Russian essays and stories: Classic Book Guide and Free Edition
Russian essays and stories: author and translator credits, catalogue synopsis, subjects and links to the Gutenberg reading formats.
Russian essays and stories is catalogued by Project Gutenberg with author credits for Baring, Maurice (1874–1945).
Catalogue synopsis
Project Gutenberg supplies this automated synopsis of the opening text:
"Russian essays and stories" by Maurice Baring is a collection of essays and short stories written in the early 20th century. It offers a wide-ranging portrait of Russian life—travel sketches, cultural criticism, stage and literature notes, and reportage—rounded off with short fiction drawn from the same milieu. The emphasis is on impartial, first-hand observation of ordinary people—peasants, workers, soldiers, officials, and merchants—encountered across trains, rivers, fairs, and provincial towns. The opening of the collection frames a pledge of non-polemical truth-telling in a witty dedication and preface, then launches into vivid travel pieces. First come third-class railway journeys north and west of Moscow: cramped night rides, sharp dialogue about the Duma and mutinies, a comic quarrel with a guard, Kronstadt dockers trading English phrases, a near-theft at Vologda station, and recruits and a feldsher debating war and reform. Next, the Volga voyage unfolds: Yaroslavl’s twilight streets, the teeming Nijni-Novgorod Fair and its Liberal press, family debates over a borrowed novel, and the river’s grandeur down past Kazan, Samara, Saratov, and Tzaritsyn to Astrakhan—punctuated by generous third-class cabins, Cossack banter, a would‑be opera singer, folk hauling songs, and the night scent of new-mown hay. Returning inland, station halls brim with sleepers and sunflower seeds, and a guarded cashier hints at unrest. The sketches then shift south to contrast Central and Little Russia, a blind hurdy-gurdy player, and a train debate where a soldier’s blunt theism clashes with a monk—leading to reflections on the peasants’ practical mysticism capped by two stark anecdotes. A talk with a moderate landowner probes “culture” and weighs Turgenev’s artistry against the tougher realities of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and the final pages begin the ceremony of casting a village bell.
Book and edition facts
- Title: Russian essays and stories
- Author credits: Baring, Maurice (1874–1945)
- Catalogue language: English
Catalogue subjects
- English essays -- 20th century
- Russia
- Russia -- Fiction
- Russia -- Social life and customs
- Short stories, English
Gutenberg collections
- Category: British Literature
- Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches
- Category: Short Stories
- Category: Travel Writing
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Source notes
Catalogue metadata is public domain and is supplied through Gutendex, which imports Gutenberg's machine-readable catalogue. The automated synopsis is source-supplied, not an independently verified review. Author dates above describe the credited people; no ebook release date is presented as the book's original publication date.
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