Short Fiction by Fyodor Sologub (hot novels to read txt) ๐
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Fyodor Sologub was a Russian poet, novelist and playwright, working in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His work generally has a downcast outlook with recurring mystical elements, and often uses anthropomorphic objects or fantastical situations to comment on human behaviour. As well as novels (including the critically acclaimed The Little Demon), Sologub wrote over five hundred short stories, ranging in length from half-page fables to nearly novella-length tales.
While most of his short stories were not contemporaneously translated, both John Cournos and Stephen Graham produced English compilations and contributed individual stories to publications such as The Russian Review and The Egoist. This collection comprises the best individual English translations in the public domain of Sologubโs short stories, presented in chronological order of the publication of their translation.
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- Author: Fyodor Sologub
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โThe young lady is asleep,โ answered Glasha. โToday again, quite early, she went out for a walk straight from bed, without so much as a bite of something. Her skirtโs wet with dew. She might have caught a cold. And now she sleeps. If youโd but talk to her.โ
Elena Kirillovna said irresolutely:
โVery well. I had better be going. All right, Glasha.โ
Glasha goes. Elena Kirillovna rises slowly from the bench, as though she regretted moving from the spot where she saw Borya in a half-dream. Slowly she walks toward the house.
Having reached the gate she pauses, and again looks for some moments down the road, in the direction of the station.
A cart rumbles by noisily over the travelled road. The muzhik barely holds the reins and rocks from side to side sleepily. The harnessed horse swings its tail and its head. A white-haired urchin, in broad blue breeches, lets his brown feet hang over the edge of the cart and stares with his bright hazel eyes at a gaunt, evil-looking dog which runs after, barking hoarsely.
Elena Kirillovna gives a sighโ โthere is as yet no Boryaโ โand enters the garden.
Glashaโs light-coloured blouse glimmers on the terrace. There is a rattle of dishes. The grumbling chatter of Boryaโs old nurse is also audible.
XXIIIThe last to awake, with the sun quite high and scorching, is Boryaโs mother, Sofia Alexandrovna. Through the thin bright curtains, drawn for the night across the windows, the light fills her bedroom.
Sofia Alexandrovna awakes with a start, as though someone had touched her suddenly or had called to her. With her right hand she impetuously throws aside her light white bedcover. Quickly she sits up in bed, holding her hands over her bent knees. For a moment she looks before her at a bare place in the simple pattern of the bright green hangings.
Sofia Alexandrovnaโs eyes are dark, wide open, with black, fiery pupils which seem lost in the abysmal, depths of their own sorrowful gaze. Her face is long, its skin smooth and colourless, though quite fresh and almost free of wrinkles. The lips are a vivid red.
Sofia Alexandrovnaโs expression is like that of one faced suddenly with a tragic apparition. She rocks herself back and forward.
Then, abruptly, she jumps out of bed with a single spring. She runs to the washing-basin of marble mounted on a red stand. She washes herself quickly, as though in haste to go somewhere. Now she is at the window. The curtains are flung violently aside. She peers anxiously to see what the outlook isโ โwhether there are any clouds in the sky that might bring rain and make the road muddy, the road upon which Borya would return home.
The heavens are tremulously joyous. The birches are rustling quietly. The sparrows are twittering. Everything is green, bright, quivering; everything palpitates under the tension of hopes and anticipations. Voices are audible; cries of good cheer and sounds of laughter. One of the laughers runs by, as though making haste to live.
A torrent of tears floods Sofia Alexandrovnaโs eyes. Her breast heaves visibly under the white linen chemise.
XXIVSofia Alexandrovna goes to the image. She thrusts aside with her foot the small velvet rug which Glasha had purposely laid there the day before. She throws herself down on her knees before the image. You hear her knees strike the floor softly. Sofia Alexandrovna quietly crosses herself, bends her face to the floor, and mutters passionately:
โO Lord, Thou knowest, Thou knowest all, Thou canst do all. Do this, O Lord, return him to us, to his mother, return him today.โ
Her prayer is warm and passionate, quite unlike a prayer. Its words are disconnected, and they fall confusedly, like small, broken tears. Her naked feet come in contact with the cold, painted floor. And the entire, warm, prostrate body of the weeping woman is throbbing and trembling on the boards. Her head repeatedly strikes the boards, loosening her dark braids of hair.
She does not pray long. The torrents of tears have cleansed her soul, as it were; and she becomes at once cheerful and tranquil.
She rises quite, as suddenly, and rings. She seats herself on the edge of the bed, and dries her tears with a soft handkerchief. Then she laughs silently. She swings one of her feet impatiently, striking the rug in front of the bed with the toes. Her eyes wander about the room, but seem to observe nothing.
Glasha had only just begun to dress, and she had only tied the strings of her apron round her slender waist. The sharp impatient ring causes her to start. She runs to the barinya, seizing quickly at the same time a pair of blackened boots and some clothes from the laundry.
Sofia Alexandrovna cries in an urgent voice:
โNow be quick, Glasha. Help me on with my things.โ
She looks on impatiently as Glasha puts down her burden.
The daily ceremony is gone through quickly. Sofia Alexandrovna dresses herself. Glasha only draws on her boots, and hooks up her dress behind.
Soon Sofia Alexandrovna is quite ready. She gives a brief, vacant look in the mirror.
Her pale face still seems to be young and handsome. She is slender, like her mother, and small in stature. She has on a closely fitting white dress with short, wide sleeves. Her coiffure is arranged in a Greek knot, held fast with a red ribbon. Her slender, shapely feet are clad in coloured silk stockings and white shoes with silver buckles.
XXVSofia Alexandrovna goes quickly into the dining-room. She pours herself a glass of fresh milk out of a jug on the table. She drinks it standing, and munches a piece of black bread with it.
She orders the things for dinner at the same time. She chooses dishes loved by Borya. She stops to recollect whether Borya likes this, or does not like that.
Stepanida listens to her sadly, and
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