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Seven Stories
"All of Krzhizhanovsky's stories depict something aberrant, which is strongly rooted in something true."--"Bookforum"
"It is now clear that Krzhizhanovsky is one of the greatest Russian writers of the last century."--"Financial Times"
"A natural storyteller, striking intellect, and deeply creative soul are found all in one--a rare combination."--"Complete Review"
"It is now clear that Krzhizhanovsky is one of the greatest Russian writers of the last century."--"Financial Times"
"A natural storyteller, striking intellect, and deeply creative soul are found all in one--a rare combination."--"Complete Review"
208 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2006
5 people are currently reading
228 people want to read
About the author
Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
52 books208 followersSigizmund Dominikovich Krzhizhanovsky (Russian: Сигизму́нд Домини́кович Кржижано́вский) (February 11 [O.S. January 30] 1887, Kyiv, Russian Empire — 28 December 1950, Moscow, USSR) was a Russian and Soviet short-story writer who described himself as being "known for being unknown" and the bulk of whose writings were published posthumously.
Many details of Krzhizhanovsky's life are obscure. Judging from his works, Robert Louis Stevenson, G. K. Chesterton, Edgar Allan Poe, Nikolai Gogol, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and H. G. Wells were major influences on his style. Krzhizhanovsky was active among Moscow's literati in the 1920s, while working for Alexander Tairov's Chamber Theater. Several of Krzhizhanovsky's stories became known through private readings, and a couple of them even found their way to print. In 1929 he penned a screenplay for Yakov Protazanov's acclaimed film The Feast of St Jorgen, yet his name did not appear in the credits. One of his last novellas, "Dymchaty bokal" (The smoky beaker, 1939), tells the story of a goblet miraculously never running out of wine, sometimes interpreted as a wry allusion to the author's fondness for alcohol. He died in Moscow, but the place where he was buried is not known.
In 1976 the scholar Vadim Perelmuter discovered Krzhizhanovsky's archive and in 1989 published one of his short stories. As the five volumes of his collected works followed (the fifth volume has not yet reached publication), Krzhizhanovsky emerged from obscurity as a remarkable Soviet writer, who polished his prose to the verge of poetry. His short parables, written with an abundance of poetic detail and wonderful fertility of invention — though occasionally bordering on the whimsical — are sometimes compared to the ficciones of Jorge Luis Borges. Quadraturin (1926), the best known of such phantasmagoric stories, is a Kafkaesque novella in which allegory meets existentialism. Quadraturin is available in English translation in Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida, Penguin Classics, 2005.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 15, 2013
Another collection of Krzhizhanovsky's blackly philosophic modernist fables, mostly from the 1920s. A couple of these also show up in Memories of the Future (the brilliant apartment claustrophobia horror story "Quadraturin" and "The Bookmark") but the others are all very worthwhile, particularly his biting dystopian energy crisis satire "Yellow Coal" and the weird story of physical and metaphysical striving-after-impossibility "The Unbitten Elbow". Plusm a dead man's account of the revolution and the fate of images caught reflected in the pupil. And with that I've exhausted all of K-in-transation. More soon plz.
June 24, 2014
Rarely do I read stories that make me feel I have been transported to deep within the mind of a genius and am experiencing a transformed reality.
This is the case with Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky's Seven Stories. I'm grateful to GLAS, New Russian Writing for bringing out the first English translation of these fantastic, yet immensely grounded, tales.
Krzhizhanovsky was an unsung hero who stayed true to his vision during repressive times. But these stories are about much more than a simple escape from the bleakness of life during the Soviet era. They are passionate attempts to stretch the limits of imagination. Like the resident of the matchbook-sized room in the opening story, "Quadraturin," I kept believing that more expansion was impossible, even as the walls continued to move and the author proved me wrong.
Krzhizhanovsky has been compared to Borges and Gogol. His voice effortlessly hops from the absurd to the humorous to the deeply philosophical.
Like our dreams, surrealism plumbs the subconscious and can be subject to endless analysis. But Krzhizhanovsky's stories - in which the foibles of the non-human world both reflect and outdo our own - were written, I think, to be enjoyed. He invites us to celebrate the quest for freedom, however impossible it may seem in the midst of chaos and pain. His work speaks to the resilience of the human spirit. What more could we possibly ask of a writer?
This is the case with Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky's Seven Stories. I'm grateful to GLAS, New Russian Writing for bringing out the first English translation of these fantastic, yet immensely grounded, tales.
Krzhizhanovsky was an unsung hero who stayed true to his vision during repressive times. But these stories are about much more than a simple escape from the bleakness of life during the Soviet era. They are passionate attempts to stretch the limits of imagination. Like the resident of the matchbook-sized room in the opening story, "Quadraturin," I kept believing that more expansion was impossible, even as the walls continued to move and the author proved me wrong.
Krzhizhanovsky has been compared to Borges and Gogol. His voice effortlessly hops from the absurd to the humorous to the deeply philosophical.
Like our dreams, surrealism plumbs the subconscious and can be subject to endless analysis. But Krzhizhanovsky's stories - in which the foibles of the non-human world both reflect and outdo our own - were written, I think, to be enjoyed. He invites us to celebrate the quest for freedom, however impossible it may seem in the midst of chaos and pain. His work speaks to the resilience of the human spirit. What more could we possibly ask of a writer?
June 30, 2019
Krzhizhanovsky deserves to be better known in this day and age, both inside Russia and outside in the greater sphere of literature. His short story collections are hard to track down but are all superb in the work that they show. This is only the second I have seen after Memories of the Future and it also doubles up containing
'Quadraturin'
and
'The Bookmark'
in both collections. So two of the seven short stories are contained in another collection which is a bit of a bummer. All his published work would now appear to come from American publishing houses which is annoying to say the least and the main translator appears to be Joanne Turnbull. Enough griping about accessibility - what about the writing.
It has taken a long time to see the rehabilitation and reappearance of writing and work by writers which were out of favour under Stalin. Stalin died in 1953. By that time Krzhizhanovsky was already dead (1950) having been out of favour and had very little published since the time he had moved from Kiev to Moscow. It took till 1989 for his work to start to be published and that through the agency of a researcher chasing down a reference from the Soviet poet Georgi Shengeli calling K's death the 'disappearance of a writer-visionary and an unsung genius'. If we compare him to his fellow Ukrainian, Grossman Vassili, then the major difference is that Grossman managed to find a compliance with Soviet authorities through the war and acted as an official journalist. This saw his work published. It was not until the late stages of Stalinism, between the end of the war and Stalin's death, and Stalin's growing anti-Semitism that Grossman started to have his doubts which saw his books censored and disbarred under Khruschev before starting to reappear from 1988 onwards. Grossman died in 1964. Perhaps the more telling comparison is between Krzhizhanovsky and Kharms Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings. Though Russian from St Petersburg, Kharms work was from the Theatre of the Absurb and quite beyond acceptance of Soviet Realism. His work saw the light of day in Germany from 1978 to 1988 when a four volume set of his work was published, long after his death from starvation and captivity in the seige of Leningrad in 1942.
Both Krzhizhanovsky and Kharms had much in common. Their work was quirky, off-centre, anarchic, surreal and quite beyond acceptance within the context of socialist realism. Both were exceptional linguists and appear to have survived day-to-day through translation wortk. Both died prematurely and failed to see the fruits of their work. Wheras Kharms is firmly rooted in the Theatre of the Absurd, Krzhizhanovsky is more acduainted with the surreal taking an element and putting it into a quite different context. Both Memories of the Future and Seven Stories show that ability to look at the off-kilter. Both the repeated shorts of 'Quadraturin' and 'The Bookmark' exemplify this, the first about a magic paint that allows a space to expand to the extent that the box room's inhabitant becomes lost in the new space (we assume forever), and the second recounting the adventures of a Bookmark rediscovered by the reader. There is something distinctly edgey about Krzhizhanovsky, a bit like Kafka (strange how they are all K's) in that there is something not quite right about the situations, something that unsettles and disturbs us whilst holding us with the power of his observation.
The absolute killer story in Seven Stories is 'Autobiography of a Corpse . If this is not resurrected as a one-hander for the theatre already then it soon will be. In it the memories and thoughts of a previous tenant in yet another pokey room off the Arbat - (my how that statement resonates personally!) - resurrects himself after suicide through a manuscript left and delivered for the next tenant of the room in which he has died.
The other stories are all surreal in their development and writing. 'In the Pupil' would also make the basis of a great film, 'Runaway Fingers' develops a familiar theme of the pianist's hand that escapes, 'The Unbitten Elbow' is like a crtique of Soviet public life and official policy, and 'Yellow Coal' is one for the Green enviromentalist activists to suck up and ponder.
This is a great book though I had to struggle to find it at a reasonable price. More than anything it is Krzhizhanovsky who comes out as the star. One begs to think of what he would have written had a) he been allowed and b) was not so tied up with simply the mechanics of survival. Please check him out. Beg, borrow,, steal, buy even!, but find his work and read it. This man deserves far far better than the general obscurity that he now possesses, particularly outside of Russia. The K's are so much more than say the drug addled and speed fuelled work of Phillip K Dick and owe more of an allegiance to the alcohol fuelled craziness of Flann o'Brien / Myles Na Gopaleen / Brian O'Nolan.
Once you've done that you are on the way to Kharms - and that is a roller coaster ride of immense fun!
Good reading!!!!
It has taken a long time to see the rehabilitation and reappearance of writing and work by writers which were out of favour under Stalin. Stalin died in 1953. By that time Krzhizhanovsky was already dead (1950) having been out of favour and had very little published since the time he had moved from Kiev to Moscow. It took till 1989 for his work to start to be published and that through the agency of a researcher chasing down a reference from the Soviet poet Georgi Shengeli calling K's death the 'disappearance of a writer-visionary and an unsung genius'. If we compare him to his fellow Ukrainian, Grossman Vassili, then the major difference is that Grossman managed to find a compliance with Soviet authorities through the war and acted as an official journalist. This saw his work published. It was not until the late stages of Stalinism, between the end of the war and Stalin's death, and Stalin's growing anti-Semitism that Grossman started to have his doubts which saw his books censored and disbarred under Khruschev before starting to reappear from 1988 onwards. Grossman died in 1964. Perhaps the more telling comparison is between Krzhizhanovsky and Kharms Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings. Though Russian from St Petersburg, Kharms work was from the Theatre of the Absurb and quite beyond acceptance of Soviet Realism. His work saw the light of day in Germany from 1978 to 1988 when a four volume set of his work was published, long after his death from starvation and captivity in the seige of Leningrad in 1942.
Both Krzhizhanovsky and Kharms had much in common. Their work was quirky, off-centre, anarchic, surreal and quite beyond acceptance within the context of socialist realism. Both were exceptional linguists and appear to have survived day-to-day through translation wortk. Both died prematurely and failed to see the fruits of their work. Wheras Kharms is firmly rooted in the Theatre of the Absurd, Krzhizhanovsky is more acduainted with the surreal taking an element and putting it into a quite different context. Both Memories of the Future and Seven Stories show that ability to look at the off-kilter. Both the repeated shorts of 'Quadraturin' and 'The Bookmark' exemplify this, the first about a magic paint that allows a space to expand to the extent that the box room's inhabitant becomes lost in the new space (we assume forever), and the second recounting the adventures of a Bookmark rediscovered by the reader. There is something distinctly edgey about Krzhizhanovsky, a bit like Kafka (strange how they are all K's) in that there is something not quite right about the situations, something that unsettles and disturbs us whilst holding us with the power of his observation.
The absolute killer story in Seven Stories is 'Autobiography of a Corpse . If this is not resurrected as a one-hander for the theatre already then it soon will be. In it the memories and thoughts of a previous tenant in yet another pokey room off the Arbat - (my how that statement resonates personally!) - resurrects himself after suicide through a manuscript left and delivered for the next tenant of the room in which he has died.
The other stories are all surreal in their development and writing. 'In the Pupil' would also make the basis of a great film, 'Runaway Fingers' develops a familiar theme of the pianist's hand that escapes, 'The Unbitten Elbow' is like a crtique of Soviet public life and official policy, and 'Yellow Coal' is one for the Green enviromentalist activists to suck up and ponder.
This is a great book though I had to struggle to find it at a reasonable price. More than anything it is Krzhizhanovsky who comes out as the star. One begs to think of what he would have written had a) he been allowed and b) was not so tied up with simply the mechanics of survival. Please check him out. Beg, borrow,, steal, buy even!, but find his work and read it. This man deserves far far better than the general obscurity that he now possesses, particularly outside of Russia. The K's are so much more than say the drug addled and speed fuelled work of Phillip K Dick and owe more of an allegiance to the alcohol fuelled craziness of Flann o'Brien / Myles Na Gopaleen / Brian O'Nolan.
Once you've done that you are on the way to Kharms - and that is a roller coaster ride of immense fun!
Good reading!!!!
February 18, 2019
Intelligent and idiosyncratic stories pitched somewhere between Gogol and Daniil Kharms. I didn't much care for the overall tone which is a bit too knowing and self-satisfied.
September 30, 2017
Add a star if you are a writer and another if you understand parables and symbolic references to 1920s Stalinist Soviet Union. The inventive surrealism reminds me of Gogol.
November 15, 2019
Such talent. I can’t believe this guy was not more well known.
Currently reading
February 28, 2025"Quadraturin":
April 15, 2013
I think the only tragedy I encountered while reading this collection was the fact that I read it after reading 'The Violent Bear It Away,' which has become one of my foremost favorites. Although I didn't like 'The Bookmark' and 'Autobiography of a Corpse' all that much, I think 'Quadraturin,' 'In the Pupil,' and 'Yellow Coal' serve the price of admission.
Before I speak about the stories that impressed me, I must make a confession about the stories that haven't. I think that a particular type of person would like those stories I didn't like: the two seem to be metafictional in nature. Part of Krzhizhanovsky's life is reflected in 'Autobiography,' and is more prominent in 'The Bookmark.' While the ideas remain fresh - I can only imagine how far ahead of their time those two stories especially because they were written during the 1920s, I'm just not really fond of them. That doesn't make them horrible stories - it just makes them stories I don't like very much.
The latter, however, are brilliant short stories. 'Quadraturin' is one of the few absurdist, science-fiction short stories I've read which have impressed me. It probably ranks (in terms of brilliance) with 'Exhalation' by Ted Chiang. Seeking to improve his living space, a man takes a free sample of Quadraturin to enlarge his small room, but empties it accidentally, and ends up being trapped in the immense darkness of his room. The dread, and the subtle barb at Communist Russia was brilliantly told that even it alone could pay for the book.
'Yellow Coal' is roughly similar to 'Quadraturin.' In a futuristic world, where the world's energy is dwindling, spite is used to generate energy. The ramifications and the inexorable ending are brilliantly told by Krzhizhanovsky.
Finally, 'In the Pupil' is a tale of love and its loss, the way Krzhizhanovsky could only tell it. How he symbolizes the loss of love as the disappearance of the little people in the pupil was beautifully rendered, although I found the previous two stories to be more enjoyable. I find that he's a better storyteller when he actually tells a story rather than swirls into metafiction, but that's just me.
It is no wonder why he was forgotten in the past: the censors couldn't understand that immense thought behind his work, and his humor is clearly anti-Communist in bent. Now that his work resurfaced, however, I think it would be an honor to him and a wonderful reflection of ourselves if we tried to read them. :)
Before I speak about the stories that impressed me, I must make a confession about the stories that haven't. I think that a particular type of person would like those stories I didn't like: the two seem to be metafictional in nature. Part of Krzhizhanovsky's life is reflected in 'Autobiography,' and is more prominent in 'The Bookmark.' While the ideas remain fresh - I can only imagine how far ahead of their time those two stories especially because they were written during the 1920s, I'm just not really fond of them. That doesn't make them horrible stories - it just makes them stories I don't like very much.
The latter, however, are brilliant short stories. 'Quadraturin' is one of the few absurdist, science-fiction short stories I've read which have impressed me. It probably ranks (in terms of brilliance) with 'Exhalation' by Ted Chiang. Seeking to improve his living space, a man takes a free sample of Quadraturin to enlarge his small room, but empties it accidentally, and ends up being trapped in the immense darkness of his room. The dread, and the subtle barb at Communist Russia was brilliantly told that even it alone could pay for the book.
'Yellow Coal' is roughly similar to 'Quadraturin.' In a futuristic world, where the world's energy is dwindling, spite is used to generate energy. The ramifications and the inexorable ending are brilliantly told by Krzhizhanovsky.
Finally, 'In the Pupil' is a tale of love and its loss, the way Krzhizhanovsky could only tell it. How he symbolizes the loss of love as the disappearance of the little people in the pupil was beautifully rendered, although I found the previous two stories to be more enjoyable. I find that he's a better storyteller when he actually tells a story rather than swirls into metafiction, but that's just me.
It is no wonder why he was forgotten in the past: the censors couldn't understand that immense thought behind his work, and his humor is clearly anti-Communist in bent. Now that his work resurfaced, however, I think it would be an honor to him and a wonderful reflection of ourselves if we tried to read them. :)
January 24, 2012
Objectively, this is just as strong a collection as NYRB's Memories of the Future, which shares two of this volumes seven stories ["Quadraturin", "The Bookmark"]. If I had to suggest one collection out of the two, however, it wouldn't be this one: it's a little bit harder to find, and it could have used one last pass by the proofreader for the handful of typos and repeated words that lept out at me.
July 30, 2012
I thought it was one of the more inventive collection of short stories I've read in a long time. He's an extremely clever writer who manages to make the surreal seem like an everyday occurrence that warrants little more than casual observation. The genius of the stories is in their simplicity. The writing style is so clear and not muddled with a lot of obvious "psychological over thinking" as to become laborious. I couldn't put it down and can't wait to read the other collections that are slowly coming out of his work.
October 2, 2010
Krzhizhanovsky has the imagination of Kafka, the philosophical principles one would find from Borges and the intensity of a Russian author. Intelligent, humorous and surprising.
May 3, 2015
Funny, wry, self-reflexive, and all-around delightful.
January 9, 2016
most interesting short stories i've ever read
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews