Tales of Belkin and Other Prose Writings

As the country's first genuine literary genius Alexander Pushkin. Although he is best renowned for his poetry he also produced dazzling prose that elegantly and subtly explored his native culture. Here he truly exhibits his talent for representing the Russian people. In The Tales of Belkin his first literary achievement in prose a sympathetic Russian squire tells a series of interconnected tales including the gothic The Undertaker and The Shot which depict a rematch of a long-ago duel. Pushkin's fiction spans a wide variety as seen by other works like the novella Roslavlev and Egyptian Nights which tells the story of an Italian balladeer looking for a crowd in St. Petersberg. The collection's concluding essay A Trip to Arzrum is still regarded as one of the best examples of journalistic adventure writing since it provides an autobiographical description of Pushkin's own experiences during the 1829 war between Russia and Turkey.