James Joyce & Leo Tolstoy 
Big Book of Best Short Stories – Volume 4 [EPUB ebook] 

Nikolai Gogol was born on March 31, 1809, in Sorochintsy, Ukraine. His first successful book was Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, which he wrote in the early 1830s, but his 1842 novel Dead Souls is considered his masterpiece.
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Anton Chekhov was born on January 29, 1860, in Taganrog, Russia. Through stories such as ‘The Steppe’ and ‘The Lady with the Dog, ‘ and plays such as The Seagull and Uncle Vanya, the prolific writer emphasized the depths of human nature, the hidden significance of everyday events and the fine line between comedy and tragedy.
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Joseph Conrad was a Polish author who wrote in English. Conrad always thought of himself as a Pole, but since he was writing in English the literary world regarded him as a great English author — reportedly to his consternation. He was granted British nationality in 1886 when he was 28.
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Leonid Andreyev, in full Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev, Andreyev also spelled Andreev, (born August 21, 1871, Oryol, Russiadied September 12, 1919, Kuokkala, Finland), novelist whose best work has a place in Russian literature for its evocation of a mood of despair and absolute pessimism.
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James Joyce was born in Dublin, Ireland. He published ‘Portrait of the Artist’ in 1916 and caught the attention of Ezra Pound. With ‘Ulysses, ‘ Joyce perfected his stream-of-consciousness style and became a literary celebrity. The explicit content of his prose brought about landmark legal decisions on obscenity. Joyce battled eye ailments for most of his life. He died in 1941.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky was educated at home until 1833. He studied to be a military engineer, but shortly after graduating decided to become a writer. He experienced traumatic events, including a mock execution and exile. His work explored the human condition and is credited with shaping existentialism. Crime and Punishment is one of his most well-known novels.
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Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born on June 6, 1799 in Moscow. His first major work was the poem Ruslan and Ludmila. His political verses associated him with the Decembrist revolt, causing him to be banished. He worked on Boris Godunov and the novel in verse Eugene Onegin before Nicholas I allowed him to return to Moscow in 1826. Pushkin died at age 37 after being forced into a duel.
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Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born in Orel province, Russia, on 9 November, 1818. After a time working as a civil servant he met French singer Pauline Viardot with whom he had a lifelong affair. He set up residence in France and it was there that he began writing in earnest. Travelling often between Europe and Russia. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev died in exile in Paris on 4 September 1883.
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Maxim Gorky was born in, Russia, on March 28, 1868. He worked in many jobs during an impoverished and abusive childhood before finding fame and fortune as a writer. Initially a Bolshevik supporter, Gorky became a critic when Vladimir Lenin seized power. However, Gorky later served as a Soviet advocate and headed the Union of Soviet Writers. He died in Moscow on June 18, 1936.
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Leo Tolstoy was born in Tula Province, Russia. In the 1860s, he wrote his first great novel, War and Peace. In 1873, Tolstoy set to work on the second of his best known novels, Anna Karenina. He continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. One of his most successful later works was The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Tolstoy died on November 20, 1910 in Astapovo, Russia.