Envy, and Other Works

by Yury Olesha

CONTENTS

Introduction vii
Envy (1927) 1
The Chain (1929) 123
Love (1928) 131
Lyompa (1928) 141
The Cherry Stone (1929) 147
Aldebaran (1931) 159
From the Secret Notebook of
Fellow-Traveler Sand (1931) 167
Natasha (1936) 181
I Look into the Past (1928) 185
Human Material (1928) 195
Jottings of a Writer (1930) 201
Speech to the First Congress of
Soviet Writers (1934) 213
A List of Assets (1931) 221

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Russian Literature, Russia, Classics

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1981

About the author

Yury Karlovich Olesha (Russian/Ukraine: Юрий Олеша or Юрий Карлович Олеша), Soviet author of fiction, plays and satires best known for his 1927 novel Envy (Russian: Зависть). He is considered one of the greatest Russian novelists of the 20th century, one of the few to have succeeded in writing works of lasting artistic value despite the stifling censorship of the era. His works are delicate balancing-acts that superficially send pro-Communist messages but reveal far greater subtlety and richness upon a deeper reading. Sometimes, he is grouped with his friends Ilf and Petrov, Isaac Babel, and Sigismund Krzhizhanovsky into the Odessa School of Writers.

Reviews

[bill greene · Rating 4 out of 5]

i'm actually reading a different edition. (Andrew R MacAndrew is the translator & his ear is good.) so far i've read a couple stories & am circling in on Envy. so far so good, although i always wonder in a case like this what the author would have written if he weren't under threat of censorship.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to get a hold on this book but the new translation is rather poor and way too modern. This is like watching a classic film captured in the magnificence of the written word.

[Bradford · Rating 3 out of 5]

early soviet lit, stinging satire, but less resonant than isaac babel.