Status Updates From Great Russian Short Stories

I am up to the last story of this anthology of thirteen "Great Russian Short Stories." Of them all, so far, Leo Tolstoy's "Kholstomer" seems the most remarkable, but they have all been arresting in how they have grabbed ahold of me as I have read them. Sure, they speak of Russian life in the 19th Century, but I keep thinking of how much they make me think of life in these times.

I continue reading and these great Russian short stories continue to amaze me. "A Gentle Spirit" and "The Crocodlie" seemed fitting having been written by a man who had spent four years in jail as a political prisoner. And Tolstoy's "What Men Live By," while my favorite of them all so far, lends itself to a feeling of having come from a writer secure enough to worry about an angel's troubles.

I have read three of these great short stories by Russian authors so far. All have been revealing in a way of what this anthology's editor Norris Houghton describes as the "mysterious Russian soul," I feel. I find it fascinating that only one of the anthology's authors lived past through the Revolution, Maxim Gorky, There is truly something timeless in what I have read so far.