Primary sourceBook1831
The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin
Alexander Pushkin · 1831
A cycle of short stories by Pushkin, written in 1830, framed as tales collected by a fictional dead landowner.
Pushkin wrote this story cycle, a landmark in his development of Russian prose fiction.
About this source
What it is
This is the 1831 printed edition of Pushkin's story collection, five novelettes plus a fictional editor's introduction, all supposedly gathered by the invented narrator Ivan Petrovich Belkin. Pushkin wrote the tales during his stay at Boldino in 1830.
Why it matters
The collection is considered a founding work of modern Russian prose, known for its plain, economical storytelling style. By inventing a fictional author and editor, Pushkin experimented with narrative voice and distance, influencing later Russian fiction writers.
Look closer
- Why might Pushkin have chosen to hide behind an invented author like Belkin?
- What does the ornate title page tell you about how books were presented to readers in the 1830s?
- How does framing stories as being 'told' to someone else change how we read them?
This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Alexander Pushkin on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.
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