The audio collection features 33 of the best humorous stories written by brilliant Russian and foreign writers. Laughter is one of the most valuable possessions of a person—it is proof of their freedom and a guarantee of a good mood. With this book, you’ll learn how and what people laughed at in different parts of the world more than a hundred years ago. The themes of the stories vary, but they share the greatest authorial ability to notice something funny and comical even in the dullest everyday questions, the precision of character sketches, and a light style. The collection includes the best humorous works by A. Chekhov, V. Doroshevich, A. Kuprin, Sasha Chyorny, A. Averchenko, E. Zozulya, S. Yushkevich, as well as O. Henry and J. C. Jerome—“kings of laughter” who created at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries.