The Talisman, from the Russian of Alexander Pushkin; With Other Pieces

"The Talisman, from the Russian of Alexander Pushkin; With Other Pieces by George Borrow" features stories and poems from the early 1800s that explore the big ideas of love, nature, and the sad or strange parts of being human. The collection's namesake piece, "The Talisman," tells the story a young person who gets a magical object from a witch to keep them safe, representing the strength of real love. "The Mermaid" follows a tale of a lonely monk who becomes obsessed with a mermaid, which leads to bad things happening when he gives in to what he desires. The other works in the collection deal with love and giving things up, and they show heroes and sadness in an interesting Russia from old stories. All of these pieces show how well Pushkin used language and how deeply he understood people and the world.