I'm not sure if you still visit this forum, Pantelej, but I am currently reading this book.Originally Posted by Pantelej
Personally, I like having the French phrases not translated for me. It's the one part of the book I can read in the original.
Forgive my ignorance, but who exactly are the "Russian symbolists"?
com-pas-sion (n.) [ME. & OFr. <LL. (Ec.) compassio, sympathy < compassus, pp. of compati, to feel pity < L. com-, together + pali, to suffer] sorrow for the sufferings or trouble of another or others, accompanied by an urge to help; deep sympathy; pity
Dostoevsky Forum!
It is.
At thunder and tempest, At the world's coldheartedness,
During times of heavy loss And when you're sad
The greatest art on earth Is to seem uncomplicatedly gay.
To get things clear, they have to firstly be very unclear. But if you get them too quickly, you probably got them wrong.
If you need me urgent, send me a PM
Symbolism is an artistic movement, in France such poets as Baudelaire or Mallarmé were symbolists, but in Russia, the movement became strong in the early 20th century with writers such as Sologlub, Merejkovsky, Blok, Bely, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Symbolism
Indeed, the lowest temperature recorded is -89C in Antarctic. So -70 is very possible.
Last edited by Etienne; 01-12-2008 at 02:47 PM.
I'll be reading War and Peace this year. It's been gathering dust in my house so far but I will persevere!
"Dreams are the children of an idle mind." - Romeo and Juliet
Perfect timing for this thread! I've decided to make 2008 the year of the Russian authors for myself. I've The Master and Margarita. So far, I'm loving it but I'm not far in as I've just started school again.
I'm weary with right-angles, abbreviated daylight,
Waiting for a winter to be done.
Why do I still see you in every mirrored window,
In all that I could never overcome?
When I started reading, one of the earliest books that my father bought me was 'Russian Folk Tales', wonderful, wonderful book. It was printed in Moscow by the Publishing House for Foreign Languages. Absolutely fascinating stuff, The Bear and the Ploughman, Nakita the Tanner, Elia of Mooram, the dragons, the girl who rode a hare wearing a fishing net. Everything is etched on my brain. I haven't even seen the book in almost three decades. Then I moved on to 'grown up' Russian books in my Dad's library, starting with 'A Hero of Our Time' I was hardly 10 years old then. 'Taras Bulba' and 'Hadji Murad' followed. Then there was a long gap and I went back to Russian Literature in my late teens starting with no other book than the greatest, the most rewarding novel ever, 'The Brothers Karamazov' followed by all other Dostoevskian novels and moved on to 'War and Peace', 'Anna Karenina', 'Redemption', 'The Death of Ivan Illyich'. Then I read 'Fathers and Sons' and short stories by Turgenev, Read 'Overcoat', 'Doctor Zhivago', started reading 'And Quiet Flows the Dawn' but at that time things happened and I had to give up everything. Have been out of touch with the good old Russian literature for over a decade now and would love to go back. Somebody mentioned the French phrases in these books, well the memories of these lines in A Hero of Our Time led me to eventually learn the French language and I consider this a result of inspiration from the Russian novels, specially Lermontov's book. I would love to go back to these books. I have copies of 'The Master and the Margarita' and 'The Gulag Archipelago' waiting to be read and I think this is where I should make my comeback.
Last edited by Kafka's Crow; 01-13-2008 at 03:35 PM.
"The farther he goes the more good it does me. I don’t want philosophies, tracts, dogmas, creeds, ways out, truths, answers, nothing from the bargain basement. He is the most courageous, remorseless writer going and the more he grinds my nose in the sh1t the more I am grateful to him..."
-- Harold Pinter on Samuel Beckett
It's Don, not Dawn (Dawn is something else on English). Impressive list, really!
At thunder and tempest, At the world's coldheartedness,
During times of heavy loss And when you're sad
The greatest art on earth Is to seem uncomplicatedly gay.
To get things clear, they have to firstly be very unclear. But if you get them too quickly, you probably got them wrong.
If you need me urgent, send me a PM
Thanks for the correction. It's been 12 years since I last saw my beloved four volume set of Sholokhov's masterpiece. It was a Soviet publication, published by the excellent Foreign Language Publishing House in Moscow. It had pictures and a very sturdy binding. They produced such excellent books. You could break somebody's head with those books, the binding used to be so strong.It's Don, not Dawn (Dawn is something else on English
"The farther he goes the more good it does me. I don’t want philosophies, tracts, dogmas, creeds, ways out, truths, answers, nothing from the bargain basement. He is the most courageous, remorseless writer going and the more he grinds my nose in the sh1t the more I am grateful to him..."
-- Harold Pinter on Samuel Beckett
I mentioned the following link on another thread but it is worth repeating:
http://www.sovlit.com/
This contains a great many examples of some of the very best literature created during Soviet times. Much of it features anti-Soviet writings.
Since i have read the crime and punishment, i have started dedicating my life to the literature. Above all the Dostoievki's fiction has something magical..
The 21 century dislike of us is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a broke glass.
So far for me it has been Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. I read it before Oprah made it cool. Thats about as far as I've gotten with Russian Literature so I guess I can't say quite yet whether I find it good or not. A.K. was good though.
Maybe I hastened to reply to that statement, but at the time I heard Russians on TV complaining about temperatures which in Siberia riched -55, so -70 seemed preety imposible to me.
Wikipedia mentiones -67, Britannica -68 as the lowest, so if the temperature was -70, it was rather extreme and disastrous.
That is a great site! I've really gotten into Soviet Lit and am always looking for new authors and new books so I've bookmarked that page and then I can refer to it when I do my book buying. Right now I'm reading The Foundation Pit by Andrey Platonov.
And Kafka's Crow, I love the Quiet Flows the Don series. I too have read all four volumes and count them among my favorites. I don't have the wonderful editions you have but they are cherished tomes nonetheless.
the luminous grass of the prairie hides
feet lovely and still as sleeping doves,
porcelain bones strong enough to carry a life,
but weighty and unmovable
As black Dakota hills. ~ Riesa
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.
And Quiet Flows the Don, is more an attempt to create a WW1 War and peace. It's not even close to doing it, however it's still very good. There is two part, the second is The Don Flows Home to the Sea and while I don't think it's as good as the first, it's still quite good. Don't worry about it being very didactic, it's not. It's also not very much psychological
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