In the spring of 1999, I came to the editorial office of the SCH-Stolitsa newspaper and brought the story "The Death of the Belyash King." After the publication of the newspaper, the public liked the story so much that I began to write further, trying to make each story look like a real report from the life of the city. And people believed that everything that was written actually happened, and alarmed townspeople called the editorial office all day long. People passed newspaper sheets to each other, and they passed from hand to hand, and the fame of them went far beyond the redistribution of Cheboksary. "He's not Stephen King yet, but reading his stories...
Stories by William Faulkner
The Thirteen (1930) Victory of Ad Astra All of them are dead, those old pilots Cleft Red leaves A rose for Emily Justice Hair When the night falls Dry September Mistral Divorce in Naples Carcassonne Dr. Martino (1934) Smoke Full circle Wash Come down, Moses (1942) Was Fire and hearth Black harlequinade Old men Autumn in the delta Knight's ride (1949) A hand stretched out on the water An error in the chemical formula Seven stories (1950) Arsonist Tall people Bear hunting Mule in the yard ...
Requiems (Stories) Lyudmila Petrushevskaya
The cycle of stories "Requiems" introduces the reader to the problem of death as a separate, independent subject of artistic representation. At the same time, the concept of death is considered by L. Petrushevskaya in various manifestations. This is the death of marital love (“I love you”), and the collapse of the bright hopes of youth, the loss of life optimism (“Jewish Verochka”), and the dying of the soul, spiritual degradation (“Lady with Dogs”), and the loss of compassion for someone else’s misfortune (“ Who will answer?"
The Sorcerer in October (collection of short stories) Mikhail Babkin
The collection "The Sorcerer in October" includes 12 short stories by Mikhail Babkin. All of them are about how magic breaks into our everyday life without asking and what comes of it. Accordingly, among the characters - the most ordinary people - suddenly appear fairies, demons, sorcerers, Santa Claus, the serpent Yermungandr and even V.I. Lenin himself.
Terrible tales about Shgara. Story Five: “Oh… Rustam Niyazov
Despite the fact that in this story about the glorious city of Shgar, we will talk about a completely different city, no less glorious, the terrible story will not become more gratifying, and the thought of how strong the habit of judging loved ones is in us, not giving them the opportunity to defend themselves from our judgment - this thought depresses, without any doubt ...
Stories of the Hedgehog Victor Dan
This book is about the adventures of the Hedgehog. In his stories, the Hedgehog will share his life observations and conclusions from meetings with the inhabitants of the garden and its environs: the Mistress, Worm, Uzh, Magpie and many others. For children of preschool and primary school age, as well as for adults who will read the book to children and grandchildren.
Stories, feuilletons, pamphlets Yaroslav Gashek
The first volume of the Works of the Czech writer Yaroslav Hasek (1883-1923) includes stories, feuilletons, and pamphlets written in 1901-1908. Translation from Czech Compilation and notes by S. V. Nikolsky The text is printed according to the publication: Gashek Yaroslav. Collected works in six volumes. T1.– M.: Fiction, 1983.
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
"The Canterbury Tales" by the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (1340? - 1400) is one of the first literary monuments in a single common English language. The book clearly showed the remarkable qualities of Chaucer's humanism: optimistic life-affirmation, interest in a particular person, a sense of social justice, nationality and democracy. The Canterbury Tales is a framed collection of short stories. Based on the pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury, Chaucer painted a broad canvas of English reality...
White and Black (Stories) Leonid Sergeev
The writer's new book contains stories about animals. Some of them are cheerful, they have the joy of communicating with living beings. Others are sad, because we are talking about people who treat animals cruelly. But all the stories are united by the author's concern for the fate of "our smaller brothers." CONTENTS: Buran, Polkan and others Grass at our house At the forester Gray Plutik Anchar A fairy tale for Alenka White and Black Ginger My friends hedgehog Menagerie in my apartment
Pirx's story Stanislav Lem
Pirx is back in flight. Towing scrap iron out of Mercury's orbit is not the most interesting thing to do. Especially if the crew is assembled from a pine forest. But even in such an ordinary flight, a completely unexpected meeting is possible. And you have to decide what to do with her, with this meeting ... © Jolly Roger "Tales of Pilot Pirx" - 7 - Pirx's Story / Opowiadanie Pirxa [= Guest from the Abyss: Pirx's Story] (1965)
The life of a dog and a cat. Novels and short stories by Vladimir Svintsov
To four-legged friends: shaggy and smooth-haired, tailed and tailless, lop-eared and not, and most of all to their loving owners - this book. Contents: To my friends - shaggy and eared ... STORIES LIFE OF A DOG The owner went to war On a duck flight A childhood dream A chain link Hello from home A test of viciousness A day in the life of a dog Diana the hunter Ermut triangle John Erhard Kopani Unsmiling Maria Vasilievna Wise decision True heart Tommy Baba Manya and the Tiger Ball striped How to raise a hostess LIFE OF A CAT Baron Our ...
Barbara never considered herself particularly lucky. And what kind of success can a woman have if she is married to an alcoholic, raises a son who is a loser and lives in a small two-room apartment with an elderly, constantly ill mother-in-law? Plus the hard work of a crane operator. Plus the constant lack of money. Plus, violent neighbors behind the wall ... Therefore, Varvara dragged her life sadly, with displeased pursed lips.
Varvara would never have bought a ticket to the sanatorium if it were not for her cousin Nina. She was persuading her relative, persuading her to think at least a little about herself:
Well, how much can you pull your strap! Nina was outraged. You are a young woman, not an old woman!
Yes, of course, it’s good for you to reason, ”Varvara answered dejectedly, as always. - You have a good husband, and your daughter has entered the institute and on the budget! And you are always smiling...
As if someone forbids you to smile, - Ninka was perplexed. - Life, dear, is such a thing that it will turn as you want. Here, shake yourself up, go to a sanatorium, unwind. Your blockheads will not be lost without you, nothing, they will somehow turn over for a couple of weeks.
Barbara hesitated for a long time. But one day I thought: “I’ll go! What am I, damned, or what?
And she went.
At first, Varvara did not like it much in the sanatorium. Firstly, because the roommate turned out to be a loud, noisy woman who immediately began to tell obscene jokes and boast of victories over men.
“Yes, you yourself are shaking your hem in front of them shamelessly,” Varvara thought with hostility, looking at her talkative neighbor.
Secondly, the cuisine of the sanatorium seemed to Varvara insipid, tasteless.
Thirdly, she began to be burdened by loneliness, or rather separation from her family. Let the husband be an alcoholic, and the son be a loafer, but after all, his own, relatives ...
But three days later, a meeting took place in the dining room, which changed Varvarin's further rest. A middle-aged plump man suddenly sat down at her table, spoke, made a couple of compliments. Varvara, who had not heard such affectionate words from her husband for a long time, became embarrassed and turned pink. The man seemed pleasantly surprised and continued his attack. At the end of dinner, he was already humming a half-forgotten hit in an undertone, “Oh, what a woman, I would like such ...”
Varvara already knew that Boris Nikolaevich, an engineer, had come to the sanatorium "to take a break from production", a widower. That the adult daughter of Boris Nikolayevich has long been permanently residing in America, and that the grandchildren speak English better than Russian. That grandfather rarely visits them. That often he lacks female warmth and participation. And that it was precisely such a woman as Varvara that he needed, because she strongly reminded him even of his outwardly deceased wife.
Varvara was surprised: how can one open up to a stranger like that in just half an hour? But she herself did not notice how she began to tell Boris Nikolaevich about the difficult woman's lot. About the unlucky husband. About the bully son. About the eternally dissatisfied mother-in-law. About hard work. And the fact that for the last five years the whole family has been forgetting about her, Varvarin, birthday ...
I cried, and it seemed to feel better. Boris Nikolaevich listened, nodded, and in general was a fine fellow - few people can endure a woman's whining like that without interrupting.
Darling, - said Boris Nikolaevich, - we will make friends with you. Let's spend the evening together. Let's walk and talk. The two are more fun!
Barbara happily agreed.
These two weeks have passed in one breath. Waking up, she smiled, knowing that she would meet Boris Nikolaevich at breakfast, and then they would go for a walk. And after dinner they will go to the nearest town, maybe go to the cinema, to the park. And they will talk again, talk ...
The day when the voucher expired became mourning for Varvara. She didn't want to leave! The sanatorium began to seem like a magical place where, if not all dreams come true, but some of the desires - by all means!
Boris Nikolaevich, of course, accompanied her to the bus, helped her carry the suitcase. At parting, he slipped a note into his pocket:
It's here ... my number ... call if anything ...
Barbara couldn't resist. She grabbed Boris Nikolaevich by the neck, clung to him and sobbed.
Well, what are you, dear, - he awkwardly tried to console, - we will still take a walk. Necessarily!
Varvara was suddenly ashamed of her tears, pushed Boris Nikolayevich away, and hurriedly went to take her place.
And only when the bus started moving, Varvara allowed herself to look out the window: Boris Nikolaevich, apparently, was waiting for this last, parting look and did not go anywhere, hoping for it. Varvara smiled with force, breathed on the glass and drew heartily. Boris Nikolaevich laughed. Just a little awkward. Why have fun? Breaking up is always sad.
The days flowed by. The alcoholic husband drank and fought. The son with frightening regularity brought "deuces" from school. The mother-in-law, once again falling into bed, declared herself dying and demanded increased attention to her person. Varvara rushed about, trying to please everyone and forgetting about herself. And only before going to bed, closing her eyes, she allowed herself to dream, to reminisce about walks with Boris Nikolayevich. Go through all the moments spent with him meetings. Quietly cry: how good it was! And then look with hatred at her husband snoring next to him ...
... Varvara never called Boris Nikolayevich. But I kept the note. For what? She doesn't know herself. As a memory of a trip to a sanatorium.
I woke up in the morning in a great mood. The fear of not getting enough sleep in a new place, fortunately, was not confirmed. Lying inspected the room, it was quite comfortable and spacious. The room turned out to be a double, but my neighbor was not there yet.
I had never been to a sanatorium before, and then the management of our company decided to reward me with a ticket for many years of conscientious work. I didn’t want to go right away, but my husband and children insisted on rest.
I opened the balcony and breathed in the fresh scent of the forest. It was quiet and warm, and opposite me, on a thick pine branch, a squirrel was sitting. She didn't seem to notice me, nibbled something holding her paws, and then suddenly ran away abruptly. I smiled and thought that I might like it here. In addition, my digestive system has long demanded attention. And there is never time to heal. Here it will be: diet, treatment, rehabilitation after corporate parties at work.
After breakfast, I returned to the room, and even outside the door I realized that there was someone there.
Oh hello! exclaimed a pretty woman in her forties. - I am your new neighbor, my name is Natalya Petrovna. Do not you mind?
Yes, how can I object, please settle down!
I was glad that I would not be here alone, and the neighbor was pleasant in appearance. The minus seemed later, she turned out to be very talkative. Even redundant. But there was nowhere to go, I had to listen to everything about my husband, adult children, annoying mother-in-law and black cat Stepan, a sloth and a wretch.
Are there many men here? she suddenly asked.
I don't know, I didn't pay attention.
- But I always pay, I'm not the first time in a sanatorium, and I always find myself an interesting company, - she playfully winked and smiled.
I remembered this phrase already in the evening, when a gray-haired man came into our room, embarrassed. He brought a box of chocolates and flowers, similar to what I thought I saw in the flower bed behind our building.
No, no, and don't even think of refusing," Natalya Petrovna chirped, looking at me, "look what I brought with me!" It is necessary to mark the beginning and get to know each other better.
I glanced at the set table: a misted bottle of vodka, sausage, caviar, and a jar of small, pickled, home-made tomatoes. The smell of chopped sausage and brine hit my nose. “Oh, well, this diet!” I thought. The guest's face broke into a smile, and he looked like a March cat. But I quickly let him know that I was participating in the feast only as an interlocutor. Therefore, he showered compliments on Natalya Petrovna all evening.
And the conclusion that I was lucky with the company, I rethought over the next week. Receiving guests every evening and late sleep decently exhausted. I already planned to talk about this with Natalya Petrovna, but I kept postponing the conversation. On Sunday after breakfast, imperceptibly, as I then thought, I ran away from the annoying neighbor, wanting to take a walk in silence. And after walking enough and picking up words for a serious conversation, she returned back. Our building seemed to me rows of identical balconies and colored curtains. Suddenly, a man came out to one of them, he fussed, holding something in his hands, and was completely naked. I stopped behind a tree, not wanting to embarrass him with my gaze. What was in his hands turned out to be a towel. The man tried to cover his lower body with it, but the towel obviously did not reach in girth. I caught myself thinking that I was interested in this sight, and looked around to see if anyone was following me. Fortunately, there was no one around.
Suddenly the door to the room opened, loud screams and obscene language were heard. Things flew through the wide open door, hovering in the wind and clinging to the bushes. From the height of the second floor, it was not long to fly, and through the branches I examined men's trousers and shorts, dejectedly hanging on a bird cherry branch.
It was only now that the thought dawned on me that I was watching my own balcony. Interest in what is happening has doubled.
Anticipating danger, a naked man climbed over the partition to the neighboring balcony, since they were all interconnected. Pulling the door, he apparently realized that there was no one there, and moved on. Soon a high-pitched female squeal was heard, and I watched with a smile as two women lashed the towels of a naked guest. He in turn walked to the next balcony, no longer even hiding his shame. And then he disappeared, apparently someone let him in after all.
I stood a little longer under the tree, but since the scream was no longer heard, I decided to get up. Natalya Petrovna frantically collected her things and rammed her travel bag with them. Under her left eye, I noticed a swelling, and her cheeks shone with tears.
I'm sorry, I thought you weren't coming back soon. Suddenly my husband came for me, - she muttered, hiding her face. And then I watched her from the balcony, running on unstable heels, and hung with bags.
A few days later, a new neighbor, young and pretty, was put in with me. And when she asked if there were many men in the sanatorium, I couldn't help laughing. And she answered that they are enough to make our life not boring.
I take the liberty of placing in one file several stories of Hasek about his stay as the commandant of the city of Bugulma, in Udmurtia in the Urals. And then separately, the stories from this cycle, such as "The Procession", found here, without the previous ones, are practically meaningless ... let them be, of course, but not understandable. The request of the moderators to condescend - maybe some rules are violated, but I don’t see another way to put a complete cycle about Bugulma here ... Borrowed from the “Collected Works” by J. Hasek (I don’t remember the year, I don’t remember 5 - or 6 - lantern,…
I was able to tell Cassie Harty everything
Little Cassie always knew that her mother did not love her. "I didn't want to have you. You ruined my whole life. You, you ruined everything, ”these words of the mother haunted the girl from a very early age. Day after day, the mother never tired of repeating to her daughter that she was superfluous in this family, that no one needed her. An unwanted child, an unloved daughter, causing only disgust ... Cassie had no one to complain to, no one to rely on. Only the godfather seemed to the girl very kind and caring. She called him Uncle Bill, even though he was not her uncle. An adult friend is always ...
All stories about the Iroquois Vladimir Peremolotov
I have always loved History, but I was annoyed by the fact that in our country it fluctuated in accordance with the necessity of a given historical moment. THEN it fluctuated along with the lines of the party, NOW - in accordance with the instructions of the President. Because of this instability, I felt sorry for myself and historians (how can you study something that, instead of lying quietly, crawls under your microscope?), but then I realized that our History is a living History. If something has happened to THEM, then it has already happened, but what has already happened to US may well be rethought.…
White and Black (Stories) Leonid Sergeev
The writer's new book contains stories about animals. Some of them are cheerful, they have the joy of communicating with living beings. Others are sad, because we are talking about people who treat animals cruelly. But all the stories are united by the author's concern for the fate of "our smaller brothers." CONTENTS: Buran, Polkan and others Grass at our house At the forester Gray Plutik Anchar A fairy tale for Alenka White and Black Ginger My friends hedgehog Menagerie in my apartment
Stories from the collection "Strange Candy" by Laurel Hamilton
Laurell Hamilton Stories from the collection "Strange Candy" Someone sees in my stories the premises with a more serious work. The last story, "The Girl Who Loved Death," was selected by my editor for a collection of short stories by mystery writers. So any of my readers could get acquainted with it on a par with the stories of other authors of the anthology. As for the rest of the stories in the collection, they were written...
Roman Tales by Alberto Moravia
Most of the heroes of the novels dream of the same thing: how to get some money. One wants to beg for a hundred thousand lire, another wants to dine at least once for nothing, a third decides to remove a ring from the hand of a rich dead man, a fourth tries to sell fake banknotes, a fifth penetrates the church in order to rob it, a sixth bypasses friends and asks to lend him ten thousand , the seventh tries to hand over an "ancient" coin to passers-by. The women demand money. Sometimes losers want to throw something away, kill a rich man, unleash an offensive existence; But…
Stories by Raphael Lafferty
Collected stories by Raphael Lafferty
The "indescribable" work of Lafferty defies rational analysis. But today everyone agrees that without this author, modern science fiction would noticeably fade. Lafferty's stories only disguise themselves as "simple and easy-to-read stories" - they are always full of secondary plans and hidden meanings. In the bizarre universe of Lafferty, everything is different from our world. Because Lafferty is a visionary at heart, not a cold artisan who writes fiction. And he is also an infectious humorist, although not to say that he is bright and light. And a sophisticated mythmaker. And deep...
Collection of short stories by R. Lafferty
The "indescribable" work of Lafferty defies rational analysis. But today everyone agrees that without this author, modern science fiction would noticeably fade. Lafferty's stories only disguise themselves as "simple and easy-to-read stories" - they are always full of secondary plans and hidden meanings. In the bizarre universe of Lafferty, everything is different from our world. Because Lafferty is a visionary at heart, not a cold artisan who writes fiction. And he is also an infectious humorist, although not to say that he is bright and light. And a sophisticated mythmaker. And deep...
Undefined Undefined
Volume 11. In Rus'. Stories 1912-1917 Maxim Gorky
The eleventh volume included twenty-nine works written by M. Gorky in 1912–1917 and combined by him in 1923 into an art cycle called “Across Rus'”. The cycle in its entirety was included in all the collected works of M. Gorky, published after the October Revolution. All stories were edited by the author in the preparation of the collected works in the publication "Book" in 1923-1927. http://ruslit.traumlibrary.net
Amy Hempel stories
Amy Hempel was born in Chicago, Illinois. She was one of the first students of Gordon Lish, under whom she published several of her early stories. Lish was so impressed with her talent that he helped her publish her first collection of short stories, Reasons for Living (1985), which included "The Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried," her very first story. First published in TriQuarterly in 1983, "The Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried" is one of the most widely read short stories of the last quarter of the twentieth century. Hempel released three more collections: "At ...
Small stories about a big destiny Yuri Nagibin
This book brings together all the stories of Yu. Nagibin about the favorite of the century, the world's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, written at different times. The writer uses personal impressions from meetings with Yuri Gagarin, memories of relatives and friends of the cosmonaut, his star brothers, giving the true facts of the hero's life a free fictional form.
Mother Hope and other non-fictional stories Mikhail Ardov
The author conditionally divided the documentary stories into three parts. The first is short stories about people who survived the tragic events of the first half of the 20th century. In the second part - stories from the life of the Russian hinterland, recorded by the author in the 70s. In the third part - memories of two remarkable people of the old Russian emigration; these are Bishop Gregory (Count Yuri Pavlovich Grabbe) and Princess Vera, daughter of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich.
The author is the same Barshchevsky Mikhail
Mikhail Barshchevsky today is one of the most famous and successful Russian lawyers. Founder of the first law office in Russia, representative of the Government of the Russian Federation in the highest federal courts, professor, frequent guest of central television channels and popular radio stations, and also the star of the What? Where? When?". The literary debut of Mikhail Barshchevsky - a collection of short stories "Author" - was released at the end of 2005. Among the short stories that made it up, readers remembered a series of stories about a young lawyer Vadim Osipov. The reader meets a very young ...
"Your name is a quarter past three?" - the second collection of works of science fiction literature, published in the Ural Library of Travel, Adventure and Science Fiction. The first - the stories of the young Sverdlovsk writers Mikhail and Larisa Nemchenko "Flying to the Brothers" - was released in 1964 and was warmly received by readers and critics. This collection includes authors with different residence permits: M. and L. Nemchenko, V. Krapivin, I. Davydov, V. Slukin and E. Kartashev - from Sverdlovsk, A. Sheikin - from Leningrad, I. Rosokhovatsky - from Kiev, S. Gansovsky …
The Adventures of Inspector Bel Amor Boris Stern
For the first time in this book, all the stories and stories about the adventures of Inspector Bel Amor (Boris Stern's signature character), known to science fiction lovers, are collected under one roof for the first time. In 1994, at the European Congress of Science Fiction Fans, Bel Amor (represented by Boris Stern) was awarded the title of "BEST FANTASY OF EUROPE-94". Before him, only Stanislav Lem and the Strugatsky brothers from Eastern Europe received this title. Works known to the reader are significantly ...
Sugar Kremlin Vladimir Sorokin
The heroes and realities of the novel The Day of the Oprichnik migrated to the Sugar Kremlin, a dystopia in stories from the virtuoso and provocateur Vladimir Sorokin. Here is the same surrealism and caustic satire, phantasmagoria, through which recognizable signs of modern Russian reality shine through. Continuing the topic, the author detailed the way of Russia of the future, where they heat stoves in high-rise buildings, build a brick wall, fencing off internal enemies, guardsmen fight against external enemies; holy fools and dwarfs walk along the streets, and in brothels ...
