TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
In the plain text version text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_), small capitals are represented in upper case as in SMALL CAPS, text in bold is represented as in =text in bold=.
A number of words in this book have both hyphenated and non-hyphenated variants. For the words with both variants present the one more used has been kept.
During the review process it was brought to the Transcriber's attention that the edition used to create this project has some text missing in the story "The Queen of Spades". A search made has confirmed the issue. According to the version of this story included in "The Prose Tales of Alexander Pushkin", translated by Thomas Keane, and posted also in Project Gutenberg, the following text is missing at the end:
Lizaveta Ivanovna has married a very amiable young man, a son of the former steward of the old Countess. He is in the service of the State somewhere, and is in receipt of a good income. Lizaveta is also supporting a poor relative.
Tomsky has been promoted to the rank of captain, and has become the husband of the Princess Pauline.
Obvious punctuation and other printing errors have been corrected.
Turgenev
SHORT STORY
CLASSICS
(FOREIGN)
VOLUME ONE RUSSIAN
Edited by
William Patten
With an Introduction
and Notes
P. F. COLLIER & SON
NEW YORK
Copyright 1907
By P. F. Collier & Son
The use of the copyrighted translations in
collection has been authorized by the
authors or their representatives. The
translations made especially for
this collection are covered
by the general
copyright
CONTENTS—VOLUME I
RUSSIAN
| PAGE | |
| THE QUEEN OF SPADES Alexander Sergeievitch Poushkin | [3] |
| THE CLOAK Nikolai Vasilievitch Gogol | [21] |
| THE RENDEZVOUS Iván Turgenev | [67] |
| THE COUNTING-HOUSE Iván Turgenev | [81] |
| THE THIEF Feodor Mikailovitch Dostoievski | [109] |
| THE LONG EXILE Count Leo Nikolaievitch Tolstoi | [137] |
| EASTER NIGHT Vladímir Galaktionovitch Korolénko | [153] |
| THE SIGNAL Vsevolod Mikailovitch Garshin | [165] |
| THE CURSE OF FAME Ignatiy Nikolaievitch Potapenko | [183] |
| A WORK OF ART Anton Pavlovitch Chekhov | [217] |
| THE SLANDERER Anton Pavlovitch Chekhov | [223] |
| FAUST Eugène Nikolaievitch Chirikov | [231] |
| THE DUEL Nikolai Dmítrievitch Teleshov | [263] |
| BOLESS Alexei Maximovitch Pyeshkov (Maxim Gorki) | [273] |
| THE LOVE OF A SCENE-PAINTER “Skitalitz” | [285] |
| VALIA Leonid Andreiev | [309] |
CONTENTS—VOLUME II
ITALIAN
| PAGE | |
| THE LOST LETTER Enrico Castelnuovo | 329 |
| CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA Giovanni Verga | 347 |
| THE SILVER CRUCIFIX Antonio Fogazzaro | 359 |
| THE LITTLE SARDINIAN DRUMMER Edmondo de Amicis | 375 |
| LULU’S TRIUMPH Matilda Serao | 387 |
| THE END OF CANDIA Gabriele d’Annunzio | 411 |
| SIGNORA SPERANZA Luigi Pirandello | 427 |
| TWO MEN AND A WOMAN Grazia Deledda | 481 |
| SCANDINAVIAN | |
| RAILROAD AND CHURCHYARD Björnstjerne Björnson | 511 |
| BJÖRN SIVERTSEN’S WEDDING TRIP Holger Drachmann | 547 |
| JALO THE TROTTER Johann Jacob Ahrenberg | 567 |
| THE PLAGUE AT BERGAMO Jens Peter Jacobsen | 583 |
| KAREN Alexander Lange Kielland | 595 |
| LOVE AND BREAD Jean August Strindberg | 605 |
| IRENE HOLM Hermann Joachim Bang | 619 |
| THE OUTLAWS Selma Lagerlöf | 637 |
CONTENTS—VOLUME III
GERMAN
| PAGE | |
| THE BROKEN CUP Johann Heinrich Daniel Zschokke | 663 |
| CASTLE NEIDECK Wilhelm Heinrich von Riehl | 691 |
| THE YOUNG GIRL OF TREPPI Paul Johann Ludwig Heyse | 739 |
| THE STONEBREAKERS Ferdinand von Saar | 793 |
| THOU SHALT NOT KILL Leopold von Sacher-Masoch | 839 |
| THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH Rudolf Baumbach | 849 |
| GOOD BLOOD Ernst von Wildenbruch | 863 |
| DELIVERANCE Max Simon Nordau | 903 |
| A NEW-YEAR’S EVE CONFESSION Hermann Sudermann | 917 |
| BRIC-A-BRAC AND DESTINIES Gabriele Reuter | 929 |
| THE FUR COAT Ludwig Fulda | 939 |
| THE DEAD ARE SILENT Arthur Schnitzler | 955 |
| MARGRET’S PILGRIMAGE Clara Viebig | 981 |
CONTENTS—VOLUME IV
FRENCH
| PAGE | |
| THE UNKNOWN MASTERPIECE Honoré de Balzac | 1007 |
| THE PRICE OF A LIFE Augustin Eugène Scribe | 1049 |
| NAPOLEON AND POPE PIUS VII Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny | 1067 |
| CLAUDE GUEUX Victor Marie Hugo | 1083 |
| A BAL MASQUÉ Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie Dumas | 1105 |
| HOW THE REDOUBT WAS TAKEN Prosper Mérimée | 1121 |
| THE VENDEAN MARRIAGE Jules Gabriel Janin | 1131 |
| THE MARQUISE George Sand | 1149 |
| THE BEAUTY-SPOT Alfred Louis Charles de Musset | 1185 |
| THE MUMMY’S FOOT Théophile Gautier | 1237 |
| CIRCÉ Octave Feuillet | 1257 |
| THE HANGING AT LA PIROCHE Alexandre Dumas, Fils | 1269 |
| THE DEAN’S WATCH Erckmann-Chatrian | 1289 |
| AT THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE Alphonse Daudet | 1319 |
| BOUM-BOUM Jules Claretie | 1327 |
CONTENTS—VOLUME V
FRENCH
| PAGE | |
| LA BRETONNE André Theuriet | 1339 |
| WHICH WAS THE MADMAN? Edmond About | 1349 |
| THE GRAND MARRIAGE Ludovic Halévy | 1379 |
| THE ACCURSED HOUSE Émile Gaboriau | 1415 |
| THE FÊTE AT COQUEVILLE Émile Zola | 1427 |
| THE LOST CHILD François Coppée | 1471 |
| PUTOIS Anatole France | 1495 |
| SAC-AU-DOS Joris Karl Huysmans | 1515 |
| “BONJOUR, MONSIEUR” Jean Richepin | 1559 |
| THE BIT OF STRING Guy de Maupassant | 1571 |
| THE NECKLACE Guy de Maupassant | 1581 |
| THE WALL OPPOSITE Pierre Loti | 1595 |
| THE ANCESTOR Paul Bourget | 1605 |
| WHEN HE WAS A LITTLE BOY Henri Lavedan | 1639 |
| A GENTLEMAN FINDS A WATCH Georges Courteline | 1651 |
| A YOUNG GIRL’S DIARY Marcel Prévost | 1659 |
| THE SIGN OF THE KEY AND THE CROSS Henri de Régnier | 1671 |
| THE TELEGRAPH OPERATOR Alphonse Allais | 1685 |
PREFACE
When the five-volume collection known as “Short Story Classics (American)” was planned, it was entirely evident that it should be supplemented by a collection of the best examples of the short story to be found in foreign literatures.
The five volumes now offered to the public are designed to supply this lack. They contain seventy-eight short stories, chosen from the literatures of France, Russia, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland—works of importance that have made their mark in the literary world.
The aim has been not only to represent the most widely sympathetic writers, but to select their most generally interesting as well as characteristic stories. The stories have all been written within the last seventy-five years, which has this advantage for the reader, that the scope of the collection may be said to lie within present-day interests.
None of the stories by the following authors appear in any other collection:
FRENCH
Honoré de Balzac, Eugène Scribe, Alfred de Vigny, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Prosper Mérimée, Jules Janin, George Sand, Alfred de Musset, Théophile Gautier, Octave Feuillet, Alexandre Dumas (Fils), Erckmann-Chatrian, Alphonse Daudet, André Theuriet, Ludovic Halévy, Émile Gaboriau, Émile Zola, Jules Claretie, François Coppée, Anatole France, Joris Karl Huysmans, Jean Richepin, Pierre Loti, Paul Bourget, Henri de Régnier, Henri Lavedan, Marcel Prévost, Georges Courteline, Alphonse Allais.
RUSSIAN
Poushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoievski, Tolstoi, Korolénko, Garshin, Potapenko, Chekhov, Chirikov, Teleshov, Maxim Gorki, “Skitalitz,” Andreiev.
ITALIAN AND SCANDINAVIAN
Enrico Castelnuovo, Giovanni Verga, Antonio Fogaszaro, Edmondo de Amicis, Matilda Serao, Gabriele d’Annunzio, Luigi Pirandello, Grazia Deledda, Björnson, Holger Drachmann, Jacob Ahrenberg, Jens Peter Jacobsen, Alexander Kielland, August Strindberg, Hermann Bang, Selma Lagerlöf.
GERMAN
Heinrich Zschokke, Wilhelm Heinrich von Riehl, Paul Heyse, Ferdinand von Saar, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Rudolf Baumbach, Ernst von Wildenbruch, Max Nordau, Hermann Sudermann, Gabriele Reuter, Ludwig Fulda, Arthur Schnitzler, and Clara Viebig.
About half of the stories have been especially translated for this collection, and some of them now appear in English for the first time. Among these will be found some by the more recent writers in Germany and Russia, two very interesting groups of moderns whose work has not received as much attention at the hands of the public as it would seem to merit.
In only two or three cases, where the point of view was likely to fail of appreciation by American readers, have the stories been abbreviated or otherwise altered; and attention has been called to this in the accompanying note.
The notes which preceded the stories in “Short Story Classics (American)” proved to be an appreciated and even popular feature, and it is hoped that those written for the present collection may prove equally acceptable.
If any one country more than another can be said to excel in the use and development of the modern short story form, it is France. The literatures of Russia, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, as well as that of the United States, have all been influenced to a greater or lesser extent by the art of Balzac, Gautier, Mérimée, and De Maupassant, for in France short story writing may be said to be based on a theory of art, and to be, consequently, the result of conviction.
This theory of art, apart from the questions of form which it involves, in themselves important considerations, affords great freedom to the writer in the choice of subject-matter and the method of treatment. It presupposes the artist’s right to his point of view. It presupposes an audience more keenly alive to life and the manifestations of life than is characteristic of the general reading public in America at the present time. Generalizations like these are at the best unsatisfactory, since the differences alluded to must be apprehended and can not be well expounded; they will have abundantly served their purpose if they awaken curiosity and prompt the reader unfamiliar with the short story in foreign literatures, and especially in the literature of France, to make his own comparisons.
All over the world the literary main current seems to be toward the development of the realism of twenty-five years ago. From Denmark, where the trace is slightest, to Russia, where it is most brutal, the best work is apparently being done by the realists. In France there is a decided reaction against strenuous realism, but it is principally the reaction of a few individuals, and among these the most prominent is Anatole France. He is not any the less a realist, in the sense of being true to nature, because his intelligence is concerned with an appreciation of something else besides the material side of life.
To those who are familiar with the work of Émile Zola, it seems desirable to explain that “Jacques Damour,” a really great story, was too long to be included in this collection. An interesting comparison can be made between “The Bit of String,” by Guy de Maupassant, and the two stories which it inspired, “The Slanderer,” by Anton Chekhov, and “The End of Candia,” by Gabriele d’Annunzio.
Even the most casual reader must surely be impressed with the extraordinary vitality of these stories and their likeness to life. It is a likeness that is not always optimistic, it is true, as in the case of many of the Russian writers, for example, but it seldom depends on a misstatement of the facts of experience to create its effect, and is seldom lacking in integrity of workmanship.
I am glad of an opportunity to record my appreciation of the intelligent and interested assistance rendered by Mr. R. W. Howes 3d, in preparing these volumes for the press.
William Patten.
THE QUEEN OF SPADES
BY ALEXANDER SERGEIEVITCH POUSHKIN
Alexander Poushkin (born 1799, died 1837) was the greatest genius among the Russian poets. Though born of a noble family, thick lips and crisp, curly hair showed his descent from an Abyssinian negro slave ancestor on his mother’s side. As a poet his work has been compared with that of Byron, of which he was frankly a close student. Chronologically he comes first in the list of Russian prose writers, a list that includes Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoievski, and Tolstoi. “The Queen of Spades” is one of the best and most characteristic of his short stories.
