Book excerpt: The collection includes the best works of famous Russian writers: Fyodor Dostoevsky NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND THE DREAM OF A RIDICULOUS MAN THE BEGGAR BOY AT CHRIST'S CHRISTMAS TREE Leo Tolstoy THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH A LETTER TO A HINDU A CONFESSION GOD SEES THE TRUTH, BUT WAITS A RUSSIAN CHRISTMAS PARTY Anton Chekhov THE LADY WITH THE DOG A SLANDER THE HORSE-STEALERS THE PETCHENYEG A DEAD BODY A HAPPY ENDING THE LOOKING-GLASS OLD AGE DARKNESS THE BEGGAR IN TROUBLE FROST MINDS IN FERMENT GONE ASTRAY AN AVENGER THE JEUNE PREMIER A DEFENCELESS CREATURE AN ENIGMATIC NATURE A HAPPY MAN A TROUBLESOME VISITOR AN ACTOR'S END A STORY WITHOUT A TITLE VANKA Ivan Turgenev FIRST LOVE THE DISTRICT DOCTOR MUMU Nikolay Gogol THE MANTLE MEMOIRS OF A MADMAN THE NOSE A MAY NIGHT THE CLOAK THE VIY CHRISTMAS EVE THE VIY Alexsandr Pushkin THE QUEEN OF SPADES Maxim Gorky ONE AUTUMN NIGHT HER LOVER Leonid Andreyev LAZARUS THE LITTLE ANGEL Aleksandr Kuprin THE OUTRAGE Mikhail Bulgakov THE EMBROIDERED TOWEL Ivan Bunin THE GENTLEMAN FROM SAN FRANCISCO Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin HOW A MUZHIK FED TWO OFFICIALS