Cardboard Wall Empire presents
Vsevolod Garshin – Collected Stories
Part of Resuscitations, a series of releases focusing on forgotten or neglected works
A collection of Vsevolod Garshin’s short fiction works. In his time Garshin inspired fanaticism among those who read his stories, his public readings often accompanied by near hysteria, but the years since have seen him less read than some of his contemporaries. His fiction frequently deals with themes of war and mental instability, writing reflective of his real life experiences. Having died tragically early, Garshin left relatively few completed short stories. All are included in this volume, and are a valuable addition to Russian literature as a whole.
Highlights include:
“Four Days”, where an incapacitated soldier is forced to wait for help at the side of a battlefield, all the while observing the slow decay of the body of an enemy he has vanquished previously.
“The Scarlet Blossom” (also known elsewhere as “The Red Flower”), in which a highly disturbed man is afflicted by an unnatural fixation on a startlingly red bloom.
Also included in this volume is writing on Garshin from Sergius Stepniak, a revolutionary against autocratic rule in Russia who eventually settled in England.
About the book:
Dead at the age of thirty-three, Vsevolod Garshin had by that time already established himself as one of Russia’s finest short fiction writers. His known stories are included in this volume. Many are powerful accounts of war, influenced by his direct experience of army life, having volunteered to serve in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8. Garshin’s literary output includes poignant and phantastique renderings of the fairy tale, as well as a supreme example of the Russian tradition of asylum horror ‘The Scarlet Blossom,’ perhaps his most well-known story. With great sensitivity, Garshin’s fiction displays the uneasy contradictions of human nature. His determinedly individual voice ensures the stories retain a resonance contemporary to any time.
This collection contains Garshin’s fiction as translated by Captain Rowland Siddons Smith OBE, and commentary by Sergius Stepniak, men of note in their own right, and a brief biography of both is included.
Hardcover available from Lulu.
Paperbacks from Lulu and Barnes & Noble.
Ebook from Lulu, Barnes & Noble and Gumroad.