People who know Dostoevsky only through such famous novels as The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment will be surprised and delighted by this collection of stories. It shows Dostoevsky in a variety of moods—tender and romantic in “The White Nights, “ satiric in “The Xmas Tree and a Wedding,” revealingly autobiographical in “The Peasant Marey,” pitilessly analytic in “Notes from the Underground,” one of the most significant and impressive things he ever wrote. These stories also show an artistry equal to, and in many ways even surpassing, that of the great novels, powerful and intense as they are.

These brilliant modern translations by David Magarshack accomplish one of the most difficult tasks in the world—to transfer great literature to another language and still keep it indisputably great.