RUSSIAN EMPIRE AUTHOR · FICTION · RUSSIAN FICTION
Fyodor Sologub
Also known as: Fedor Kuz'mich Teternikov, Fydor Sologub
Fyodor Sologub (Russian: Фёдор Сологу́б, born Fyodor Kuzmich Teternikov, Russian: Фёдор Кузьми́ч Тете́рников, also known as Theodor Sologub) was a Russian Symbolist poet, novelist, translator, playwright and essayist. He was the first writer to introduce the morbid, pessimistic elements characteristic of European fin de siècle literature and philosophy into Russian prose.
Most acclaimed
Bad Dreams
Anne Nielson, an American journalist, comes to London to investigate the strange death of her sister. Soon, she becomes sucked into a netherworld of corruption and perversion and is hurtled toward a final confrontation where she has only the dead as allies.
Melkii bes
1970
Ardalyon Borisitch Peredonov believes himself better than his job as a teacher, and hopes that the Princess will be able to promote him to the position of Inspector. Unfortunately for him his connection to the Princess is through his fiancée Varvara, and she has her own plans. With little sign of the desired position his life of petty cruelty escalates, even as his grip on reality begins to break apart and his paranoia manifests itself in hallucinations of a shadowy creature. Finished in 1907, The Little Demon (alternatively translated as The Petty Demon) is Fyodor Sologub’s most famous novel, and received both popular and critical attention on its publication despite its less-than-favorable depictions of provincial Russian life. Its portrayal of Peredonov as a paranoid character simultaneously both banal and bereft of goodness is an essay on the Russian concept of poshlost; a theme that makes an appearance in many other Russian novels, not least Chichikov in Gogol’s Dead Souls. This translation (primarily by John Cournos) was published in 1916, and includes a preface by Sologub for the English-speaking reader.
Selected Stories
Contains: "Walker Brothers Cowboy" "Dance of the Happy Shades" "Postcard" "Images" "Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You" "The Ottawa Valley" "Material" "Royal Beatings" "Wild Swans" "The Beggar Maid" "Simon's Luck" "Chaddeleys and Flemings I: The Connection" "Chaddeleys and Flemings II: The Stone in the Field" "Dulse" "The Turkey Season" "Labor Day Dinner" "The Moons of Jupiter" "The Progress of Love" "Lichen" "Miles City, Montana" "White Dump" "Fits" "Friend of My Youth" "Meneseteung" "Differently" "Carried Away" "The Albanian Virgin" "A Wilderness Station" "Vandals"