hand and second hand points of origin.The Squire’s Daughter continues this process of stories told to, and told by the person who heard it from. The plot to this one can be told without an spoiler by noting that in the Russian the Title is The “Noblewoman-Peasant” This is a romantic love story.Overall, the short collection 108 pages in the always elegant Melville Art of the Novella editions are a pleasant few hours of reading. These are not great tales. None of them are memorable, but given Russian literature’s reputation for heavy, dark and long reads, The Tales of Belkin make for easy reads and a fine introduction to the great Russians.

First a caveat -- this is more of a preliminary evaluation of the book than a proper review. I will eventually give it its proper due.Being a long-time reader of works in translation, I know how important it is to find a worthwhile translation before beginning the reading of any particular work. Poor, or merely dated, translation can render the life out of even the most vibrant and vital of works. My initial feeling is that Hugh Aplin has done a fine job in translating Pushkin here. I began simply by reading the introduction and a few of the stories, with attention to the notes.As for the introduction, it is helpful and interesting reading, placing this work of prose within the context of Pushkin's literary development, and of Russian literature in general. The stories are quite readable. They don't suffer from strangulated translation. They don't read like a 21st century writer wearing the affectation of 19th century "pantaloons, waistcoat, and frock," -- "these words are not of Russian stock..." -- and therefore give relatively direct access to English readers of Pushkin's stories.Without making an exhaustive search for other translations of these stories, I did briefly compare them with the stories and notes as previously published in Norton's The Complete Tales of Alexandr Sergeyevitch Pushkin (trans. Aitken, Gillon R., 1966) and found that Aplin's version comes out favorably. The Aitken version feels dated and rather wooden, where Aplin's dialog, for example, has a far more natural flow to it -- at least to my modern ears. The notes, too, seem to be superior in the Hesperus publication, being more frequent, and somewhat more expansive.As I stated at the outset, this is merely an initial evaluation of the kind that I perform for myself every time I set out to read a work in translation. My opinion of the book may change as I read it closely and thoroughly, but there is every indication that this will be a successful and enjoyable read.[Originally written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers]

Very happy, would use again, Thanks