Russian literature

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Originally Posted by Simao

I have read few pages of Quite Flows the Don but for someone reason it didn't click with me. For a Dostoyevsky lover and Russian literature in general, do you think that it is worth it to read it? I mean it is a long read after all and a huge commitment lol. Does it have arguments between characters about God, politics and other stuff? I really like novels with a touch of philoshpy here and there and if this one has that then I'll probably read it as well.

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It's certainly not Dostoevsky but that doesn't mean it's not worthwhile. I do think it's an important book for a fan of Russian Literature to read because of the historical and societal aspect of it. A couple things that struck me about this book, first of all is the almost sensual language of Sholokhov. I'm not talking about sensual as in sexual, just an incredible appreciation of the land of the Don and the culture of the Cossacks. His descriptions are so evocative, along with seeing the scenes, you can almost smell and feel them. The other thing I really liked about it was the balance, the Reds don't come off that well and neither to the Whites. Both sides have their victories and defeats both in terms of war and morality. And Gregor is a wonderfully complex character. I really think it's worth persevering.

And there are actually 2 more books past The Don Flows Home To The Sea; Seeds of Tomorrow and Harvest on the Don. The last two are about the collectivization of the farms after the Civil War and they aren't as good but still culturally and historically interesting.

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Originally Posted by Logos

I wish I could read Russian lit in Russian instead of relying on translations :confused:

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Russian Literature is indeed good! I have read some of those Russian novels and I find it interesting! Logos right...
However beautiful a translation is, it can never capture the original beauty of a manuscript. There is no translation even more than an approximation of the original; but the sound of the original is completely lost and only the sense is preserved.;)

I wish also I could read Russian stuffs too!:D
But I, myself love to read different Russian novels it's great!

Good Day everyone!!!:D :D :D :D

eyemaker, I posted just the other day regarding translations in this topic:
http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=31955

I think I will re-post it here :)

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By the efforts of Constance Clara Garnett (1861–1946) readers in North America, Europe, etc. were finally able to access Russian literature. She was educated at Cambridge, obtained first class, and qualified for a BA; but as was the Victorian more at the time regarding women not awarded a degree.

She was a distinguished librarian, taught, and was friends with many literary types of the day including Y. B. Yeats, D. H. Lawrence, and Joseph Conrad. She was also friends with Russian journalist Felix Volkhovsky, in exile in England at the time. He was the one who taught her Russian and assisted her in her first translations. She also met many other Russian revolutionary figures and writers and travelled to Russia a few times.

Her first translations appeared in 1894. She also translated Tolstoy, Goncharov, Chekhov, Gogol, Turgenev, Rudin etc. It was her work on Dostoyevsky, published first in 1912, that brought her much acclaim.

From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

http://www.oxforddnb.com/

"Constance Garnett's requirements for a good translation were sympathy for the author and a love of words and their meanings. She herself had faults: her dialogues are sometimes stiff; her transliteration of Russian names is illogical and inconsistent; she makes many errors. But the speed at which she worked, which was partly to blame for these, allowed her to maintain stylistic unity. Her descriptive passages are often exquisitely done and she eschews linguistic fads or slang. Conrad, for whom Turgenev was Constance Garnett, compared her to a great musician interpreting a great composer. For Katherine Mansfield, Constance Garnett transformed the lives of younger authors by revealing a new world. Without her translations, H. E. Bates believed, modern English literature itself could not have been what it is (Bates, 120)."

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So, yes, her works have been heavily criticised *since*, but she was a remarkable figure in her devotion to Russian culture and literature, and the first person to translate many works we now have access to today--many of which are still the English standard--most still in print.

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Originally Posted by Idril

I do think it's an important book for a fan of Russian Literature to read because of the historical and societal aspect of it.

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Of course...Tastes differ...But....what I could tell...When The foreign reader "gets acquainted" with Russian literature, especially, 20 centuries...Sometimes it's hard to accept differing in many respects point of view on succession of events, which were interpreted in The western countries a little in another way..?...What do you think of it?..;)

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Originally Posted by Latin

Of course...Tastes differ...But....what I could tell...When The foreign reader "gets acquainted" with Russian literature, especially, 20 centuries...Sometimes it's hard to accept differing in many respects point of view on succession of events, which were interpreted in The western countries a little in another way..?...What do you think of it?..;)

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I think that's exactly why it's a good thing to read those accounts, you can't trust the western media to get anything right ;) , especially when it comes to anything Soviet. As a child of the Cold War, I find it fascinating to see the other side, to get a fuller more balanced picture of events and to be able to see past Stalin and the Red Guard to the average Russian citizen of that time and what their experiences were.

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Originally Posted by Idril

As a child of the Cold War, I find it fascinating to see the other side, to get a fuller more balanced picture of events and to be able to see past Stalin and the Red Guard to the average Russian citizen of that time and what their experiences were.

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You at once have understood to what I had a conversation....;)
Other mentality...;)
From this point of view the book undoubtedly is of interest..."The Gulag Archipelago" which was written by Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn...:thumbs_up... I have started to read it at school, but could not promote further 200 pages...It has appeared too hard for me...:bawling:
It is too much emotions,...

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Originally Posted by Logos

eyemaker, I posted just the other day regarding translations in this topic:
http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=31955

I think I will re-post it here :)

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By the efforts of Constance Clara Garnett (1861–1946) readers in North America, Europe, etc. were finally able to access Russian literature. She was educated at Cambridge, obtained first class, and qualified for a BA; but as was the Victorian more at the time regarding women not awarded a degree.

She was a distinguished librarian, taught, and was friends with many literary types of the day including Y. B. Yeats, D. H. Lawrence, and Joseph Conrad. She was also friends with Russian journalist Felix Volkhovsky, in exile in England at the time. He was the one who taught her Russian and assisted her in her first translations. She also met many other Russian revolutionary figures and writers and travelled to Russia a few times.

Her first translations appeared in 1894. She also translated Tolstoy, Goncharov, Chekhov, Gogol, Turgenev, Rudin etc. It was her work on Dostoyevsky, published first in 1912, that brought her much acclaim.

From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

http://www.oxforddnb.com/

"Constance Garnett's requirements for a good translation were sympathy for the author and a love of words and their meanings. She herself had faults: her dialogues are sometimes stiff; her transliteration of Russian names is illogical and inconsistent; she makes many errors. But the speed at which she worked, which was partly to blame for these, allowed her to maintain stylistic unity. Her descriptive passages are often exquisitely done and she eschews linguistic fads or slang. Conrad, for whom Turgenev was Constance Garnett, compared her to a great musician interpreting a great composer. For Katherine Mansfield, Constance Garnett transformed the lives of younger authors by revealing a new world. Without her translations, H. E. Bates believed, modern English literature itself could not have been what it is (Bates, 120)."

--

So, yes, her works have been heavily criticised *since*, but she was a remarkable figure in her devotion to Russian culture and literature, and the first person to translate many works we now have access to today--many of which are still the English standard--most still in print.

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Thanks, Logos, for posting this information. Personally, I like Constance Garnett as a translator. :)

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Originally Posted by Latin

From this point of view the book undoubtedly is of interest..."The Gulag Archipelago" which was written by Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn...:thumbs_up... I have started to read it at school, but could not promote further 200 pages...It has appeared too hard for me...:bawling:
It is too much emotions,...

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I have read that book and it is very hard to read, very depressing. I certainly knew Stalin was a bad guy but I had no idea of the depth of the devastation. I would sometimes have to take breaks because it would become a little too overwhelming but I did eventually finish it.

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Originally Posted by Dori

Thanks, Logos, for posting this information. Personally, I like Constance Garnett as a translator. :)

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I hate to go off topic, but I'd like to ask you a question, Dori, being that you're a Hugoist and all. How do you feel about Charles E. Wilbour's translation of Les Miserables? I hear French is easily translated into English so I suspect not much meaning is lost from the original, but I've seen a lot of criticism on Wilbour (without any evidence to back these claims up, however). What do you think?

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Originally Posted by Zeruiah

I hate to go off topic, but I'd like to ask you a question, Dori, being that you're a Hugoist and all. How do you feel about Charles E. Wilbour's translation of Les Miserables? I hear French is easily translated into English so I suspect not much meaning is lost from the original, but I've seen a lot of criticism on Wilbour (without any evidence to back these claims up, however). What do you think?

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I like the Wilbur translation, although I'm hardly an expert on translations. :thumbs_up

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Originally Posted by Pantelej

There's one thing about many storys written by russians: many of them are full of french quotes.

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It concerns to the Russian literature of times of Ekaterina Great and further....
Ekaterina corresponded in French with Diderot and other figures of The Age of Enlightenment...After war of 1812 " Russian have seen Paris " and have closely adjoined to the French culture...
Certainly, it concerned basically nobility..To children employed the French governesses... And, when they grew - they knew language in perfection (Pushkin - a good example))...so the majority of readable books, were in French and ...was considered by itself understood in a society to quote in French..
Ideas of the French revolution also have received the development in movement of Decembrists (Here again Pushkin too has distinguished))
In the end 19 - the beginnings of 20 centuries the situation has changed...
Russia has familiarized with Marx's ideas and Engels... During the Soviet authority - already German language was studied at schools...

Since Russia is a part of Euroasia (both Europe and Asia) which of the contintents would Russia be considered as? I'm doing this project this year to read books by authors from every continent, and I have some russian writers on my to-read-list, but under what continent should they be placed?

And, what are the top three Russian writers in your opinion?

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Originally Posted by thelastmelon

Since Russia is a part of Euroasia (both Europe and Asia) which of the contintents would Russia be considered as? I'm doing this project this year to read books by authors from every continent, and I have some russian writers on my to-read-list, but under what continent should they be placed?

And, what are the top three Russian writers in your opinion?

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Those are darn good questions. I don't know what the official word is on what continent Russia is on but in my own mind, I use the Ural mountains to divide the country, to the west of the Urals, I consider that European, to the east, Asia.

And as for the 3 top Russian authors...that's really tough, there are so many. I guess it would depend on what era you want to go with, 19th century, Soviet, post Soviet. Maybe you would want to pick one author from each, I don't know. As for my opinion, for 19th Century, I would go with the 3 giants, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Turgenev...although that would leave out Pushkin and Gogol and that's almost blasphemous. For Soviet writers, I would go with Bulgakov, Solzhenitsyn, Sholokov...but then there's also Pasternak and Zamyatin, again, important writers it seems wrong to forget. Post Soviet is an era I haven't explored all that much yet, Pelevin is probably the author I've read the most of so that's really all I have for that era. I don't think I helped you at all but at least there are a few names to pick from. :lol:

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Originally Posted by Idril

And as for the 3 top Russian authors...that's really tough, there are so many. I guess it would depend on what era you want to go with, 19th century, Soviet, post Soviet. Maybe you would want to pick one author from each, I don't know. As for my opinion, for 19th Century, I would go with the 3 giants, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Turgenev...although that would leave out Pushkin and Gogol and that's almost blasphemous. For Soviet writers, I would go with Bulgakov, Solzhenitsyn, Sholokov...but then there's also Pasternak and Zamyatin, again, important writers it seems wrong to forget. Post Soviet is an era I haven't explored all that much yet, Pelevin is probably the author I've read the most of so that's really all I have for that era. I don't think I helped you at all but at least there are a few names to pick from. :lol:

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Haha, thanks for all the names! :)
I have plans to read The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I've heard a lot of good things about them, but have never gotten around to actually read these books.

Are there any famous or good Russian female authors that anyone knows of? I can only think of male authors.

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Originally Posted by thelastmelon

Are there any famous or good Russian female authors that anyone knows of? I can only think of male authors.

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The only female Russian author I've read is Olga Grushin and while she was born and raised in Russia, she's a US citizen now so I don't know if she even counts. The book I read, The Dream Life of Sukhanov takes place in Russia so that's at least something but really, I'm afraid I can't help you much with that. :(

And the books you've pick so far are good choices. :thumbs_up