Russian Literature - Your Favorite Books

Dear Elizabeth!
Pls come for week-end in Moscow.
We have over 30C and  no rain at all.

 Personally , I like Lermontov 's verses very much .
(Demon, especially)

Also I would like to add Idiot and White Nights by Dostoevsky.

Oh, Hikaru, how I wish I could take you up on your offer! Today the weather is... still cold and rainy!

I second your vote for The Idiot, in fact it is my favorite of all Dostoevsky's novels. I only recommended that people read Crime and Punishment first because I think it is the most accessible of Dostoevsky's works, and the most exciting. The Idiot is a more difficult book, but IMO his finest, even better than Brothers K. Have you seen the Russian film adaptation of it that won the Solzhenitsyn Prize? Superb!

Frankly speaking that I prefer old variant : with Yakovlev and Borisova.
I did not like the new one.

But now I am waiting for the new Master and Margarita
which was made by the same movie director as new Idiot - Mr. Bortko.

Tdy we have sun , sun and sun

What a good idea for a thread Elisabeth!

My favorite classic Russian novel is Crime and Punishment.  Based on Elisabeth's high praise for The Idiot, I may have to give it another try.

I may be the only person who is left cold by Anna Karenina (aka Choo Choo, Anna Baby).

My favorite 20th century Russian novel?  Children of the Arbat, by Anatoly Rybakov.  Excellent book.

[The Collected Fables of IVAN KRILOV]

Oh, Hikaru, how I wish I could take you up on your offer! Today the weather is... still cold and rainy!

I second your vote for The Idiot, in fact it is my favorite of all Dostoevsky's novels. I only recommended that people read Crime and Punishment first because I think it is the most accessible of Dostoevsky's works, and the most exciting. The Idiot is a more difficult book, but IMO his finest, even better than Brothers K. Have you seen the Russian film adaptation of it that won the Solzhenitsyn Prize? Superb!

Elizaveta,

You have made some excellent, excellent postings on this Topic and on other topics lately.

If you want WARM weather, please come to Shanghai.  It's been 41 C. here for the last three weeks.  Now, is that WARM or not...

Hikaru,

Thank you for the great suggestions for literature.

And to all,

I would like to add just one posting, because my PERSONAL favorties (Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Tolstoy) have already been covered.

My babushka used to say that Gogol's written Russian was really heavily Ukrainized, however.

And I think that literature-in-translation is never AS good as the original work in the mother tongue.  A translation is a copy; and a copy of a painting is just  a copy, nothing more.

Sometimes, when I travel, and when I attend church services, the Orthodox services are in English, or in France, or are in Spanish instead of being in beautiful old Church Slavonic; sometimes these local churches follow the new calendar instead of the traditional Old Calendar; and when I attend services therein, it's a translation, a copy, and it just looses something.  It is NOT the same.

And the Russian language is a beautiful, very rich, very complex language, with expressions and nuances that simply cannot be expressed in English, no matter how good the translation.

ANYWAY, sorry for the digression.  Now my suggestion:

They are light-hearted, they are fun, they nonethless have a wonderful, true Russian flavor (again, I warn against translations):

The Collected Fables of IVAN KRILOV

particularly the Fish Soup story, a story with which any and all Russians can feel sympathy.

So inspite of the great and lofty masters, for whom I have great "uvazhenia", I come back to these tales, anytime.

Your thoughts and comments, please.

 
AlexP.,

thank you for the recommendation for Krilov, although probably the majority of members will have to make use of translations, regardless of their  obvious inferiority to the  original language.
I am hopeful that I will eventually study Russian, after doing some work in ancient Greek; for now I am proficient only in English, and mildly literate in Latin (memory is gradually losing the battle). My French is contemptible and it appears I'm too stupid to ever master its rules of grammar. But I've heard my pronunciation is fabulous.          

P.S. Elisabeth----oodles of thanks for such outstanding recommendations presented with such wonderful descriptions. So wish I was where you are now;  I'm usually on the northern Maine coast this time of year and it sounds like the same kind of climate you're experiencing!

M-M

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). Anna Karenina.

I also would like to add the " Konyok- Gorbunok" ( "little humphorse?")  by Ershov
and Fairy tales of Bazhov

As well as all Goncharov's books : " Ordinary Story", " Steep?", " Fregat " Pallada" etc.
plus  Ostrovsky's plays.

I adore Goncharov : If you will read " the Steep" you could feel an imperceptible  charming of all noble nest.

AlexP.,

thank you for the recommendation for Krilov, although probably the majority of members will have to make use of translations, regardless of their  obvious inferiority to the  original language.
I am hopeful that I will eventually study Russian, after doing some work in ancient Greek; for now I am proficient only in English, and mildly literate in Latin (memory is gradually losing the battle). My French is contemptible and it appears I'm too stupid to ever master its rules of grammar. But I've heard my pronunciation is fabulous.          

P.S. Elisabeth----oodles of thanks for such outstanding recommendations presented with such wonderful descriptions. So wish I was where you are now;  I'm usually on the northern Maine coast this time of year and it sounds like the same kind of climate you're experiencing!

M-M

Dear Mashka-Morgan,

Thank you for your kind posting.

It is indeed hard to render Krilov in English, not because of the language because of the cultural overtones.  A good translation would require pages and pages of addendii to explain the cultural references to a reader, most of which would immediately be understood by a person imbued with Russian culture in Russian.

Of course, one could reason them on a simplistic level, the way one might read Aesop's fables, because the tale of morality remains a tale of morality.  But in such a reading, much is lost. I, for one, would love to be able to read Aesop in Latin, but alas I cannot.  

Hikarushka, Belochka, are you familiar with a really good translation of Krilov that we could recommend to Mrs. Morgan?  I unfortunately am not.

With kind regards from Shanghai,

A.A.

I also would like to add the " Konyok- Gorbunok" ( "little humphorse?")  by Ershov
and Fairy tales of Bazhov

As well as all Goncharov's books : " Ordinary Story", " Steep?", " Fregat " Pallada" etc.
plus  Ostrovsky's plays.

Hirakushka,

It would appear that you decidedly prefer mid-19th century Russian writers.

It is great that you have mentioned Goncharov, although a great number of his works were published posthumously, I often wonder what the Russians in Russia consider to the "definitive edition" of his works.

This may sound lofty, but could compare his use of the Russian language, say, to that of Tolstoy.  Was Goncharov, in your opinion, more of a Slavophile?

Thanks.

A.A.

Hello. Im kind of new here.
Vladimir Nabokovs Pnin is interesting piece of literature. It takes you in immediately. It is a satire, but touching one. It is about being an outsider, a russian who has lost his world and has to try to live among people who do not understand him, in a culture quite different to his. It is about Nabokovs own experience as a relic of something compeletely strange to modern Western middleclass culture. It is about emigration in general. And it just is thoroughly good and recommendable.

I have always loved the absurdity in russian humour. And the melancholy behind it. Gogol has been my favorite in all times, mainly his short stories. Bulgakovs Master and Margarita continues this tradition (and is for me in the top 10 books ever written).

And did you know, Dostojevsky had a sense of humour too (which is not so much shown in his canonized work). The love of the old duch (or prince) is a tiny novel, first published in 1859. It is almost gogolian in its warm and understanding comical touch. I admire more Dostojevskys early work in general; it is filled with social sympathy and is quite far away from his late individual idealistic thoughts which I always combine with Niezche, Hesse and politically right wing thinking.

E. Radzinsky is a historian as well as playwriter, and his works are always a pleasure to read, as factual or fictional or both at the same time. He might have been accused of writing his studies in too belletristic way to be taken seriously in academic world, but the world is full of studies written in dry academic language, so thank you Radzinsky! You have given us many pleasant reading experiences!

I think Goncharov was not so fanatic as Tolstoy was.
Tolstoy was so titanic, like Michelangelo.  
As for Goncharov , he had more chamber character.

I think that a man , who saw a lot of countries, like Goncharov could not be a Slavyanofil. From the letters between Goncharov and K.R. , I did not get an impression that he was a slavyanofil.

I like modern writers too. For Example Akshonov.
His "Ostrov Krym"  (Crimea Island) is funny. ( He imagined what would happened if White Army could stay in Crimea).

I think Goncharov was not so fanatic as Tolstoy was.
Tolstoy was so titanic, like Michelangelo.  
As for Goncharov , he had more chamber character.

I think that a man , who saw a lot of countries, like Goncharov could not be a Slavyanofil. From the letters between Goncharov and K.R. , I did not get an impression that he was a slavyanofil.

I like modern writers too. For Example Akshonov.
His "Ostrov Krym"  (Crimea Island) is funny. ( He imagined what would happened if White Army could stay in Crimea).

Hikaru,

Ya izvinyaious.

What I meant to ask you was :

stylistically, for a Russian in Russian today, like you are :

look at one line of Goncharov,
look at one line of Tolstoy,

the choice of words, the theme, the "motif"

in your opinion, which of the two made better and fuller use of the language?

which was more classic?
which was more modern?
which was more Western?

That is what I meant to ask.

Again, ya izvinyaious.

A.A.

I think that it is very hard to compare Tolstoy and Goncharov. Both of them wrote about russian life.
Just  Goncharov was more mild and "chamber".

But I think that both of them were modern, classic and not Western. Just the length of Goncharov 's sentences were not so long as Tolstoy ones.
Maybe , the feelings of Goncharov's heroes were not
so passionate.
The characters and style of life of Goncharov and Tolstoy were completely different too.

And what did you mean by "definitive edition"?

Hello. Im kind of new here.
Vladimir Nabokovs Pnin is interesting piece of literature. It takes you in immediately. It is a satire, but touching one. It is about being an outsider, a russian who has lost his world and has to try to live among people who do not understand him, in a culture quite different to his. It is about Nabokovs own experience as a relic of something compeletely strange to modern Western middleclass culture. It is about emigration in general. And it just is thoroughly good and recommendable.

Welcome to the forum, Rosebud! You have described Pnin quite well. It is also one of my favorite Russian novels. Of all Nabokov's works, I would say it is my favorite, or at least evenly tied with Speak, Memory.

I have always loved the absurdity in russian humour. And the melancholy behind it. Gogol has been my favorite in all times, mainly his short stories. Bulgakovs Master and Margarita continues this tradition (and is for me in the top 10 books ever written).

I am also very fond of Gogol and Bulgakov. I agree with you that Master and Margarita is a MASTERpiece, bad pun intended, although some of our younger members might find it hard to get into the first 20 pages or so. Stick with it until you meet Margarita! I guarantee you will not be disappointed!

And did you know, Dostojevsky had a sense of humour too (which is not so much shown in his canonized work).

IMO Dostoevsky's humor is very much on display in his satire of the Russian revolutionary movement, Devils (also translated as The Possessed). This is a screamingly funny novel and deserves to be better appreciated, not only for its humor but also for its prophetic qualities (the revolutionaries rather closely resemble the Bolsheviks, even though the novel was written long before Lenin ever formed his party!).

E. Radzinsky is a historian as well as playwriter, and his works are always a pleasure to read, as factual or fictional or both at the same time. He might have been accused of writing his studies in too belletristic way to be taken seriously in academic world, but the world is full of studies written in dry academic language, so thank you Radzinsky! You have given us many pleasant reading experiences!

Again, I couldn't agree more. Radzinsky is a writer held in much disdain by many members here in the Alexander Palace forum, but I think this is because they try to read him as a historian or biographer, whereas in reality he writes artistic exercises in mythopoetics... His Last Tsar gives us an invaluable insight into modern Russian attempts to build a new and cohesive national myth.