Russian literature

I have read a few novels by Dostoevsky, my favorite is "Crime and Punishment" and "The Idiot" is also very good. Someone mentioned the length of his work and you should all check out his shorter stuff like "White Nights" and especially "Notes From The Underground" which is a true masterpiece.

I've also read quite a few short stories by Gogol, "The Overcoat", "The Nose" and "Diary of a Madman" are all very good pieces of fiction. I want to read a bit more by Dostoevsky and read Tchekovs' plays and short stories.

Hi Koa, te agradezco, je vous remerci, thank you. I'm gonna visit all the sites you put into your message, this weekend. I'll fight italian difficulties. Russian Literature of 20th century is one of my caprices; in facts, all literatures of runaways and castaways and people on the run or writing in secret. I am thinking about relations between Dostoievsky's Man from underground and Moskow-Petouchki, viewing from an bakhtinian point of view. At University they refused the purpose, because they are most interested in Paul Auster, feminist literature, psychoanalysis... but I don't give up and I will keep on trying to write what I want to. Thanks again.
Ps. I must read Solkhenitsin, of course; Evgenia Semionovna Ginzburg I have readed some years ago.

De nada, you're welcome, de rien... ;) I particularly recommend the samizdat-internet article.

Samizdat is a really interesting topicm shame they're so into feminism at your place ;) Good luck!

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Originally Posted by Koa

I think I just don't understand Bulgakov...

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what you have to understand about reading any of Bulgakov and especially Master and Margarita, the man was definitely not sober while writting it and hallucinating for most of it. That might be why it makes the mind wonder, cuz from my experience, whether i read him in russian or english, my mind wanders to places its never been before.

Is that true? Not sober? That would explain some things...:rolleyes:
My mind does wander too... just to thoughts that have nothing to do with the book...
It's actually a few days since I last picked it up, I can't say I dislike it but it doesnt make me want to read it so eagerly...

i think russian lit. is really fascinating,but also as hard as russian language is.
I've read something of Marina I. cvetaeva apart from her poems(absolutely perfect in form and ideas) a short story whose title was "nights in Florence" which is a collection of hers letter to a man she was in love with.
I also have experienced the huge "Anna Karenina"and it left me speechless, even though i have to say i've had some problems with the names because of the "patronimic forms".

Anna Karinina is fabulous. Has anyone read some of Tolstoy's short novels? Master and Man or The Death of Ivan Illich come to mind. Both are perfections of the short novel. You can't get better than that.

I liked Anna Karenina, I might have said that already but I was quite surprised at the end when Tolstoy described her feelings so well...

I read The Death of Ivan Ilich and also other short stuff (Chadzhi Murat comes to my mind) by Tolstoy, but I wasn't so impressed...they were ok but I am hardly ever excited about short stories, I guess I prefer novels.

Crime and Punishment shook my soul. I wish like my son Travis I could just decide in a week to learn a language so I could read something. He just does that. Everything from Latin to Hindi, I think he currently is fluent it about ten languages. And to think in grade three his teacher told me he was not going to amount to much.
So he gets to catch those nuances that make the text so rich. He is teaching me proper Hebrew, I love reading it and teaching baby Hasia Hebrew and Greek , Latin and the romance languages at the moment. so when she is talking I have to really pay attention. Of course he is doing that so in my despair I will learn all the same languages so we can converse. swine plan.
I like Leo Tolstoy very much and smile when I read that he wrote will nilly all over this page and that and left them everywhere in the house. His wife would gather them all up and rewrite and put all in order. What a guy.

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Originally Posted by Koa

I liked Anna Karenina, I might have said that already but I was quite surprised at the end when Tolstoy described her feelings so well...

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Bleh. I was relieved when Anna lubricated the railroad tracks with her innards. Compared to Russian writers like Dostoevsky and Turgeneyev, Tolstoy was an old maid writing soap operas over his samovar of tea.

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Originally Posted by rachel

I wish like my son Travis I could just decide in a week to learn a language so I could read something. He just does that. Everything from Latin to Hindi, I think he currently is fluent it about ten languages. And to think in grade three his teacher told me he was not going to amount to much.

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Wow, that's some son of yours. I wish I could do that too.

From Star

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Compared to Russian writers like Dostoevsky and Turgeneyev, Tolstoy was an old maid writing soap operas over his samovar of tea.

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Have you tried his short novels. They are more compact. Try either of the two I mentioned above.

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Originally Posted by starrwriter

Bleh. I was relieved when Anna lubricated the railroad tracks with her innards. Compared to Russian writers like Dostoevsky and Turgeneyev, Tolstoy was an old maid writing soap operas over his samovar of tea.

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Yes, but I think Anna Karenina is a quite well done soap opera.

Turgenev is still there waiting to be read by me, but Dostoevsky is like...oh there are no words, it's too deep even to describe... His first book I read was The Demons when I was 18, and that was possibly what made me decide to study Russian Language & Literature (and now, 5 years later, I've just finished to read my first (modern) book entirely in Russian...it took 3 months but it was hugely satisfying. On to the next...). He did have a huge impact on me. I'm going to try the Karamazoff Brothers soon hopefully, and re-live all that Demons/Crime & Punishment feeling.

A suggestion for some of you on this thread who've objected to Dostoevsky's works as too long or boring, etc. Try reading some of his shorter works. They usually contain the same qualities and themes of his long novels. They reach the same heights, only in shorter form. Three of his best short stories are:

"The Dream of a Ridiculous Man"
"A Meek One"/"A Gentle Creature" (Depending on the translator)
"The Eternal Husband"

I also love Chekhov's short stories. The best I've ever read. I only wish that I could read all of this in Russian, as many of you have said.

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Originally Posted by Pantelej

I can't find anything by Vasilij Grossman anywhere

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http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...470234-1035833


http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...470234-1035833

The former is fascinating, the latter sublime. The former also contains Grossman's writing about the concentration camps ('The Hell called Treblinka'), used at the Nuremberg Trials. You can download a copy in Word format here:

http://s61.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2...W1EQJHZ6MP9TVH

Thanks, nice stuff, very interesting

Whether you read russian fantasy or science-fiction?

Has anyone else read Leonid Tsypkin's "Summer In Baden-Baden"? I just read it a couple of months ago and found it absolutely enthralling...

It's not easily described, though; It is, at the same time, an account of the life of Dostoyevsky, an account of Tsypkin's life in the Soviet Union (it was written between 1977 and 1980), a meditation on Russian literature in general and a few other things... All told in some sort of homespun stream-of-consciousness where time, perspective and place shifts so subtly you often find yourself wondering if it's 1880 or 1980.

One point Tsypkin, a Jew, keeps getting stuck on is how Dostoyevsky, the man he considers the greatest and most empathic-to-human-suffering author ever, could also be an outright antisemite. Another is that of identity and nationality; Tsypkin follows Dostoyevsky's travels abroad in his mind while he himself is forced to stay in a Soviet Union where he's not wanted, yet is forbidden to leave.

Apparently, this is the only thing Tsypkin wrote, and he did so without any thought of being published; he died (in 1982) a week after it was first leaked to a Russian-American magazine. It's one of those books that's just so heartbreakingly beautiful you want to live in it, yet you're glad you don't have to...

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Originally Posted by beer good

Has anyone else read Leonid Tsypkin's "Summer In Baden-Baden"? I just read it a couple of months ago and found it absolutely enthralling...

It's not easily described, though; It is, at the same time, an account of the life of Dostoyevsky, an account of Tsypkin's life in the Soviet Union (it was written between 1977 and 1980), a meditation on Russian literature in general and a few other things... All told in some sort of homespun stream-of-consciousness where time, perspective and place shifts so subtly you often find yourself wondering if it's 1880 or 1980.

One point Tsypkin, a Jew, keeps getting stuck on is how Dostoyevsky, the man he considers the greatest and most empathic-to-human-suffering author ever, could also be an outright antisemite. Another is that of identity and nationality; Tsypkin follows Dostoyevsky's travels abroad in his mind while he himself is forced to stay in a Soviet Union where he's not wanted, yet is forbidden to leave.

Apparently, this is the only thing Tsypkin wrote, and he did so without any thought of being published; he died (in 1982) a week after it was first leaked to a Russian-American magazine. It's one of those books that's just so heartbreakingly beautiful you want to live in it, yet you're glad you don't have to...

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Iv'e actually never heard of Tsypkin before...

What about Chekhov? I'm reading "Ward no. 6" right now,
it's just great. He describes good and bad, beautiful and ugly,
gentle and brutal so well, especially the differences and the likeneses
of the mentioned.

Russian literature.
Our favourite russian writers are Bulgakov, Pelevin and the Strugatski brothers.
Pelevin writes very thought-provokingly and is very postmodern.
Personally, we think that we can't speak much about the presoviet russian literature, because presoviet Russia, and Soviet and Postsoviet Russia are vastly different.
We have only read MM by Bulgakov and that we liked immensely.
Strugatskis are also interesting - they are so different from angloamerican sci-fi - those are usually very clean about the future - but Strugatskis have maintained the social problems, the dirtyness, the grimness, the decadence and the alcoholism. Plus, of course, the really good plot.
Pelevin - we have read his short stories, Omon-Ra, P-Generation and Chapajev and Pustota - and they are truly wonderful and thought-and-reality-provoking. "Any thought that occurs in the process of reading this book is subject to copyright. Unauthorized thinking of it is prohibited"

Pelevin seems to be quite popular here, but I haven't tried it yet.

I am posting my plea here too: someone please explain me what's so wonderful about Master And Margarita. I had to struggle to read it and I've enjoyed just some bits of it.

I have started today "We" by Zamjatin. I was impressed by the style of writing, I loved the first chapter. I hope the rest won't disappoint me after such a good start.

I'm absolutely in love with Russian Literature, especially a lot of the Classics from Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin etc etc. Russian literature is very passionate, honest, raw... it delves well into the complexities of life. Furthermore, I like it how there are often traces of despondency and gloom hehehe

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Originally Posted by Koa

Pelevin seems to be quite popular here, but I haven't tried it yet.

I am posting my plea here too: someone please explain me what's so wonderful about Master And Margarita. I had to struggle to read it and I've enjoyed just some bits of it.

I have started today "We" by Zamjatin. I was impressed by the style of writing, I loved the first chapter. I hope the rest won't disappoint me after such a good start.

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Ooooh I've always wanted to read "We"!!! But I havent been able to find it anywhere *pouts*

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Originally Posted by Molko

Ooooh I've always wanted to read "We"!!! But I havent been able to find it anywhere *pouts*

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It's hard to find here too, I bought it in Russia... it's damn hard to read but so beautifully written...

Ohhh you're so lucky Koa *pouts* heheh looks like I may have to buy it on e-bay! Lol

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Originally Posted by Jekaterina

I was born in the USSR, so I can read all the Russian Classics in Russian.
I LOVE Russian Literature!
Bulgakov and Dostoevsky are amongst my absolute favourites!

I've started reading Dostoevsky when I was 11. It was a little early, but even then I liked it. Of course now and then I reread some of his work and suddenly see more than I used to. It's great.
I had the Brothers Karamazov as one my finals' books at high school and it was amazing to have the task to dive into a novel that deep.
At the beginning it was hard (over 1200 pages!) to find something to start with, but then everything, every sentence, every word fitted, everything had a meaning.

Of course, there are many, many other great Russian novellists.

I absolutely adore: Puschkin, Lermontow, Gogol, Turgenew and Tschechov
and if you count him as a Russian too: One of my absolute favourites is also Nabokov! Now, he's really great.

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I am quite enjoying "Despair", which I picked up at the library yesterday. Just about 50 pages left...and I have "Lolita" lying on my desk to start afterwards!

Started "The Master & Margarita" recently, and i'm finding it to be a compelling read!

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Originally Posted by Koa

Turgenev is still there waiting to be read by me

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you'll like him for sure. you'll probably start with 'fathers and sons', that's his most famoes work, 'dim' (smoke) is good as well

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Originally Posted by beer good

Has anyone else read Leonid Tsypkin's "Summer In Baden-Baden"? I just read it a couple of months ago and found it absolutely enthralling...

It's not easily described, though; It is, at the same time, an account of the life of Dostoyevsky, an account of Tsypkin's life in the Soviet Union (it was written between 1977 and 1980), a meditation on Russian literature in general and a few other things... All told in some sort of homespun stream-of-consciousness where time, perspective and place shifts so subtly you often find yourself wondering if it's 1880 or 1980.

One point Tsypkin, a Jew, keeps getting stuck on is how Dostoyevsky, the man he considers the greatest and most empathic-to-human-suffering author ever, could also be an outright antisemite. Another is that of identity and nationality; Tsypkin follows Dostoyevsky's travels abroad in his mind while he himself is forced to stay in a Soviet Union where he's not wanted, yet is forbidden to leave.

Apparently, this is the only thing Tsypkin wrote, and he did so without any thought of being published; he died (in 1982) a week after it was first leaked to a Russian-American magazine. It's one of those books that's just so heartbreakingly beautiful you want to live in it, yet you're glad you don't have to...

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I absolutely love Dostoyevsky and am a Jewess so I intend to read this book. I have never heard of it before but just your description is riveting.thankyou for mentioning it.

Has anyone read Dostoevsky's "The House of the Dead"? I'm thinking of picking it up before reading "The Possessed" this Summer which is a bit too long as I have other stuff to do for Uni. I was just wondering you guys recommend it.

Yes I read that book, though the title would be a bit different... well it's definitely worth reading though I remember it being a bit 'hard', like I don't have many clear memories of it (it was ages ago, some 5 years I think) apart from it being a clear example of 'concentration camp' literature, possibly the first one... If I remember correctly, there is no clear plot, just a lot of scenes from the life in the camp... Anyway I don't see why you shouldn't give it a try.

I've been through "Crime & Punishment", "The Idiot", "White Nights" and "Notes From The Underground" and liked all of them. Just looking for some more of his stuff before reading "Brothers Karamzov".

I've noticed a few people picked The Brothers Karamazov. Good luck to you. It doesn't strike me as being of the same standard of his other works. It's exceedingly religious (yes, more so than the others), slow moving and frankly, I don't know which character to empathise with. So I gave up, for now.

Crime and Punishment... can only be disliked by the culturally devoid.
I am soon going to start Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. Any one read it? Or other Pushkin?

If you often find yourself wondering about being here and in particular the question, 'what the hell does it all mean?', it's worth reading for the two chapters, Rebellion and The Grand Inquisitor, if nothing else.

Is empathy necessary? Anyway, what about Ivan and Alyosha?

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Originally Posted by Mark F.

I've been through "Crime & Punishment", "The Idiot", "White Nights" and "Notes From The Underground" and liked all of them. Just looking for some more of his stuff before reading "Brothers Karamzov".

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The Double by Dostoyevsky is short and great. It's tone is remarkably similar to Kafka.

Thanks, I liked Metamorphosis by Kafka so I'll check out as well.

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Originally Posted by Kashkin

I
I am soon going to start Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. Any one read it? Or other Pushkin?

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I haven't read any poems of Pushkin. though Eugene Onegin was in my school program. in exam I just used my sister's old essay of that poem. ;) and I've seen cartoons of other poems.
I just love Pushkin's stories. I've read all of them. "the captain's Daughter", "Stories of Belkin", "dubrovski" etc. all of them are excellent. Easy reading, very interesting. his discription is so well that you feel like u're watching movie. I'm interested in his last -uncompleted work- "The Negro of Peter the Great" more. you'll probably find it interesting too:

" Pushkin's story is set in the early 1700s when his maternal great grandfather, Abram (or Ibrahim) Hannibal, a black man of African descent, was brought from Europe to Russia by the Tsar (Peter the Great) and eventually given his freedom in exchange for a commitment of lifetime service. Pushkin's African heritage was widely known during his time, and Pushkin himself was very interested in his family background.
Pushkin’s "The Negro of Peter the Great" is a fictionalized biography of Ibrahim Hannibal, Pushkin’s great grandfather. The story covers Hannibal’s stay in France and the initial period after his return to Russia. Although its scope clearly suggests a work of major proportions, it remained largely uncompleted at Pushkin's death. None of the completed segments were published in his lifetime. It is significant that Pushkin chose a biographical theme for his first attempt at prose fiction. This work represented one of the earliest depictions of the Negro as a hero in world literature. Regardless of the story’s shortcomings, it was a strikingly bold characterization for its time. In two completed segments, Hannibal comes through as a strong positive figure who has an affair with a countess in France. His first marriage to a Russian woman of noble birth is central to the remaining fragment. That this black character even existed in 1827 is remarkable; that he fares well is more so.
Note the passage from Hannibal’s farewell to his lover before leaving Paris:

"Think: ought I to expose you any longer to such agitations and dangers? Why should I endeavor to unite the fate of such a tender, beautiful creature to the miserable fate of a Negro, of a pitiable creature, scare worthy of the name of man?"
Hannibal’s self-denigration reflects Pushkin’s attempt to show the prevailing attitudes toward Blacks. However, he portrays Hannibal himself as accomplished and likable, without any real hints of inferiority. Keep in mind that Pushkin was experimenting with forms of literary expression totally new to Russian literature and that he was expanding the literary language to new dimensions."-
c\p http://www.ksu.ru/eng/ahern/493/mod1-pushkin.htm

although i thoroughly enjoyed most of pushkin's works, both poetic and literary, and found myself enthralled by dostoyevsky's morbidly pessimistic sense of reality, i must say that many of the english translations do not do the works justice. the passion is absent in the flat monotone of the translated versions. i attempted to read mikhail bulgakov's the master and margarita, and was sorely disappointed to find that it reads like a paperback novel...there was simply something missing. it may just be my own twisted perception, or the fact that i've actually read several of the works in their original tongue, but i'm curious to see whether or not anyone else has felt the loss

non sum, the loss is the very essence of translation... Moreso in Russian, which has different ways to express things than English does. I am reading Zamjatin's "We" in Russian, confronting it with a translation in Italian, my native tongue (the Russian by itself is too hard :(). It's so noticeable how the translation has to jump to try and make justice of things...
I didn't appreciate Master&Margarita at all, though I've never tried the original... I loved and found Dostoevskij so deep even in translation, I just can't imagine the beauty of the original...

As for Pushkin, I read The Captain's Daughter and some of the Belkin's stories, but I'm not so excited about him... it's ok for me, but not my favourite thing...

I have been having some trouble reading Alexander Pushkins Eugene Onegin.

The famous ending of Eugen Onegin has evoked countless discussions. Is it just? Is it tragic? Is it realistic? Summarize Puskhin's conclusion and comment on the motives and morality of the novel's two principal characters.

Discuss Onegin as a potential date, or boyfriend, or suitor, or husband. What would attract you about him? What would repel you? Try to weigh his virtues and his vices.

I would appreciate any help from anyone. Even if it is a website that could help me.

I just finished reading "We" for a global science fiction class. It was pretty good, I thought. Sometimes it was a little hard to follow, and all the commentary about "the ancients" and how confused and wrong they were could be either amusing or irritating. More often than not I found it irritating, even though I knew it was supposed to be kind of satirical on Zamyatin's part, and I usually love satire.

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Originally Posted by Kashkin

I've noticed a few people picked The Brothers Karamazov. Good luck to you. It doesn't strike me as being of the same standard of his other works. It's exceedingly religious (yes, more so than the others), slow moving and frankly, I don't know which character to empathise with. So I gave up, for now.

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Try again! One of my faves and I am a huge fan of Russian literature! It may seem religious in that it questions religion, but I don't think it means to push one religion. I think not knowing which character to empathise with is part of the experience of the book. Perhaps we can empathise with them all?

As mentioned earlier, at least read The Grand Inquisitor chapter.

I just read this whole thread, and thank you all so much for all the suggested reading!! :idea:

I just started reading "the possesed" by Dostoyevsky,
I couldn't get my hands on it before.
So far it's very interesting(i've only come to the second chapter)
What i know is that it was ment as a study of nihilism.