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Very Christmas Series

This series delves into the profound and often contradictory essence of the Russian Christmas, where ecstatic joy intertwines with deep sorrow. From landowners yearning for love to peasants burdened by labor, the narratives capture a vast spectrum of human experience. Featuring renowned authors alongside newly translated voices, these stories explore the sentiment, humor, and tragedy inherent in the holiday season. Each installment offers a captivating glimpse into the Russian soul, blending tradition, social commentary, and timeless human emotions.

A Very German Christmas
A Very Italian Christmas
A Very Scandinavian Christmas
A Very Russian Christmas
A Very French Christmas

Recommended Reading Order

  1. 1

    A Very Russian Christmas

    • 147 pages
    • 6 hours of reading
    3.5(126)Add rating

    "Crimson ribbons and troubled souls, landowners yearning for love, peasants bent from labor, priests who raise a glass, and the salty joys of salmon and caviar. This is Russian Christmas celebrated in supreme pleasure and pain by the greatest of writers, running the gamut from sweet and reverent to twisted and uproarious, with many of the stories appearing in English for the first time. Dostoevsky brings stories of poverty and tragedy, Chekhov's insights into out melancholy woes are on full display, and Teffi puts a stethoscope to the heavy heart of a lonely child and her stuffed animal. Finally, Mikhail Zoshchenko recounts madcap anecdotes of new year's trees and Christmas thieves. There is no shortage of vodka or wit on display in this volume packed with sentimental songs, footmen, whirling winds, solitary nights, snow drifts, and hopeful children"--back cover

    A Very Russian Christmas
  2. 2

    A Very French Christmas

    • 142 pages
    • 5 hours of reading
    3.2(109)Add rating

    Bringing together the best French Christmas stories of all time in an elegant and vibrant collection featuring classics by Guy de Maupassant and Alphonse Daudet, plus stories by the esteemed twentieth century author Irene Nemirovsky and contemporary writers Dominique Fabre and Jean-Philippe Blondel. With a holiday spirit conveyed through sparkling Paris streets, opulent feasts, wandering orphans, kindly monks, homesick soldiers, oysters, crayfish, ham, bonbons, flickering desire, and more than a little wine, encapsulating the holiday spirit and proving that the French have mastered Christmas.

    A Very French Christmas
  3. 3

    A Very Italian Christmas

    • 150 pages
    • 6 hours of reading

    A continuation of the very popular Very Christmas series, the literary gems in A Very Italian Christmas are filled with ancient churches, trains whistling through the countryside, steaming tureens, High Mass, dashed hopes, flowing wine, and plenty of style. Like everything the Italians do, this is Christmas with its very own verve and flair.

    A Very Italian Christmas
  4. 4

    A Very Scandinavian Christmas

    • 140 pages
    • 5 hours of reading
    3.6(60)Add rating

    Our fourth book in the very popular Very Christmas series, this collection brings together the best Scandinavian holiday stories including classics by Hans Christian Andersen of Denmark; Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf, August Strindberg and Hjalmar Söderberg of Sweden; as well as the popular contemporary Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgård. These Nordic tales--coming from the very region where so much of traditional Christmas imagery originates--convey a festive and contemplative spirit laden with lingonberries, elks, gnomes, Sami trolls, candles, church spires, gingerbread, and aquavit in abundance. A smorgasbord of unexpected literary gifts that make up a vibrant, elegant hardcover volume sure to provide plenty of pleasure and hygge, that specifically Scandinavian blend of coziness and contentment.

    A Very Scandinavian Christmas

  • A Very German Christmas

    • 140 pages
    • 5 hours of reading
    3.4(70)Add rating

    A continuation of the very popular Very Christmas series conveying a festive spirit from the place where many Christmas traditions were invented. A delightful and unpredictable collection redolent of candle-lit trees, St. Nikolaus, gingerbread, the Christkindl, roast goose and red cabbage, Gugelhopf and stollen cakes, accompanied by plenty of schnapps.The fifth volume in our popular Very Christmas series, this collection brings together traditional and contemporary holiday stories from Austria, Switzerland and Germany. You'll find classic works by the Brothers Grimm, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Thomas Mann, Rainer Maria Rilke, Hermann Hesse, Joseph Roth and Arthur Schnitzler, as well as more recent tales by writers like Heinrich Böll, Peter Stamm and Martin Suter. Eine fröhliche Weihnachten—A Merry Christmas—made all the more festive with these literary treats redolent of candle-lit trees, St. Nikolaus, gingerbread, the Christkindl, roast goose and red cabbage, Gugelhopf and stollen cakes, accompanied by plenty of schnapps.

    A Very German Christmas