Subtly Worded and Other Stories by Teffi

‘Amazingly modern, as easy to devour, as, well, a box of chocolates’ Rachel Cooke, Observer

‘Heartbreaking as well as very funny. I wish she were still alive, and I could have met her. But then I realised she would have seen right through me’ Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

Teffi’s genius with the short form made her a literary star in pre-revolutionary Russia, beloved by Tsar Nicholas II and Vladimir Lenin alike. These stories, taken from the whole of her career, show the full range of her gifts. Extremely funny – a wry, scathing observer of society – she is also capable, as capable even as Chekhov, of miraculous subtlety and depth of character.

There are stories here from her own life (as a child, going to meet Tolstoy to plead for the life of War and Peace‘s Prince Bolkonsky, or, much later, her strange, charged meetings with the already-legendary Rasputin). There are stories of émigré society, its members held together by mutual repulsion. There are stories of people misunderstanding each other or misrepresenting themselves. And throughout there is a sly, sardonic wit and a deep, compelling intelligence.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

‘Amazingly modern, as easy to devour, as, well, a box of chocolates’ Rachel Cooke, Observer

‘Heartbreaking as well as very funny. I wish she were still alive, and I could have met her. But then I realised she would have seen right through me’ Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

Teffi’s genius with the short form made her a literary star in pre-revolutionary Russia, beloved by Tsar Nicholas II and Vladimir Lenin alike. These stories, taken from the whole of her career, show the full range of her gifts. Extremely funny – a wry, scathing observer of society – she is also capable, as capable even as Chekhov, of miraculous subtlety and depth of character.

There are stories here from her own life (as a child, going to meet Tolstoy to plead for the life of War and Peace‘s Prince Bolkonsky, or, much later, her strange, charged meetings with the already-legendary Rasputin). There are stories of émigré society, its members held together by mutual repulsion. There are stories of people misunderstanding each other or misrepresenting themselves. And throughout there is a sly, sardonic wit and a deep, compelling intelligence.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

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