'It is impossible to explain why Yevgeny chose Liza Annenskaya, as it is always impossible to explain why a man chooses this and not that woman.' This collection of eleven stories spans virtually the whole of Tolstoy's creative life. While each is unique in form, as a group they are representative of his style, and touch on the central themes that surface in War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Stories as different as 'The Snowstorm', 'Lucerne', 'The Diary of a Madman', and 'The Devil' are grounded in autobiographical experience. They deal with journeys of self-discovery and the moral and religious questioning that characterizes Tolstoy's works of criticism and philosophy. 'Strider' and 'Father Sergy', as well as reflecting Tolstoy's own experiences, also reveal profound psychological insights. These stories range over much of the Russian world of the nineteenth century, from the nobility to the peasantry, the military to the clergy, from merchants and cobblers to a horse and a tree. Together they present a fascinating picture of Tolstoy's skill and artistry. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

In a dilapidated and isolated old house, something peculiar seems to happen whenever the town’s bestial exterminator visits. On a seemingly bucolic country estate, the head of the household is a living corpse obsessed with other corpses. An adolescent boy who passes his days in private dream worlds experiences a sexual awakening spurred by his family’s scandalous tenant. In these and other stories, the modernist writer Alexei Remizov offers a panorama of Russian mythology, the supernatural, rural grotesques, and profound religious faith in fiery revolutionary settings. Alexei Remizov was one of the greatest writers of the Russian symbolist movement of the early twentieth century. In the thirteen stories collected in this volume, his exceptional stylistic achievements are on full display. Equally drawing on rural colloquial speech, the language of Russian fairy tales, and the customs of the Old Believers and Russian Orthodoxy, they transport the reader into a mysterious world in between uncanny folktales and encroaching modernity. The Little Devil and Other Stories includes works from across Remizov’s career, encompassing his thematic preoccupations and stylistic experimentation. Antonina W. Bouis’s translation captures Remizov’s many registers to offer English-language readers a sampling of a remarkable Russian writer.

From the Pulitzer Finalist and universally beloved author of the New York Times best sellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove, a stunning new collection of short fiction that showcases Karen Russell’s extraordinary, irresistible gifts of language and imagination. Karen Russell’s comedic genius and mesmerizing talent for creating outlandish predicaments that uncannily mirror our inner in lives is on full display in these eight exuberant, arrestingly vivid, unforgettable stories. In“Bog Girl”, a revelatory story about first love, a young man falls in love with a two thousand year old girl that he’s extracted from a mass of peat in a Northern European bog. In “The Prospectors,” two opportunistic young women fleeing the depression strike out for new territory, and find themselves fighting for their lives. In the brilliant, hilarious title story, a new mother desperate to ensure her infant’s safety strikes a diabolical deal, agreeing to breastfeed the devil in exchange for his protection. The landscape in which these stories unfold is a feral, slippery, purgatorial space, bracketed by the void—yet within it Russell captures the exquisite beauty and tenderness of ordinary life. Orange World is a miracle of storytelling from a true modern master.

The Devil's Storybook is a 1974 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and a 1975 National Book Award Finalist for Children's Books. An ALA Notable Book Chosen by School Library Journal as one of the Best of the Best Books

The Devil is back, just as full of vanity and other human feelings as he was in Natalie Babbitt's first collection, The Devil's Storybook.

The short stories in this first collection by critically acclaimed writer Daryl Gregory run the gamut from science fiction to contemporary fantasy, with a few stories that defy easy classification. His characters may be neuroscientists, superhero sidekicks, middle-aged heroes of children's stories, or fantatics spreading a virus-borne religion, but they are all convincingly human. - Includes two never-before published short stories - Introduction by Nancy Kress

From the Publisher: A new translation of Sand's most popular novella, known for its brevity, liveliness, and exemplary storytelling, together with two of Sand's most admired short stories.

In "The Devil's Church", by Machado de Assis, the Devil, tired of his usual role as tempter, decides to create his own church to lead mankind astray. He promises men power and pleasure, but without the fear of eternal hell, offering a religion of debauchery and hedonism. The satire deals with the corruption and hypocrisy of religious institutions, revealing human nature and its contradictions.

Andrej Koscuisko, the Ragnaroks Ship's Inquisitor, is going home on leave. His ship of assignment is participating in training exercises, and when an observer station unexpectedly explodes _- killing the Ragnaroks captain -_ Pesadie Training Command has to come up with a cover story in a hurry or risk exposure of its black-market profiteering. There is a conveniently obvious explanation: the Ragnarok did it on purpose. All Pesadie needs are a few confessions -- obtained by judicial torture, which creates its own truth. And a bitter enemy from Andrejs earliest days in Fleet has been waiting for just such an opportunity to set a trap and bait it with the lives of people Andrej loves. Andrej will have to fight Fleet itself to bring the Ragnarok the only thing that can save the ship and crew from destruction _- a single piece of evidence with the potential to change the course of the history of Jurisdiction Space forever. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). A tightly woven space opera full of grand heroic gestures and characters strong enough to sustain all the action. -Booklist Matthews' work here -- of projecting a concentrated vision of the horrors of the last hundred years into a space-operatic future -- is extraordinarily risky and emotionally difficult, but now that she has shown that the Judiciary universe holds hope as well as pathology and pain, I will be able to follow Koscuisko to whatever fate awaits him with an easier mind. -Locus Magazine