This collection brings together six of Turgenev’s best-known `long’ short stories, in which he turns his skills of psychological observation and black comedy to subjects as diverse as the tyranny of serfdom, love, and revenge on the Russian steppes. These stories all display the elegance and clarity of Turgenev’s finest writing.

Richard Freeborn was until recently Professor of Russian at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London.