Maltz ranks among the best of American short-story writers, both in his versatility and in the sheer power of his prose. The stories selected for this volume are considered classics and have been translated into more than 20 languages. All display Maltz at his most provocative.

The Landlady, a novella written in 1847, immediately after The Double, is accompanied in this volume by the rest of Dostoevsky’s shorter fiction, including famous stories such as ‘Mr Prokharchin’, ‘White Nights’, ‘The Dream of a Ridiculous Man’ and ‘A Gentle Creature’ – all presented in sparkling new translations by Roger Cockrell.