The tales selected here are taken from various volumes, and two of them, "The Elephant" and "The White Poodle," from a volume specially designed by Kuprin for reading aloud to children. The others are: A Slav Soul; The Song and The Dance; Easter Day; The Idiot; The Picture; Hamlet; Mechanical Justice; The Last Word; Dogs'' Happiness; A Clump of Lilacs; Anathema; Tempting Providence; Cain. Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin (1870-1938) was Russian novelist and short-story writer. He was an army officer for several years before he resigned to pursue a writing career, and was a friend of Maxim Gorky. He won fame with The Duel (1905), a novel of protest against the Russian military system. In 1909, Yama: The Pit, his novel dealing with prostitution in Odessa, created a sensation. Kuprin left Russia after the revolution but returned in 1937. Some of his best short stories of action and adventure appear in The Garnet Bracelet, originally published in 1917.

The tales selected here are taken from various volumes, and two of them, "The Elephant" and "The White Poodle," from a volume specially designed by Kuprin for reading aloud to children. The others are: A Slav Soul; The Song and The Dance; Easter Day; The Idiot; The Picture; Hamlet; Mechanical Justice; The Last Word; Dogs'' Happiness; A Clump of Lilacs; Anathema; Tempting Providence; Cain. Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin (1870-1938) was Russian novelist and short-story writer. He was an army officer for several years before he resigned to pursue a writing career, and was a friend of Maxim Gorky. He won fame with The Duel (1905), a novel of protest against the Russian military system. In 1909, Yama: The Pit, his novel dealing with prostitution in Odessa, created a sensation. Kuprin left Russia after the revolution but returned in 1937. Some of his best short stories of action and adventure appear in The Garnet Bracelet, originally published in 1917.