Russian Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics Hardcover) - Tapa dura

Re-creating Pushkin requires skills approaching magic. Antony Wood is one of the two or three best translators of Russia's greatest poet in the Anglophone world, because his Pushkin moves: you watch him dance as well as hear him sing (Caryl Emerson)

Antony Wood's translations show an unusual grace and a deep knowledge of Puskin's poetry (Elaine Feinstein)

Everybody knows how difficult Pushkin's poems are to translate. Antony Wood has succeeded, within the limits of the possible (John Bayley)

Alexander Pushkin, Russia's greatest poet, was fascinated by Russia's folk history, adapting its fairy tales into captivating poetic versions. In the early twentieth century, the book illustrator Ivan Bilibin likewise fell under the spell of Old Russia, drawing on both folk motifs and art nouveau to produce beautiful illustrations to accompany Pushkin's poems. This irresistible new edition presents three of Pushkin's fairy tales - 'Tsar Saltan', 'A Fisherman and a Little Fish' and 'The Golden Cockerel' - in versions by the acclaimed translator Antony Wood, alongside Bilibin's sumptuous original illustrations. The result is an enchanting window into Russian poetry, fairy tales and magic.