William Ralston Shedden Ralston

William Ralston Shedden Ralston
William Ralston Shedden Ralston (1828–1889) was a British scholar, translator, and folklorist, known for his contributions to the study of Russian literature and folklore. He worked at the British Museum and was instrumental in popularizing Russian literature in England, notably through his translations of works by authors like Alexander Pushkin and Ivan Turgenev. His best-known work is "Russian Folk Tales," a collection of Russian stories that introduced English readers to the richness of Slavic mythology and folklore. Ralston was also a friend and collaborator of Fyodor Dostoevsky, helping to broaden the cultural exchange between Russia and England.

Author's Books:


PREFACE. The stories contained in the following pages are taken from the collections published by Afanasief, Khudyakof, Erlenvein, and Chudinsky. The South-Russian collections of Kulish and Rudchenko I have been able to use but little, there being no complete dictionary available of the dialect, or rather the language, in which they are written. Of these works that of Afanasief is by far the most... more...

I. A beautiful spring day was drawing to a close. High aloft in the clear sky floated small rosy clouds, which seemed never to drift past, but to be slowly absorbed into the blue depths beyond. At an open window, in a handsome mansion situated in one of the outlying streets of O., the chief town of the government of that name—it was in the year 1842—there were sitting two ladies, the one about... more...