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Excerpts from Variegated Tales by Prince Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoevsky

Translated by Olesya Surkova

Translator’s Preface

In general, the American reader’s knowledge of Russian literary classics is limited primarily by the availability of English language translations. Extant translations have also largely defined the foreign audience’s pref­erences for certain Russian writers over others. Thus, while some authors, such as Tolstoy and Chekhov, have been translated and retranslated into English, others, such as Prince Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoevsky, have un­fortunately been neglected or translated very selectively.[1] In the hope of restoring justice in regard to one of my favorite writers, I have translated several literary pieces by Odoevsky that were first published together in Pestrye skazki (Variegated Tales), a collection of stories from 1833. These translations are part of a larger work in progress, a project that will result in an English-language version of the collection in its entirety.