really? I actually just read the first 2 chapters of Portrait of a Lady and I plan to go on because all the talk of american girls and european endeavors is enticing.
really? I actually just read the first 2 chapters of Portrait of a Lady and I plan to go on because all the talk of american girls and european endeavors is enticing.
Nah, he'll just tell you to read his book, or some book he's "the expert" on so he can sound good when he explains it to you. You could end up reading anything from the latest unreadable text of French Critical Theory to "Wind in the Willows"Originally Posted by stevenson
So you might as well stick to recommendations made here! I'm re-reading Anna Karenina at the moment and it is very good. From my experience, it's toss up between it and War & Peace for "the best" of the Russian novels. Reading it back to back with BK might be a bit "heavy", why not try some Chekhov short stories, if you fancy more Russian, or some Dickens if you want to stick with novels. You might need a laugh after Dostoevsky, so try Pickwick Papers. Don Quixote and Tom Jones are also superb, humorous novels.
Lykren - that's a heavy list - you must read Don Quixote now before you get so heavy you sink into the earth... It's a good list though, I recently re-read Middlemarch, and that is, surely, a contender for "greatest" ever. I also recently re-read Pride and Prejudice, Brideshead Revisited, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and The Great Gatsby. All superb! Like you I prefer many of these to BK. I detest Ulysses. I haven't read The Tale of Genji or The Dream of the Red Chamber... bit afraid of them. Are they difficult? Haven't heard of Snow Country.
Yes, always worth giving a great novel a second chance. I found Don Quixote unreadable on first attempt, now it's in my "top five". I can see there are things in Anna K that might bother people after the first section... to much to-ing a fro-ing between Anna & Vronsky, Levin harping on too much about farming, but if you just wallow in it and don't become impatient because of the lack of action, or lack of philosophical fireworks, the magic starts to work. There are Dostoevskian elements in there, Levin's slow-burn consciousness of death, and its impact on his work and love life is remarkable, amongst many other things. Tolstoy was deeply into Schopenhauer at the time of writing, it might help to read something of Schopenhauer before reading the novel again... try Bryan Magee's intellectual biography. It might make the novel more interesting for you, as you are obviously into "dark philosophy". Anyway, the kittens are play-fighting next door and I must go and watch them... so funny! Keep it light sometimes...
Last edited by mal4mac; 08-12-2013 at 04:34 AM.
What the Dickens! You've not read Dickens? Lucky you, what a lot to look forward to. Dostoevsky really rated Dickens:
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/...s/gredina.html
"Room with a View" may be my favourite short 20th century novel... just pipping Brideshead and Great Gatsby. So why not try that first, as you have it? But get onto Dickens quick, Wordsworth classics have cheap and cheerful editions, best bang for buck in the universe... start with Nicholas Nickleby, Pickwick, Oliver, or David Copperfield and not the obvious "Tale of Two cities" to get the full power of Dickens' humour and verve (although Tale is good...) Trollope really isn't in the same class, a bit dull beside Dickens, even beside Forster. Readable though.... but to be read after the *really* good ones (Dickens, Eliot, Austen, Brontes, Hardy...)... and only if you then have a real taste for English Victorian novelists.
Well that's just silly. Those sort of 'objective' statements tend to be such. How much British Literature are you actually aware of? How much have you read? Are we talking poetry, drama, novels, short stories or non-fiction?
Vladimir: (sententious.) To every man his little cross. (He sighs.) Till he dies. (Afterthought.) And is forgotten.
Turgenev's Fathers & Sons would give you somewhat of a reprieve from the seriousness of TBK. It's a generational story and contains some good Russian history in it to boot.
I'l second the Chekhov recommendations by suggesting the short novels 'Three Years' and 'My Life', both of which can be read as rather dark.
Genji and Red Chamber are long (especially the latter) but Genji is about the length of W&P and much better, at least in the Tyler translation. Nothing to be afraid of really, I can guarantee you they aren't another couple of Ulysses. Genji is one of my all-time favorites, it's exquisitely written.
Snow Country is a haunting tale of a very strange kind of love. Like Genji, it's delicately executed, but with an undercurrent of powerful emotion.
Last edited by Lykren; 08-12-2013 at 01:00 PM.
There are three noted full translations of Tale of Genji. How do you decide?
http://celestialkitsune.wordpress.co...tale-of-genji/
I preferred Seidensticker's translations from that page, and a few others I looked at. Plus Everyman hardback is nicer than Penguin. Also, the greatest difficulty appears to be names:
"almost none of the characters in the original text are given explicit names. The characters are instead referred to by their function or role (e.g. Minister of the Left), an honorific (e.g. His Excellency), or their relation to other characters (e.g. Heir Apparent), which changes as the novel progresses... Modern readers and translators have used various nicknames to keep track of the many characters." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_GenjiWith
Seidensticker just replaces the shifting honorifics by names, saving one the bother of making up your own nicknames, and keeping track of changing honorifics. Seems a reasonable thing to do, for someone just wanting a good read, with minimal hacking through scholarship...
It's purely subjective. If you've read about all three versions and decided that Seidensticker's writing and translation philosophy agree with you, then you did it right.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi
Yes, the names (or lack thereof) are the tricky part. I read half of Waley's, then finished it with Tyler's. He has very good footnotes which keep everything pretty clear and straightforward. The other important thing to consider is the quality of the poem translations, which is another thing Tyler stood out for. He kept their allusive quality and used footnotes to explain the allusions. But if that seems too intrusive to you, and you prefer Seidensticker's version, I know he can do an excellent job - he did Snow Country as well, which had a fantastic style.
EDIT: Just saw Calidore's post. I agree, in the end try whatever translation works best for you in the samples given. If you really like it, you can always try another version later.
A good rule is to limit yourself to one or two Russian classics a year. After a heavy classic I usually switch to something lighter like a detective. If you want to read Dickens I can advice "A Tale of Two Cities", which grabs you from the first sentence.
I see what you're saying about not overdosing on classics. . .I'm hoping, in a way to keep overdosing on classics and try and blow my mind.
But I'm about half way through The Portrait of a Lady and so far I find it compelling.
Once you finish the novel, you might wish to consider my take on it: http://www.online-literature.com/for...anything-wrong.
"Love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself"
Wordeater didn't say "don't overdose on classics". (Is that possible?) She suggested limiting your encounters with *Russian* classics and heavy classics. A good suggestion, but I think she goes too far... two Dostoevsky novels a year is enough... but you might also throw in a Tolstoy or Turgenev or two. I don't think that would be too damaging.
There are many detective & thriller classics; you don't need to read trash to go lighter. "A Tale of Two Cities" is Dickens' most Russian novel... epic scope, big ideas, lack of humour... Try Pickwick Papers to get away from the Russians... that's very English & very funny... guaranteed to ease a blown mind.
Two break things up why not read some 20th-century Russian classics?:
The Master and Margarita — Mikhail Bulgakov
Life and Fate — Vasily Grossman
Both are masterpieces.
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