Yuri Karlovich Olesha (1899–1960) was called “the king of metaphors” among contemporary writers. Olesha did not know how to write “dark and sluggish”, long and boring, his prose sparkles with brilliant images and aphorisms, almost every paragraph is equivalent to a short story in terms of capacity and completeness. The novel “Envy” (1927) is the pinnacle of Olesha’s creativity and, undoubtedly, one from the peaks of Russian literature of the 20th century. The collection also includes stories by Yuri Olesha and the book “Not a Day Without a Line” - diary entries that are, in fact, subtle and deep essays by a sophisticated stylist and sensitive person.