Book excerpt: "The Gypsies, the anti-Romantic tale of a city-dweller whose search for "unspoiled" values among gypsies ends in tragedy, is modern Russian literature's first masterpiece. The Bridegroom turns the Romantic ballad into a whodunit filled with sexual dread and subconscious terror. Count Nulin, a deliciously comic tale of country life, stands Shakespeare's Rape of Lucrece on its head - what would have happened if Lucrece had slapped Tarquin's face? The Tale of the Dead Princess is Pushkin's version of the Snow White story, and the eerie Tale of the Golden Cockerel savagely politicizes the folk-tale form."--Jacket.