A Bad Business: Essential Stories, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

 

Six stories comprise this new collection from Pushkin Press by Russian master Fyodor Dostoevsky.

In the novella length title story, a state councillor decides to gatecrash the wedding party of one of his office subordinates. A morally vain man, Ivan Ilyich thinks he can infuse some of his lofty values into the common people's celebration. It turns into a mortifyingly awkward evening as the revelers try to keep their superior happy, with Ivan Ilyich feeling terribly out of place. The petty official ends up drinking too much and making a spectacle of himself.

The whimsical “Conversations in a Graveyard” features a group of newly dead corpses who discuss various philosophical points, arriving at the conclusion that they should abandon all shame and enjoy their time before they fully decompose.

A miserly pawn shop owner chronicles his failed marriage in “A Meek Creature” and in the hilarious “The Crocodile” an obnoxiously ambitious man sees career advancement and opportunity when he is swallowed whole by a crocodile. Living in the crocodile's belly with relative comfort, he sees himself as being a scientific wonder. 

The last two stories, “The Heavenly Christmas Tree” and “The Peasant Marey” are short autobiographical pieces that touch on themes of the writer's imagination and human kindness.

Dostoevsky exhibits his usual brisk pacing and biting satire in these stories. The title story is a brilliant psychological portrait of  the gap between how we see ourselves and how the world does. And “The Crocodile”, the other standout story, is delightfully clever and absurdist, lampooning the overconfident type of personality who refuses to see reality.

Sharp, witty and vivid, these entertaining and inventive six stories will surprise and astonish.  

A Bad Business: Essential Stories, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Published by Pushkin Press. $24.99

NOV 22

Michael Kohlhaas, by Heinrich Von Kleist

 A wronged horse trader exacts revenge at a high cost.

Michael Kohlhaas is a 16th century horse trader. He is leading a group of his horses on his way to Saxony when he is stopped by an official representing the nobleman Junker Wenzel von Tronka. It is claimed that Michael Kohlhaas is crossing without legal transit papers. The official demands two horses as collateral until the business is fixed up. When he arrives at Dresden, the capital of Saxony, the horse trader learns that he didn't need transit papers after all and the taking of his two horses was totally unjustified. When he  demands his horses back, he finds they have been maltreated, overworked in the fields. Michael Kohlhaas sues Junker Tronka damages, but through the Junker's political connections, the case is dismissed.

Outraged at this turn of events, Kohlhaas raises a private army (consisting mostly of vagabonds and opportunists) and starts terrorising the countryside. He commits what could only be considered today as atrocities and summary executions. Having raged and caused utter mayhem, burning towns to the ground, Kohlhaas is captured and thrown into a dungeon. Ultimately, through utter persistence, he wins his case against the Junker, but pays what finally seems like a much higher price.

German author Heinrich Von Kleist first published Michael Kohlhaas in 1810. It has since found many famous admirers, among them Susan Sontag and Franz Kafka, the latter claiming to have read it in one sitting. Kafka is a good way to think about this strange, often loopy piece of fiction. While much of what it describes is a tooth and nail fight against corrupt authority, involving ruthless arson and murder, it's for the most part a farcical comedy. It echoes Kafka in its intricate descriptions of labyrinthine bureaucracy, but has the ironic and absurdist energy of Dostoevsky. The entitled world of the aristocracy, living a web of lies, of corrupted law courts and arbitrary powers, proves to be a savage joke in itself. As long as you're not caught up in it, of course. The great mystery at the centre of the book is why the horse trader goes to such extraordinary and ultimately self-defeating ends to recover his two horses. He is essentially a fundamentalist blowing everything up to attain a proportionally smaller victory.

Based on the real life 16th century horse trader Hans Kohlhase, it is believed Von Kleist wrote Michael Kohlhass to express his displeasure with the Prussian government, but in a covert way.

A vertiginous satire on the state, power and bureaucracy.

Love and Youth: Essential Stories, by Ivan Turgenev

 

Five stories and a novella from an undisputed Russian master.

Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883) was a Russian writer of novels, short stories, poems and plays. He is best known in the West for his novel Fathers and Sons.

Love and Youth is a new translation of Turgenev's stories by Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater. The collection opens with First Love, a 100 page novella about a sixteen-year-old youth, Vladimir, who falls in love with his neigbour, a princess named Zinaida. She is some six years older than Vladimir and is playing a group of male admirers off each other. Vladimir is clearly out of his depth, but desperately clings to Zinaida, futilely hoping to win a first place in her affections. First Love perfectly captures the tremulous quality of naive, youthful desire.

In "Bezhin Meadow" a group of superstitious youths talk of frightening supernatural occurrences, all happening in a transcendentally beautiful Russian meadow; "The District Doctor" describes how a local doctor falls in love with his dying patient; the often humorous "Rattling Wheels" features a  frightening coach journey taken on Russia's backroads by two men trying to avoid a group of drunken bandits; and finally, ending the collection, a story about a young woman who implores her listless, indifferent boyfriend to at least show her some affection.
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Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater's translation is sublime, capturing Turgenev's simple, naturalistic style. For example, the descriptions of the landscape and wildlife in “Bezhin Meadow” is breathtakingly beautiful. Turgenev also draws wonderfully humane and sympathetic characters that are easily recognisable today. A dreamy, realistic, deceptively simple collection that highlights what a master Turgenev was.

Love and Youth: Essential Stories, by Ivan Turgenev. Published by Pushkin Press. $24.99

Isolde, by Irina Odoevtseva

Irina Odoevtseva fled Russia soon after the 1917 Revolution and lived in Germany, then France, not returning to her homeland until 1987. She was a poet, memoirist and novelist. Isolde, published in 1929, was her second novel. It has now been translated into English for the first time.

Pretty, doll-like Liza lives in Biarritz, a seaside playground for the rich on the coast of France. She is fourteen-years-old and is much sought after by other boys. One day on the beach she meets Cromwell, an English lad who is a few years older than her. Cromwell professes undying love for Liza, calls her his “Isolde”, and is quickly drawn into her group, which includes her older brother, Antonio, and friend Odette. This young group of carefree youths live the fast life, dining out at restaurants, drinking and generally seeking pleasure. The truth of the matter, however, is that they are all short on money, or if they have money, then it is soon enough running out. The group sponges off Cromwell, while Liza, an innocent, free spirit, talks about meeting up with Andrei, a former boyfriend.

Everyone is riding an emotional merry-go-round, even Liza's mother, Natasha. She has a needy boyfriend, Bunny, who has drained his bank account for her and even started embezzling money. The slavish Bunny is not enough for Natasha, and she takes up with Boris, who is emotionally abusive.

Everything spins faster and faster for this group of children and adults. Pleasure, money, indulgence, fast cars, sex. But as the money runs out and the discarded relationships pile up, everything seems on a crash course for disaster.

Isolde caused a scandal in its day, with its air of delicious decadence and beautiful yet tainted youth. Odoevtseva captivates with her descriptions of the beautiful Liza, her trilling laughter, languid afternoons and breezy, uncomplicated character. The scene in Biarritz is painted as an enticing, voluptuaries’ playground. It’s hard not to be seduced. But as the novel progresses, one feels the hangover of such excesses, until such a dissolute lifestyle catches up with everyone. Ultimately Isolde is a moral story. Living for pleasure, on other people's money, with no consideration for the feelings of others, is the fastest route to hell.

Odoevtseva writes in a light, breezy tone, skilfully weaving into her spirited narrative an impending sense of dread, decay and doom. What a treat for English readers to have this long ignored Russian classic now available in translation.
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Isolde, by Irina Odoevtseva. Published by Pushkin. $24.99

First published August 2019 at northmelbournebooks.com.au

The Eternal Husband, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky wrote The Eternal Husband between two of his major works,The Idiot and The Devils. It's a lesser known novel that should not be overlooked.

The Eternal Husband opens with the rich landowner Velchaninov fretting over a legal case concerning an estate. He's a hypochondriac, a flighty, nervous type who is haunted by memories from his past. Velchaninov tries to rise above his personal demons, giving himself pep talks that he is managing, even overcoming his problems. But still, the scenes of his past keep returning in his mind's eye, many of them shameful. If only he could put these ghosts away and enjoy his status as a respected landowner.

Making matters worse is the appearance of a strange man. This unknown man has an uncanny habit of reappearing again and again. Velchaninov almost feels that he is being taunted, that the flickering, inquisitive eyes of the stranger are indeed a reproach, even a challenge. Velchaninov becomes utterly paranoid until things build to a climax. The man hovers outside his lodgings. Unable to stand the suspense any longer, Velchaninov opens the door. They stand face to face, but something strange happens. Velchaninov recognises the man. He is Trusotsky. The two men were friends a decade ago. A complicating factor is Velchaninov's relationship with Trusotsky's wife, Natalya – they were having an affair. Natalya has now passed away, leaving only a daughter, Liza, who may be Velchaninov's. Does Trusotsky know? Is Liza Velchaninov's daughter?

The psychological game of cat-and-mouse played out in The Eternal Husbandreads like an absurdist farce. Both main characters, Velchaninov and Trusotsky, are highly strung and continually dance around each other, keeping their cards close to their chests, trying to outmanoeuvre each other.

What the theme of the novel is remains a mystery, however Dostoevsky excels at  bringing to life our changeable, inconsistent natures, forever haunted by bad memories, paranoia and fevered daydreams. Dostoevsky doesn't paint these human failings as tragic, but rather as comic. There's an operatic, almost campy madness to most of the narrative. In one memorable scene Trusotsky raves deliriously to Velchaninov about how much he admires him, and then kisses him on the hand. Moments later Trusotsky demands Velchaninov kiss him back (“do kiss me!”), which he does, on the lips.
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A highly accomplished, utterly original portrait of the human psyche in its everyday, disordered state.

The Eternal Husband, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Published by Alma Classics. $14.99

Review by Chris Saliba. Originally published July 2019 at northmelbournebooks.com.au

The Enchanted Wanderer and Other Stories, by Nikolai Leskov

A little known Russian master of the short story.

Nikolai Leskov began his writing career as a journalist, was a contemporary of such Russian greats as Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, and started publishing fiction in 1862. He traveled widely around his homeland of Russia and was intimately acquainted with all levels of society, a knowledge that is reflected in his stories and novellas. He wrote several full length novels, but it is the shorter form in which he excelled.

The Enchanted Wanderer and Other Stories, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, is a collection of Leskov’s best. The stories in large part describe 19th century Russian life, although at break neck speed. There’s never a dull moment. Socially, the focus is on the clergy, the military, tradesmen, artisans and the many roles women play. In one of Leskov’s most famous stories, "The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk", bored housewife Katerina takes up with the farmhand Sergei and undertakes several murders, allowing her to seize control of her husband’s considerable estate. While it is a breathtaking story of unrepentant wickedness, it also highlights women's expected role as submissive servants to house and husband. Other stories exemplify a society that is deeply superstitious, with a runaway imagination. “The Spook”, an engaging story about a poor social outcast living on the fringe of town, shows how the misunderstood can find themselves turned into an ogre and scapegoat for anything that goes wrong. 

The great thing about Leskov’s short stories are their sheer energy and verve. Everything travels at a rate of knots, with snappy dialogue and a host of buoyant characters. There’s much humour and humanity here, too. Leskov takes pity and forgives the human condition, while also exploiting it ruthlessly for entertainment value. These stories are a joy to read, like nothing you’ve ever read before, and like all great literature, one reading will never be enough.

The Enchanted Wanderer and Other Stories, by Nikolai Leskov. Published by Vintage Classics. $24.99

Review by Chris Saliba. Originally published July 2019 at northmelbournebooks.com.au

Humiliated and Insulted, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Staff review by Chris Saliba


Dostoyevsky’s early novel Humiliated and Insulted is a brilliant achievement.

Humiliated and Insulted was Dostoyevsky’s second novel after his Siberian exile (he was charged with political subversion). Published in 1861, it was written with an eye on re-entry into the Russian literary world. Many of Dostoyevsky’s major literary works such as Notes from the Underground and Crime and Punishment would soon follow.

The plot is so wildly intricate and dramatic, no summary could do the novel justice. It’s perhaps best to say there’s an odious villain, Prince Valkovsky, a poor waif, Nelly, and two young women in love with the Prince’s son, Alyosha.  One of the women, Katya, is a rich heiress. The other love interest, Natasha, is the daughter of middle-class parents and a childhood friend of the narrator, Vanya. The drama ostensibly centres around Alyosha and who he will choose for his wife. His father, the evil Prince, has been manoeuvring his son to marry the rich Katya, so he can get his grubby hands on her money. Another plot involves the waif Nelly and connects her to Prince Valkovsky.

It’s amazing to think that Humiliated and Insulted isn’t better known amongst English readers. The novel is a superbly baked souffle. Dostoyevsky reveals his story at a swift pace, astonishing the reader with a dizzying amount of detail. Every character’s smallest gesture and reaction is captured with absolute precision. While the style is almost naturalistic, there are also many uncanny effects. The descriptions of the wicked Prince are unforgettable, especially his Chinese slippers and bejewelled evening wear. Many scenes read as comic, similar in spirit to the black comedy of Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe. Prince Valkovsky also has much in common with the wicked Robert Lovelace out of Samuel Richardson’s proto-feminist novel Clarissa (1748). He laughs as he commits his vices.

The only criticism that could be levelled at the book is the title. Humiliated and Insulted makes the novel sound like a dark, turgid tome, whereas its style is light and full of playful irony. Dostoyevsky fans should definitely pick this gem up. For new readers of Dostoyevsky, Humiliated and Insulted is a great place to start. Every page will thrill you.

Humiliated and Insulted, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Published by Alma Classics. ISBN: 9781847492692  RRP: $19.99

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The White Guard, by Mikhail Bulgakov

Staff review by Chris Saliba

A riveting novel that chronicles some of the worst horrors of the Ukrainian Civil War. 

Mikhail Bulgakov's 1925 novel, The White Guard, first appeared in serial form in the literary journal Rossiya. Unhappily for Bulgakov, the journal was closed down before the serial was completed. The novel finally appeared in full in 1966. Some good luck did come out of the partial serialisation, as the author was asked to turn his novel into a play, which became the highly successful The Days of the Turbins.

The year is 1918. With both their parents now dead, the adult Turbin children must try to survive through the horrors of civil war. Three main groups, the Bolsheviks, the Socialists and the Germans, fight for control of the city of Kiev. Allegiances shift in complicated chess board moves, making survival almost a game of Russian roulette.

Alexei is the eldest Turbin. He is a doctor. Then there is Elena, who has married. And the youngest is Nikolka. The novel for the main part describes their family life at home, including neighbours and visitors. These parts of the story give the reader a great feel for the cultural life of the city, the attitudes of both its intellectuals and workers. Bulgakov also gives many great topographical descriptions of the city, its glorious buildings, streets and public places. The main action of the novel centres around Alexei and Nikolka on the run in the streets of Kiev, hunted down as enemies. These parts of the book offer heart-in-your-mouth descriptions of what it was like to have your life in the balance, when the political situation was so topsy-turvy, when everyone seems to be a potential enemy, and when the hatred between political parties was absolutely diabolical.

Bulgakov himself worked as a doctor during the Ukrainian Civil War and experienced much death and destruction up close. He had to play the delicate political game of survival. The White Guard is riven with first hand experience, making it like a mini War and Peace. Many of the scenes are not easily forgettable. The sections that deal with Alexei recovering the dead body of an officer from the morgue for his mother are amazing for their horror and ghoulishness. It's the sort of stuff you can't make up. Finally, there are the many striking portraits. Bulgakov excels as a psychologist, evoking the mad, fevered states of mind that civil war – a world turned upside down – induces.

The White Guard is perhaps not a very easy read, but once you have finished it, and more of the novel's complexities come together, you do feel compelled to go back and read it again. I should say for anyone interested in the history of those times, it is indispensable.

The White Guard, by Mikhail Bulgakov. Published by Vintage. ISBN: 9780099490661  RRP: $14.99

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The Lady With the Little Dog and Other Stories, by Anton Chekov

Staff Review by Chris Saliba


Chekov’s short stories are funny, pessimistic, and ultimately very realistic.

Many years ago I remember trying to read Chekov’s short stories and not enjoying them particularly. Having finished this collection of later short stories, I think I now know why. Chekov’s stories have no strong plots or structure; they just seem to run along in their own way. You feel like you’ve been dropped into the chaos of someone’s life and left to swim through the choppy waters of their contradictory emotions. The style comes close to stream of consciousness. No wonder Virginia Woolf was such a fan of Chekov. It’s all very much the stuff of real life.

The title story, “The Lady with the Little Dog”, reminded me of the films of Woody Allen (I think he was inspired by Chekov too). It’s about a man and a woman who, unhappily married and seeking some excitement, embark on an affair. It’s extraordinary for its emotional realism. The man lies to himself, thinking that an affair will be all lightness and playfulness, but the reality is such an affair can only end badly. Both parties lie to themselves, thinking they can create a heaven on earth, but that’s just a fantasy. Reality is quite different.

Other stories examine family relationships, Russia’s peasants and life’s hardships. Despite a lot of the gloominess and pessimism of the stories, Chekov can also be quite funny. There’s one story where two men discuss the history of a colleague, one who was so neurotic that he made his life more miserable than it needed to be. Chekov is such a  sharp observer of human nature, of our changeable and indecisive natures, that he can capture every mad turn we take in our brains with amazing accuracy. His themes seem to be that too much choice can be a bad thing, and ultimately we don’t really know what we want anyway. 

The only real parallel in recent contemporary fiction to Chekov would be American short story writer John Cheever (1912-1982). Interestingly, both excelled at the short story (Cheever’s novels aren’t nearly as successful). It’s as though these intense inspections of the human heart can’t survive a longer treatment. The Lady with the Little Dog and Other Stories is a brilliant collection from a Russian master. I enjoyed him much better twenty years later, the second time around.

The Lady With the Little Dog and Other Stories, by Anton Chekov. Published by Penguin. ISBN: 9780140447873 RRP: $9.95

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The Double, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Staff Review by Chris Saliba

Dostoyevsky’s short early novel about a paranoid, mid-level office worker is a minor classic. It’s comic, surreal and psychologically spot on.

The Double was Dostoyevsky’s second novel, published in 1846. He later revised it in 1866.

The style of the novel is very much in the vein of fellow Russian Nikolai Gogol’s black comedies, although the writing certainly does anticipate the later novels, such as Crime and Punishment and The Devils.

The plot is fairly simple. A government clerk, Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, meets a younger man who looks exactly like him. Not only do the two men look like twins, they also have the exact same full name. To make matters worse, the younger Golyadkin (named junior throughout the text) has taken a job, exactly the same position at Golyadkin senior’s place of work. Throughout the story Golyadkin junior taunts and humiliates Golyadkin senior, who to add to his problems suffers all sorts of paranoia and hypochondria. Indeed, it often seems just possible that Golyadkin senior has dreamt up this terrible foe and the dreadful fate that he leads him to.

Dostoyevsky brilliantly mixes a hallucinatory style (visually the surrealist paintings of Magritte came to mind as I read) with a witty and sophisticated black humour. The laughs aren’t explicit, but rather implied in the farcical situations that Golyadkin senior keeps winding up in. Anyone who has felt themselves to be excessively sensitive, paranoid or simply unable to cope with social situations will find much relief in Golyadkin’s feverish stream-of-consciousness ravings. It’s good to know you’re not alone! Dostoyevsky clearly lived at the edge of his nerves, if The Double is anything to go by.

It’s a bit sad to read that Dostoyevsky didn’t think much of his second novel. He was only in his mid twenties when he wrote it. At only 130 pages, it’s quite a short and entertaining read. It carries its brief off very well, describing a man with a persecution complex who may be creating most of his problems in his own mind. The Double is a great place to start for those looking to read Dostoyevsky.

The Double, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Translated by Constance Garnett. Published by Dover Classics. ISBN: 9780486295725. $10.95

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Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Staff Review by Chris Saliba

Dostoyevsky’s classic gets treated to a highly enjoyable new translation by Oliver Ready.

Penguin books has published a new translation by Oliver Ready of the seminal Russian classic by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The basic plot, while rather unappealing, is one of the world’s most famous. A 23-year-old former student, Raskolnikov, decides to kill an old pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanovna, with whom he’s had substantial dealings. Things don’t go to plan, however, and the pawnbroker’s younger sister, Lizaveta, accidently intrudes on the murder. She is killed too, brutally, with an axe. Raskolnikov has murdered the pawnbroker because he is impoverished and feels the money will get him off to a good start.

To help him psychologically deal with the murder, it later emerges that he has developed his own philosophy, outlined in a published essay, that essentially divides the population off into two categories. There are the ordinary people who follow the laws and are submissive. Then there is a breed of superior people who can ignore the common laws and be a law unto themselves. Napoleon is cited as a prime example: killing innocents in order to achieve his military goals never caused his conscience a pang. Raskolnikov believes he should be able to follow this philosophy. Napoleon, he surmises, wouldn’t even stop to think about killing an old pawnbroker. It wouldn’t even enter his head as a question.

That’s Raskolnikov’s theory on paper. However, once the murder is done, he spirals into a near total nervous collapse. Much like Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, his former confidence quickly unravels into madness. He becomes physically sick. Ironically, he becomes so ill after the murder that his friends and family must look after him. None really know why he is so sick, but it’s clear to the reader why, which creates a sense of suspense and tension. You fear that this illness will soon give him away.

Virginia Woolf wrote of Dostoyevsky’s writing, “Against our wills we are drawn in, whirled round, blinded, suffocated, and at the same time filled with a giddy rapture. Out of Shakespeare there is no more exciting reading.” It’s hard to pin an exact theme to Crime and Punishment, the novel swirls around in such mad directions, seemingly losing control of itself in its many digressions. The dialogue is extraordinarily long, with single responses going on for pages. One thing is sure, it’s an incredibly detailed and complex psychological study of one man’s moral collapse. For this alone it’s unparalleled in literature, except arguably for Shakespeare, as Virginia Woolf noted. You could say that Crime and Punishment is Dostoyevsky’s Macbeth.

Dostoyevsky sustains his suspenseful story with a wonderfully claustrophobic atmosphere. The Haymarket precinct of St Petersberg is where much of the action takes place and Dostoyevsky describes every nook and cranny of this urban environment - the narrow, twisting streets, grimy stairwells and connecting courtyards - in exhaustive details. One house’s architecture is characterised as almost an offence against all morality - a roof that slants at a weird angle, doors askew and asymmetric walls that bring on a sense of nausea. This atmosphere is brought to a climax in the descriptions of Raskolnikov’s poky apartment - it’s likened to a coffin at one stage. At every turn there is a terrible feeling of entrapment, of people being too close to each other, of festering antagonisms and extremely frayed nerves.

Dostoyevsky is probably not for everyone. I could understand readers finding his dialogue and the feeling of endlessness that permeates his writing too much. His style and outlook is hallucinatory and ironic. It’s like Jane Austen, but on LSD. If you’re like me, you’ll find Crime and Punishment an awe inspiring achievement, it’s nothing less than a comprehensive map of the human heart. 

Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Translated by Oliver Ready. Published by Penguin. ISBN: 9780141192802. RRP: 16.99

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The Night Before Christmas, by Nikolai Gogol

Staff Review by Chris Saliba

Gogol's classic is full of mischief and black comedy.

The plot of this famous story by Nikolai Gogol, one of the great Russian writers, is too madcap and unbelievable to recount in any detail. It has to be read to be believed! But it would be safe to say it's in essence a convoluted love story, along the lines of Shakespeare’s Midsumma’s Night Dream: two young people must go through a night of surreal and improbable ordeals until true love finds its way. Gogol’s night time adventure, however, is more earthy and blackly comic than Shakespeare’s celestial dream-poem.

There are two suitors, Vakula the blacksmith and the beautiful Oksana. It is the night before Christmas, and so the devil is free to roam around and torment people. To get the ball rolling, he steals the moon and places it in his pocket. Next he starts a snowstorm and all sorts of confusions are set off. At last when Vakula thinks he is making progress in asking for Oksana’s hand, she throws a spanner in the works, insisting that she will not marry him until he brings her the Tsarina's shoes. Vakula must find a way to fulfil this request.

The Night Before Christmas is peopled with a cast of grotesque and humourous characters. Besides the devil, there’s a witch that streaks across the sky, Cossacks that get stuffed into coal bags and shady characters who can perform magical tricks. Gogol drew inspiration from the folk tales of his home village in Ukraine for this story, which certainly comes through in its idiosyncratic and highly original tone. It’s a story that is part irreverent comedy, part black fairytale. Despite all these weird and wonderful elements, it’s also a story that has a deliciously warm feeling. There may be devils and witches in the air, making mischief, plus a cast of other grotesques, but you know once Christmas day arrives all these naughty beings will be put in their place and good will reign the day.

The Night Before Christmas, by Nikolai Gogol. Published by Penguin. ISBN: 9780143122487  $16.99

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