Sovereign imprint: 731 books

On a hot summer day two carpenters, Gerasim and Lyubim, sit in a pond, floundering about in the water under a willow tree, beside the unfinished bathing shed they were supposed to be working on. Blue from cold and wrangling, they struggle to drag a large eelpout by the gills, from under the root.

Smirnov is scared of being robbed. To compensate and deter the cabman from attacking him, he blusters on in a comical way about his fighting abilities, the three revolvers he doesn’t have, and how a party of armed friends will join him soon.

The retired general Buldeyev, suffering from a toothache, has tried all possible means of treating it, to no avail. He is not willing, though, to remove the tooth, so some cure is to be found. The steward, Ivan Evseyevich, remembers he knew once an extremely gifted 'tooth conjurer', who used to just...

Natalya just returned from Yalta, Crimea and is telling her husband over dinner of all the charms of the Crimea. Her husband, delighted, gazed tenderly at her enthusiastic face, listened, and from time to time put in a question. Natalya's never-ceasing babble gets her into serious trouble however....

The importance of women and their influence can never be underestimated. This story vividly shows how in 19th century Russia women pull strings behind scenes to influence even the most principled and seemingly unbreakable of decision makers. And only Chekhov knows how to express such delicate matters in the most enjoyable and humorous way.

Mashenka, a young girl who had only just finished her studies at a boarding school, returning from a walk to the house of the Kushkins, with whom she was living as a governess, found the household in a terrible turmoil. Mihailo, the porter who opened the door to her, was excited and red as a crab.

There were once two old men who decided to go on a pilgrimage to worship God at Jerusalem. One of them was a well-to-do peasant named Efím Tarásitch Shevélev. The other, Elisha Bódrof, was not so well off.

There was once a man who lived for seventy years in the world, and lived in sin all that time. He fell ill but even then did not repent. Only at the last moment, as he was dying, he wept and said: 'Lord! Forgive me, as Thou forgavest the thief upon the cross.' And as he said these words, his soul left his body.

In Petersburg in the eighteen-forties a surprising event occurred. An officer of the Cuirassier Life Guards, a handsome prince who everyone predicted would become aide-decamp to the Emperor Nicholas I and have a brilliant career, left the service, broke off his engagement to a beautiful maid of honour,...

Is it possible for someone who seems to have it all - a doting fiancée, impending marriage and a great life stretching out ahead of him to loose ability to enjoy life? For some reason, our hero can't cope with this idyllic existence and begins a nightmarish spiral into insanity. Other stories in this collection include: A Christmas Tree and a Wedding, Polzunkov, A Little Hero, Mr Prohartchin.

Do we understand the true meaning of Christmas? Dostoyevsky invites us to follow the story of a 6 year old boy trying to survive on a cold winter day. Other stories in this collection include: The Peasant Marey, The Crocodile, Bobok, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man.

The story follows a separatist guerrilla Murat who falls out with his own commander and eventually sides with the Imperial Russian forces in hope of saving his family. Tolstoy collected material for this novel from events he witnessed while serving in the Caucasus, according to letters he wrote to his brother Sergei.

One day, a stranger enters the apartment and asks for someone who does not live there. He leaves when told to do so but returns the following day and boldly steals a coat from the front hallway. But there is more to it in the Honest Thief than meets the eye. Other stories in this collection include: A Novel in Nine Letters, An Unpleasant Predicament, Another Man's Wife.

Should you ever go to Rome and visit the villa Pamphili, no doubt, after having sought under its tall pines and along its canals the shade and freshness so rare in the capital of the Christian world, you will descend towards the Janiculum Hill by a charming road, in the middle of which you will find the Pauline fountain.