The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview.
This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
Krylov’s fables represent a combination of satire, rational moralizing, and details of Russian rural and provincial life, with an admixture of lyricism and references to historical events and figures. As a source of phrases and aphorisms that have entered the Russian language, Krylov’s influence upon his native tongue is roughly analogous to that of Shakespeare upon English.
"Two things amazed me—how good her translations are, and how relevant (at least some of) the fables are to our personal and political life."
– Boris Silversteyn
This bilingual, colorfully illustrated edition is an ideal gift for language learners, adoptees and Russophiles of all ages.
Ivan Andreyevich Krylov was born in 1769 into a family that was situated at the very bottom of the noble class. His father died when he was ten, leaving him virtually no money. But Krylov did inherit a trunk full of books. Virtually lacking any formal education, in his teens Krylov had the good fortune to impress a professional writer with his literary talent.
Translator Lydia Razran Stone has worked as both a technical and literary translator from Russian into English and currently specializes in translating poetry. She is responsible for most of the poetic translations published in Chtenia and for the past 15 years has been the editor of SlavFile, a quarterly for Slavic translators. [For more information about this important translation, read the Translator's Introduction.]
Illustrator Katya Korobkina was born in Maykop, in the republic of Adygeya. She studied art in Saratov and now lives in Moscow, where she works as an illustrator and theatrical artist, as a theatrical property master and a photographer.
