Question for Russian speakers

[superunknown]

I'm currently in my first year of a degree in Russian. I've been studying the language for a year and a half now and have a decent command of grammar and can more or less handle all the cases, and my vocabulary is far from great but it's quite good for the amount of time I've been studying the language.

What I'm looking for is some work or author which would be suitable to someone not entirely familiar with the language, while still being actual serious literature. As an English example of what I mean, take Hemingway: he is one of the most renowned writers of the 20th century in any language, but he deliberately uses very simple language and is not very difficult to read and so could be recommended to someone who knows English up to a basic level, in contrast to, say, a writer like Nabokov who is extremely verbose and uses the full range of the language, often making even native speakers reach for the dictionary several times a chapter. Is there any Russian writer that fits this description?

Thanks for your help.

[johann cruyff]

Well,I do not speak Russian,but I have read a lot of books written in Russian,and based on the simplicity of the translations,I'd say One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.It could be that I read a very poor translation,but I though the book was written in a very simplistic manner.

[superunknown]

I managed to find in the library a copy of The Lady and the Dog by Chekhov specifically for English students with notes, an extensive glossary and even stress marks. It's a slow process but I am making sense of it, and the glossary contains nearly every word I don't know. It's so exciting to finally be able to read a Russian masterpiece in the language in which it was written!

[bazarov]

I am also learning Russian and my book is mostly with Chekhov's texts and our teacher said that his texts aren't too complicated so you could try with him. It seems to me that Turgenev also shouldn't be too complicated. Just don't touch Nabokov!

[superunknown]

If Nabokov writes in Russian anything like he does in English I won't be going near his books for at least another 2 years! Maybe once I've done my year abroad in Russia I'll get the courage.

[bazarov]

That's what I was thinking about :)

[Whifflingpin]

I studied Russian for a couple of years at school, and the course included poetry by Pushkin & Lermontov amongst others, and Taman', the first part of Lermntov's "Hero of our Time."

[JBI]

Pushkin has a daunting vocabulary though.

[Tillottama]

Hello. I'm Russian. I recommend you such writers as Ivan Turgenev, Aleksey Tolstoy (no Leo) and Alexandr Kuprin. Their language is very laconic, precise and simple.

[superunknown]

Thanks. I was just skimming through a Kuprin short story and I could understand most of the vocabulary. I will definitely take a look at those guys.

[Cellomaster2238]

In this same vein, can anyone recommend a book written in Spanish that would be readable for a novice (no Don Quixote for me yet).

[Etienne]

Bilingual editions are very useful.