Conceive the joy of a lover of nature who, leaving the art galleries, wanders out among the trees and wild flowers and birds that the pictures of the galleries have sentimentalised. It is some such joy that the man who truly loves the noblest in letters feels when tasting for the first time the simple delights of Russian literature. French and English and German authors, too, occasionally, offer works of lofty, simple naturalness; but the very keynote to the whole of Russian literature is simplicity, naturalness, veraciousness. Critic August Nemo selected seven short stories from authors who bring all the richness and quality of Russian literature: - The Nose by Nikolai Gogol - The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin - God Sees The Truth, But Waits by Leo Tolstoy - The Bet by Anton Chekhov - The Christmas Tree And The Wedding by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - One Autumun Night by Maxim Gorky - Lazarus by Leonid Andreyev For more books with interesting themes, be sure to check the other books in this collection!

Nikolay Gogol, (born March 19, 1809, Sorochintsy, Ukraine, Russian Empire - died February 21, 1852, Moscow, Russia), Ukrainian-born humorist, dramatist, and novelist whose works, written in Russian, significantly influenced the direction of Russian literature. Aleksandr Pushkin, in full Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, (born May 26, 1799, Moscow, Russiadied January 29, 1837, St. Petersburg), Russian poet, novelist, dramatist, and short-story writer; he has often been considered his country's greatest poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. Leo Tolstoy, (born August 28, 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empiredied November 7, 1910, Astapovo, Ryazan province), Russian author, a master of realistic fiction and one of the world's greatest novelists. Anton Chekhov, (born January 29, 1860, Taganrog, Russiadied July 14/15, 1904, Badenweiler, Germany), Russian playwright and master of the modern short story. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, (born November 11, 1821, Moscow, Russiadied February 9, 1881, St. Petersburg), Russian novelist and short-story writer whose psychological penetration into the darkest recesses of the human heart, together with his unsurpassed moments of illumination, had an immense influence on 20th-century fiction. Maxim Gorky, (born March 16, 1868, Nizhny Novgorod, Russiadied June 14, 1936), Russian short-story writer and novelist who first attracted attention with his naturalistic and sympathetic stories of tramps and social outcasts and later wrote other stories, novels, and plays, including his famous The Lower Depths. Leonid Andreyev, (born August 21, 1871, Oryol, Russiadied September 12, 1919, Kuokkala, Finland), novelist whose best work has a place in Russian literature for its evocation of a mood of despair and absolute pessimism.