Selected Works

In a letter to Zoshchenko, Maxim Gorky noted: "I know of no one in literature with such a balance of irony and lyricism." Chukovsky believed that at the heart of Zoshchenko's work lay a struggle against callousness in human relations; that Zoshchenko introduced into literature "a new, not yet fully formed, but triumphantly spreading non-literary speech and began to use it freely as his own."

Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko was born in 1894 in St. Petersburg into the family of a modest artist. He was a faithful follower of the Gogolian tradition, and living among ordinary people, he saw the world through their eyes — yet saw it far more broadly. He looked at the world as a child does, with a pure and curious gaze. The plots of his stories were drawn from real life; he found them everywhere he went. His work was wide-ranging: he wrote short stories, novellas, comedies, and feuilletons.
Zoshchenko's first story was published in 1921. In his satirical stories he exposed the psychology and morals of the petty bourgeoisie. The hallmarks of his writing are brevity and a language accessible to the common reader. His stories did not mock the people of high society themselves, but rather their actions. Yet they provoke not hatred toward that class, but rather the opposite — laughter, even pity at their narrow-mindedness.

Zoshchenko's stories are so cheerful and kind, written so simply and with such vitality, that for his contemporaries they served as support in difficult times — and that is precisely why he won such popularity with the ultimate critic: the people. He understood the people well, for he was one of them and had himself endured many hardships in life; yet this did not make him less cheerful or more bitter — he knew how to look at everything with a smile, and through his stories he wished to teach others to do the same.

In 1939 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour for his contribution and service to the country and its people.

Of course, a reader of our time will see his satire in an entirely different light, yet the eternal problems of social classes and their psychology remain. Such satire acts like a balm on the wounds of the soul, awakening it from complacency, allowing all that has long been painful to be released through laughter and freeing the mind.

We hope that by acquainting yourself with the work of this great writer and satirist, you too will find much that resonates with you and receive that positive energy which the author poured into his stories.

Contents:
THE ARISTOCRAT
FOREIGNERS
A NIGHT INCIDENT
NERVOUS PEOPLE
A DOG'S NOSE
THE PLEASURES OF CULTURE
THE AMATEUR
LEMONADE
A GRIMACE OF THE NEP
THE BATHHOUSE
A POOR MAN
THE ACTOR
HYPNOSIS
THE AGITATOR
PAPASHA
THE HOOK
THE TEST
THE CRISIS
LOVE