Zhivago; Dr. Zhivago

[bazarov]

On every text or theme refering on this great book, you can always see same theme:''....great story about love between doctor and his love Lara...''. But, the thing I don't understand is, why have they all forgot Tonya and Marina??? Like they are irrelevant. 2 times 2 kids, it can't be irrelevant...
By the way, it's really a great book, thanks God we have CIA:D !

[Alexei]

Yes, I read the book after I have heard all these things about the great love between Zhivago and Lara. It was quite confusing when I actually finished it. I can’t understand how they always forgot them. I mean in the book Zhivago always have in his mind the thought of Tonya, especially after the war. And of course the kids… But may be his love to Lara is of a different kind. May be in some way this love was his personal revolution.

[Riddleman]

Maybe most beople just watch the film? Lara's way more prominent in that than Tonya!

[bazarov]

Maybe most beople just watch the film? Lara's way more prominent in that than Tonya!

Maybe...Don't know, I never watched it.

[Alexei]

Maybe...Don't know, I never watched it.

Yes, me too. Otherwise, may be his love to Lara was greater only because it was unfulfilled. That's the dream and the love to Tonya was the reality. Everyone is more bound to the dream.

[grace86]

Only saw the movie and didn't realize there was a book to it until afterwards. In the movie, from the very beginning the focus is on Zhivago and Lara...does the book start off emphasizing them?

[bazarov]

Their friendship started actually on about 250th page or something like that, on the battlefield. Lara is the most important woman in his life but it really weird that Marina and Tonya(especially her, he cried for her for a long time) are minimized. They probably thought that 3 love affairs would be too much and film would be too long!

[free]

What I wonder about is: was the poetic love between the two main characters the main subject of the novel or it was just (ab)used to depict the social environment and battles then actual there? Their love and passion are constantly being suppresed and its fire extinguished, both in them characters and in us readers, by the cruel happenings in their surrounding. It is a great novel, no doubts about it, but I wouldn't reread it. Don't like to eat and remain hungry afterwards. :)

[Helga]

Both Lara and Zhivago had other partners and to me both of those relationships were more about friendship than romantic love. He did love his wife but it felt different, to me at least. I do agree that Lara gets more attention in discussions than in the book, wasn't she like his muse in a way. It's been years since I read it but he did write more with her and was more of a upper class doctor with his wife.

[Kafka's Crow]

I think Lara represents human nature, raw, unpolitical, unconventional, fallible, sinful and beautiful whereas Tonya represents the social, cultural and civilisational bonds that he can not live without and keeps coming back to. This is a story of the human spirit in search of freedom. Tonya is a lovely character but she is bland when compared with Lara. She is the order in an artist's life whereas Lara represents the wild creative force that lives on in spite of all the social and political upheavals.

I read the book 20 years ago and have seen the 2002 Channel 4 mini series many time (sorry purists, I am too young for the Omar Sharif version) so my ideas about the book are thoroughly affected by the television mini series.