Myths and Legends of Russia. Collected

This collection presents Russian folk tales gathered in the nineteenth century by Aleksandr Afanas'ev from oral storytellers. Typical pieces follow youngest sons, clever peasants, tsars' children, Baba Yaga, the Firebird, talking animals, and witches who set impossible tasks. Settings move between the village, the forest, and a vaguely royal court. The tales are short, formulaic, and often grim or comic by turns, closer to wonder-tale than to a national epic. The volume is a gathered body of popular narrative, not a continuous novel or a mythological system.

Quarter bound in red leather with cloth sides, printed with a design by the artist and gilt spine lettering by John Andrew. Page top edge red. Red endpapers. Black slipcase.