Old Peter's Russian Tales
Russian Folktales of Enchanted Creatures, Brave Peasants, and Foolish DevilsBy Arthur Ransome
Length7h 25m
About this audiobook
Arthur Ransome's *Old Peter's Russian Tales* presents a sequence of Russian folktales narrated by the peasant storyteller Old Peter to children in a rural setting. Drawing on traditional materials—clever animals, enchanted landscapes, foolish and resourceful peasants, devils, witches, and transformations—the collection preserves the episodic energy and moral ambiguity of oral narrative while shaping it into lucid, literary prose. Ransome's retellings are vivid without being ornate, attentive to repetition, rhythm, and storytelling performance. Published in 1916, the book belongs to the early twentieth-century revival of interest in folklore and to the tradition of literary fairy-tale collections that mediated regional oral cultures for English-speaking readers. Its Russian setting gives familiar wonder-tale patterns a distinctive social texture, marked by poverty, endurance, communal wisdom, and comic resistance to authority. Ransome wrote the collection after substantial travel in Russia and a sustained engagement with its language, literature, and political life. His experience there enabled him to approach Russian tradition with unusual intimacy, while his own gifts as a journalist, translator, and storyteller helped him adapt oral narratives for young readers without reducing their strangeness or cultural character. The framing figure of Old Peter reflects Ransome's interest in storytelling as a living, intergenerational art rather than merely a repository of picturesque antiquities. This book will reward readers interested in folklore, children's literature, comparative narrative, and the cultural imagination of Russia. It is especially valuable for those who want fairy tales that retain their earthy humor, unsettling elements, and social intelligence, while remaining accessible, memorable, and genuinely pleasurable to read.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.2 (623)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, Amazon
GenreChildren's Literature
Length7 hrs 25 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateOct 20, 2021
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The Olive Fairy Book (Annotated)
2Old Peter's Russian Tales
3The Hut in the Forest
4The Tale of the Silver Saucer and the Transparent Apple
5Sadko
Show all chaptersShow less
6Frost
7The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship
8Baba Yaga
9Baba Yaga and the Little Girl With the Kind Heart
10The Cat Who Became Head-Forester
11Spring in the Forest
12The Little Daughter of the Snow
13Prince Ivan, the Witch Baby, and the Little Sister of the Sun
14The Stolen Turnips, the Magic Tablecloth, the Sneezing Goat, and the Wooden Whistle
15Little Master Misery
16A Chapter of Fish
17The Golden Fish
18Who Lived in the Skull?
19Alenoushka and Her Brother
20The Fire-Bird, the Horse of Power, and the Princess Vasilissa
21The Hunter and His Wife
22The Three Men of Power—evening, Midnight, and Sunrise
23Salt
24The Christening in the Village
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