Publisher's Synopsis
Both these short stories are intended primarily for students making their first acquaintance with a continuous Russian text after a preliminary course in basic grammar. Both stories are written in Russian on the left page, with grammatical and vocabulary notes on the right. Ehrenburg's short story, THE ACTRESS, is a poignant study of a young woman who found love during a visit to the front, as one of a party sent to entertain the troops but lost it, tragically, almost at once, and then turned with renewed ardour to the theatrical career in which she had thought herself a failure. Vsévolod Ivánov, author of PETYA THE COCK had a very adventurous youth and early manhood, including active participation in the civil war and the struggle against foreign intervention. Since his first literary successes in the 1920s his output has been both varied in character and considerable in volume.
