Shorter Notices
M. GUERNEY has chosen a misleading title for his anthology ; the sixteen New Russian Stories include such established favourites as Tynyanov's Second Lieutenant Likewise, Gorki's On the Way and tales by Tolstoi and Pasternak. But as a sample of Russian storytelling (and Mr. Guerney has chosen the tales on purely literary merits) the selection could hardly be bettered. We may enjoy the familiar technique : the slightly distorted sequence of events, the brilliant exploitation of a misunderstanding, the plausible accumu: lation of improbabilities, the surprising final twist. We may study the grim and the grotesque, or take pleasure in the sophisti- cated naivete, the wry and sometimes slap- stick humour. Mr. Guerney's success as an anthologist is matched by his skill in transla- tion : he manages to convey the Russian spirit without losing sight of English syntax or the deep resources of our vocabulary. His versions of Tynyanov and Tolstoi faithfully reflect the strange goings-on in the Pavlovski Palace and the Smolenski market-place, the verve of the original stories, but they do not at any point betray the dictionary. This welcome collection of stories, which represents the chief Russian writers of the last thirty years, shows many facets of the national character, and is accompanied by useful notes on the authors; in these brief biographies, how- ever, Mr. Guerney might have omitted a few facetious asides with advantage. J. R.
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