Olga seems to be the perfect woman: plump, pretty and friendly, and those around her consider her to be a darling girl. However, as over the years and through several spouses, Olga’s true character be…
For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that…
When Ivan Dmitritch's wife, Masha, invests her money in the lottery, he can help but feel it is a foolish waste of timing. However, having read through the rest of the paper, he agrees to check the nu…
In these four stories, Kate Chopin subtly captures the intricate interior lives of a generation of women. From the famous proto-feminist tale "The Story of an Hour" to the subtly sexy "A Respectable W…
