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Nervous People and Other Satires
Typical targets of Zoshchenko's satire are the Soviet bureaucracy, crowded conditions in communal apartments, marital infidelities and the rapid turnover in marriage partners, and "the petty-bourgeois mode of life, with its adulterous episodes, lying, and similar nonsense." His devices are farcical complications, satiric understatement, humorous anachronisms, and an ironic contrast between high-flown sentiments and the down-to-earth reality of mercenary instincts.
Zoshchenko's sharp and original satire offers a marvelous window on Russian life in the 20s and 30s.
Zoshchenko's sharp and original satire offers a marvelous window on Russian life in the 20s and 30s.
449 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1927
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1937 people want to read
About the author
Mikhail Zoshchenko
371 books118 followersMikhail Zoshchenko (Russian: Михаил Зощенко) was born in Poltava, Ukraine, on 29th July, 1895. He studied law at the University of Petersburg, but did not graduate.
During the First World War Zoshchenko served in the Russian Army. A supporter of the October Revolution, Zoshchenko joined the Red Army and fought against the Whites in the Civil War.
In 1922 Zoshchenko joined the literary group, the Serapion Brothers. Inspired by the work of Yevgeni Zamyatin, the group took their name from the story by Ernst T. Hoffmann, the Serapion Brothers, about an individualist who vows to devote himself to a free, imaginative and non-conformist art. Other members included Nickolai Tikhonov, Mikhail Slonimski, Victor Shklovsky, Vsevolod Ivanov and Konstantin Fedin. Russia's most important writer of the period, Maxim Gorky, also sympathized with the group's views.
Zoshchenko's early stories dealt with his experiences in the First World War and the Russian Civil War. He gradually developed a new style that relied heavily on humour. This was reflected in his stories that appeared in Tales (1923), Esteemed Citizens (1926), What the Nightingale Sang (1927) and Nervous People (1927).
Zoshchenko satires were popular with the Russian people and he was one of the country's most widely read writers in the 1920s. Although Zoshchenko never directly attacked the Soviet system, he was not afraid to highlight the problems of bureaucracy, corruption, poor housing and food shortages.
In the 1930s Zoshchenko came under increasing pressure to conform to the idea of socialist realism. As a satirist, Zoshchenko found this difficult, and attempts such as the Story of one Life were not successful.
Zoshchenko increasing got into trouble with the Soviet authorities. His autobiographical, Before Sunrise, was banned in 1943 and three years later his literary career was brought to an end when he was expelled from the Soviet Writers' Union after the publication of The Adventures of a Monkey in the literary magazine, Zvezda.
Mikhail Zoshchenko died in Leningrad on 22nd July, 1958.
(source: spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk)
During the First World War Zoshchenko served in the Russian Army. A supporter of the October Revolution, Zoshchenko joined the Red Army and fought against the Whites in the Civil War.
In 1922 Zoshchenko joined the literary group, the Serapion Brothers. Inspired by the work of Yevgeni Zamyatin, the group took their name from the story by Ernst T. Hoffmann, the Serapion Brothers, about an individualist who vows to devote himself to a free, imaginative and non-conformist art. Other members included Nickolai Tikhonov, Mikhail Slonimski, Victor Shklovsky, Vsevolod Ivanov and Konstantin Fedin. Russia's most important writer of the period, Maxim Gorky, also sympathized with the group's views.
Zoshchenko's early stories dealt with his experiences in the First World War and the Russian Civil War. He gradually developed a new style that relied heavily on humour. This was reflected in his stories that appeared in Tales (1923), Esteemed Citizens (1926), What the Nightingale Sang (1927) and Nervous People (1927).
Zoshchenko satires were popular with the Russian people and he was one of the country's most widely read writers in the 1920s. Although Zoshchenko never directly attacked the Soviet system, he was not afraid to highlight the problems of bureaucracy, corruption, poor housing and food shortages.
In the 1930s Zoshchenko came under increasing pressure to conform to the idea of socialist realism. As a satirist, Zoshchenko found this difficult, and attempts such as the Story of one Life were not successful.
Zoshchenko increasing got into trouble with the Soviet authorities. His autobiographical, Before Sunrise, was banned in 1943 and three years later his literary career was brought to an end when he was expelled from the Soviet Writers' Union after the publication of The Adventures of a Monkey in the literary magazine, Zvezda.
Mikhail Zoshchenko died in Leningrad on 22nd July, 1958.
(source: spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk)
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 11, 2024
--p.s. Okuduğum versiyon Varlık yayınları, Mavi/açık yeşil kapaklı. 1968 baskısı.--
Zoşçenko dan okuduğum ilk kitap. Kitap Mişel Sinyagin'in 66 sayfa süren hikayesi ile başlıyor. Taşrada yüksek beklentilere sahip şair Mişel'in hayat yolculuğu süresince değişen beklentileri ele alınıyor.
Kalan 94 sayfada ise kısa kısa 17 farklı hikaye bulunmakta.
Zoşçenko sıradan insanları ve olayları anlatıyor. Duru, samimi, iğneleyici, eğlenceli, muzip bir üslubu var.
Ben beğendim. Diğer kitaplarına da göz atacağım. 3.5/5
Zoşçenko dan okuduğum ilk kitap. Kitap Mişel Sinyagin'in 66 sayfa süren hikayesi ile başlıyor. Taşrada yüksek beklentilere sahip şair Mişel'in hayat yolculuğu süresince değişen beklentileri ele alınıyor.
Kalan 94 sayfada ise kısa kısa 17 farklı hikaye bulunmakta.
Zoşçenko sıradan insanları ve olayları anlatıyor. Duru, samimi, iğneleyici, eğlenceli, muzip bir üslubu var.
Ben beğendim. Diğer kitaplarına da göz atacağım. 3.5/5
June 7, 2013
Very playful, wonderful short stories. Some are very very short.
What can I say? Soviet humorism at its best. American literary realism can suck it!
What can I say? Soviet humorism at its best. American literary realism can suck it!
November 7, 2013
I love Zoshchenko, I love his sharp sense of humour and the lack of fear with which he chooses to portray human flaws. Zoshchenko is quite a tragic figure, though.
If you want to know a thing or two about Russian culture––this collection of short stories should satisfy. But I'm not going to say you'd understand Russian mentality upon reading it. Heck, sometimes I don't get it! Although such things as corruption, greed, bureaucracy are pretty universal. I don't know whether it is sad (well, I guess it is) that stories written in the 20s-30s are still current. Nothing really changes.
Style
It is very conversational, brief, simple. Stories depend on the dialogues a lot and I do enjoy these dialogues. There is BUT...
A lot gets lost in translation. I mean A LOT––suffixes, Russian slang and the manner of speaking that is impossible to convey in my opinion. That said, I'm not sure it works very well in English. If it doesn't put you off then go ahead and enjoy.
If you want to know a thing or two about Russian culture––this collection of short stories should satisfy. But I'm not going to say you'd understand Russian mentality upon reading it. Heck, sometimes I don't get it! Although such things as corruption, greed, bureaucracy are pretty universal. I don't know whether it is sad (well, I guess it is) that stories written in the 20s-30s are still current. Nothing really changes.
Style
It is very conversational, brief, simple. Stories depend on the dialogues a lot and I do enjoy these dialogues. There is BUT...
A lot gets lost in translation. I mean A LOT––suffixes, Russian slang and the manner of speaking that is impossible to convey in my opinion. That said, I'm not sure it works very well in English. If it doesn't put you off then go ahead and enjoy.
July 12, 2020
No words for how disappointing this was. And it had so much potential. I guess im spoiled after reading Kharms, a writer whose sense of humor got him killed...this reads so conservatively and obviously contorted to pass soviet censors. Or maybe the translation is just dogshite. Idk. Idk.
June 24, 2023
Satires on the Soviet New Man. After Revolution, people go about their daily lives as they always have done. (Includes extracts from Sunrise.)
November 8, 2007
I have not read every single story, nor will I probably until I am officially retired, and not just unemployed. Here are encapsulated the very reason I detest going to the theater, and my frustrations on the writers' existence. The very pebbles that are the foundation of artistic effort, parodied on these pages. Delve in. Sink.
December 12, 2017
The worst thing that can be said of any Soviet writer is, "He was a survivor." While Zoshchenko's life was not without hardship, he died of natural causes and never spent a day in prison. Having read his feuilletons, I understand why. Nominally a "satirist," he satirizes the officiousness of clerks, enterprise managers, directors, and housing co-op presidents--and leaves their superiors unscathed. He describes the moral hypocrisies of the residents of communal apartments, but very little about the misallocations of resources that kept urban residents knees over elbows in a state of permanent overcrowding. His writing aided in the narrowing of horizons that it details.
July 27, 2015
I really enjoyed the excerpts of Zoshchenko's autobiography. It was interesting for me to directly relate in several ways to a Ukrainian male who died in 1958 and whose exterior life was nothing like mine. Humanity is neat like that, I think.
November 26, 2012
Very simple writing, too the point, and thus far, pretty "satirical" as far as "satire" goes... Maybe if I put more "things" in "quotes" more ppl will "like me...."
May 1, 2022
We read to know we aren’t alone.
Want to read
December 11, 2025Mihail Zoşçenko, Çarın Çizmeleri, Sosyal Yayınlar, 1970, Çevirmen: Hasan Ali Ediz.
May 28, 2020
Смешно и вместе с тем грустно. Настоящая сатира про жизнь в советское время. И про коммуналки, пьянки, культуру, вежливость и её отсутствие, и вместе с тем так любя!
February 7, 2015
Not as compelling a collection as I was expecting... There are some great short stories in here about life in the Soviet Union between WW1 and WW2. What its like to have your clothing stolen in a bathhouse, how annoying it is when your neighbor leaves his radio on when he heads off for vacation, what it's like to raise a family when your rented "room" is someone's bathroom. (Answer: it's OK until the in-laws show up for a visit.) Dog Scent was the standout for me. The stories are satires, and they will make you chuckle from time to time, but you will not be surprised to learn that Zoschenko suffered from depression throughout his life.
The collection is uneven, however, and I can't help but think that Zoshchenko would be better served in a slimmer volume.
The last part of the book is an excerpt from Before Sunrise, where Zoschenko revisits snapshots from his past to try to understand the cause of his depression. The snapshots were themselves interesting. The argument was muddled, particularly when Freud and Pavlov entered the discussion.
The collection is uneven, however, and I can't help but think that Zoshchenko would be better served in a slimmer volume.
The last part of the book is an excerpt from Before Sunrise, where Zoschenko revisits snapshots from his past to try to understand the cause of his depression. The snapshots were themselves interesting. The argument was muddled, particularly when Freud and Pavlov entered the discussion.
November 21, 2018
A mixed bag. Some of the early pieces are divine, whereas the later pieces tend to be longer and their points obscure. Worse, this edition seems to have been subjected to some heavy-handed Soviet-era political editing. I compared those in this edition to the translations in The Penguin Book of Russian Stories from Pushkin to Buida and it's obvious that they've been meddled with here. I suspect there are better editions of Zoshchenko out there, which I'm soon to discover.
August 21, 2007
The only short stories that I love as much as these are by Isaac Babel and Guy de Maupassant.
October 14, 2007
Sirs and Madams,
Why are there so few translations of Zoshchenko?
T?
V
Why are there so few translations of Zoshchenko?
T?
V
June 26, 2008
Great slice of life stories. Considering that they were published in Soviet Russia, they make for brilliant satire.
July 1, 2012
It is hard to read a book of short stories the same way you read a novel. I liked the short stories but my favorite was Before Sunrise at the end, 100 pages of autobiographical vignettes.
November 14, 2013
Zoschenko's satires are worth reading.
The only superior thing we (well writers and artists) can do is to ridicule.
The only superior thing we (well writers and artists) can do is to ridicule.
Read
February 10, 2019This writer has been a discovery for me. Interesting description of everyday life in Soviet Union.
February 16, 2022
read 2/16/2022
September 23, 2024
Great bunch of short stories that give a satirical glimpse of life like in the NEP era Soviet Union. The author focuses on the cramped communal apartments, the NEP men and idealistic individualistic pursuits and the glaring contradictions of early Soviet reality and the ideals the society worked towards.
January 3, 2022
Хорошо год начался с юмора. Самый смешной, на мой вкус, рассказ "История болезни".
До слёз.
До слёз.
July 26, 2023
3.5 stars
September 10, 2025
Aziz Nesin'e benzer bir üslupla kendi toplumunu hicvediyor yazar. Genel olarak okuması keyifli hikayeler. Benim favorilerim ise Bir Hastalığın Tarihçesi, Acıklı Bir Güldürü, ve Yoksulluk. 3.5/5
April 23, 2015
Hilarious!
July 13, 2016
Hilarious!
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews