/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.12677425]

Where should I start with Russian literature? Please no jokes.

[Anonymous No.12677429]

Greeks > descartes > darwin > nietzsche > dostojevski

[Anonymous No.12677445]

>>12677429
I already read greeks. Please don't talk about that in my thread.

[Anonymous No.12677451]

>>12677425
The overcoat by Gogol, it's a novella. Another novella you could read is Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilyich.

[Anonymous No.12677454]

I've read a bit of the history of Russian lit/philosophy, and it all depends where do you want to start and to what extent do you intend to delve into it. 19th century Russian literature revolves around the social problems that were unique to Russia, so you might want to learn a bit about the epoch. "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" by Radishchev is good start for that matter, iirc the author was imprisoned for it or something, or the book banned.

[Anonymous No.12677511]

>>12677425
My diary desu.

Read the Bible. Then read The Idiot.

[Anonymous No.12677523]

Sienkievich is a good start

[Anonymous No.12678028]

>>12677454
It was banned and Rad was sentenced to death (though he was pardoned).
A pretty good rec, though, giving some context for the country which was quite removed from the cultural centres of Europe.

>>12677425
Everyone loves Dostoyevsky, and his Notes From the Underground and Crime and Punishment are his most popular works. He's a realist writer, but tackles existential problems in such an expressive, modern and polyphonic manner that basically all people will find him relatable and contemporary for centuries to come.
Other Russian realists, Tolstoy, Turgenev and Chekhov, are also great, but working in much subtler ways. Don't expect more Dosto in these writers (I did when I started reading Tolstoy, and I was very disappointed, even though today I find him greater than Dosto).
Outside of realism the problem of translation becomes quite noticeable, which is why foreigners care much less about Pushkin and Lermontov than Russians do, since a great part of their work is in verse. But if you want to get a good picture of Russian lit you should eventually read their novels, Eugene Onegin ("a novel in verse"; avoid Nabokov's prose translation) and A Hero of Our Time.
Then there's Gogol, who's a fascinating phase between romanticism and realism, that could easily pass for modernism in some of his works, mainly the Peterburg short stories. Quite wacky stuff, for that time.
Russia also had rich 20th century, but it's not that popular overall (again, lots of poetry). Kharms and Bulgakov are essential prosaics from that era.
Basically, go for Dosto because everyone knows and loves him, and then explore what seems interesting.

[Anonymous No.12678554]

>>12677425
apart from what has been replied already, I'll add a few 'classic yet easy' russian works:
Pushkin, The Queen of Spades, The Tales of I. P. Belkyn
Turgenev, Fathers and Sons
Dostoevsky, The Gambler, The Eternal Husband
Tolstoy, Master and Man (less metaphysical than Ivan Ilych and a little more enjoyable imho), The Devil
Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (not that it's great, but you can't avoid it)

[Anonymous No.12680143]

>>12678028
Dostoyevsky was a moron that bought into all the \pol\ memes about Jews. Which can be read in his “diary of a writer” He even has a stereotypical happy merchant character in his book “In the house of the dead” you should read someone who isn’t such a brainlet.

[Anonymous No.12680154]

>>12677425
Learn Russian. All translations are a joke.

[Anonymous No.12680164]

>>12677523
he was polak not ruski

[Anonymous No.12680239]

>>12678554
Solzhenitsyn is another brainlet one should avoid. He talked about how the Bolshevik revolution was lead by Jews, how Jews had been slowly taking over Russia, how they were opposed to Russian interests, and he even denied many of the crimes committed by the Czar. Basically if he was alive today, he would be a Neo Nazi who denies the holocaust. This can be read in his books, the main one being 200 years together.

[Anonymous No.12680320]

Redpills start to drop after Rozanov

[Anonymous No.12680333]

>>12680239
Bro, have you even read The Protocols of The Learned Elders of Zion?

[Anonymous No.12680348]

>>12677445
Stop lying to us anon. You have to start with the Greeks.

[Anonymous No.12680360]

Everybody forgets about Gogol

[Anonymous No.12680367]

>>12680333
That was proven to be a forgery

[Anonymous No.12680372]

>>12680239
I agree but if OP wants to into russian lit, he still can't avoid it. Ivan Denissovich is short enough and it shows how Solzhenitsyn has nothing of value to tell.

[Anonymous No.12680441]

>>12680360
I thought we all lived under his overcoat though?

[Anonymous No.12680470]

>>12680372
Tbh both should probably be forgotten.

[Anonymous No.12680488]

>>12680367
>he thinks it’s a fake

[Anonymous No.12680498]

>>12680154
>hasn't lived in Russia for at least twenty years to learn about the culture

[Anonymous No.12680499]

>>12677425
You can start chronologically, and Pushkin would be the kind of father of it all

You can start with the big mainstream names, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, and then work backwards and forwards

[Anonymous No.12680504]

>>12680498
The only thing you need to know about Russian culture is krokodil and beating your wife and kids

[Anonymous No.12680519]

>>12680504
So Russia is secretly a Southern state?

[Anonymous No.12680643]

What's the point of living if you'll never be a 19th century Russian peasant?

[Anonymous No.12680661]

>>12677425
Quietly Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov(the Nobel Prize in 1965)
Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov

N.B.
Solzhenitsyn was a vengeful liar.
Rozanov was a genius on a par with Nietzsche and was married on Dostoevsky's
concubine

[Anonymous No.12680750]

>>12680519
Krokodil is not an alligator anon

[Anonymous No.12680769]

>>12680367
Pretty accurate for a forgery.

[Anonymous No.12680788]

>>12680239

[Anonymous No.12680817]

Start with Chekov and Gogol short stories.