Russian Literature Thread

[Anonymous No.20498354]

I'm currently reading War and Peace over hs vacation(I am 18 y/o) at my public library and by the living God, this book is extraordinarily kino and soulful in so many levels.

[Anonymous No.20498359]

I just finished Gogol's tales and I'm still thinking about them kek. Why is Russian lit so kino?

[Anonymous No.20498398]

>>20498354
War and Peace is a great book. Didn't read it until I was almost 30, and it was the first time in years that I had really loved a book.

[Anonymous No.20498458]

I'm about 300 pages deep into Dosto's The Brothers Karamazov. I've never read anything that plays in my head this dramatically and passionately before.

[Anonymous No.20498494]

>>20498354
Which translation is the best?

[Anonymous No.20498505]

>>20498494
The truth is that both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky translate pretty straightforwardly. They’re not poets and their prose style isn’t highly complex. Any of the big translations are fine. Enjoy your Russian lit journey!

[Anonymous No.20498544]

>>20498494
Maude is the definitive translation, according to Tolstoy himself.

>>20498398
I'm currently at book 2 and I'm loving it so much already. I can understand why some readers may find themselves slogging through as book 1 isn't very exciting, though, it has a lot of great moments that are not readily perceptible to the reader. I think War and Peace starts to pick up at the second book.

>>20498354
Dosto's motif of "kissing the ground" and other display of submission to God always make me tear up.

[Anonymous No.20498592]

>>20498505
>>20498544
Is this a good edition?

[Anonymous No.20498608]

>>20498592
Not a huge fan of Oxford, personally. The quality of the paper and covers is pretty poor even when compared to Penguin. Ultimately though, it doesn’t really matter. The book exists to be read!

[Anonymous No.20498617]

>>20498458
Which BVK translation are you reading?

[Anonymous No.20498635]

>>20498354
and then the communist revolution hits
and russia never produces a good novel again

[Anonymous No.20498638]

>>20498592
Is that paperback? kek, You dont want to get a paperback copy of a massive book like War and Peace. It will get torn like.

[Anonymous No.20498648]

>>20498608
I want the one where French text is left untouched but translated in footnotes or endnotes

[Anonymous No.20498677]

>>20498617
Not reading in English, but a Finnish translation by Lea Pyykkö.

[Anonymous No.20498684]

>>20498635
good movies though

[Anonymous No.20498706]

>>20498648
That would be the P&V translation (OP's pic).

[Anonymous No.20498708]

>>20498706
Maude (Everyman's Library) leaves the French untranslated as well.

[Anonymous No.20498717]

>>20498638
>paperback bad because it spoils with use
That's the point.

[Anonymous No.20499627]

>>20498354
Interesting. I'm reading Anna Karenina rn and so far it's been quite wonderful. I'm currently about 200 pages in but the way Tolstoy develops his characters, their relationships and their conflicts are, for a lack of a better word, astounding. I'm not normally into romance, but honestly, this book could become one of my favorites. Definitely can't wait to get to the behemoth that is his War & Peace after this.

[Anonymous No.20500017]

>>20498354
I read just over five-hundred pages of Crime and Punishment in about a week, then had to go into hospital for emergency surgery due to some type of appendicitis, and since haven't read anything at all for about two months.

[Anonymous No.20500195]

>>20500017
Which translation did you read, and do you recommend it? I read the first chapter of the Constance Garnett translation but don't want to continue until I've chosen for sure.

[Anonymous No.20500278]

>>20500195
I compared a few with the Amazon preview thing and I went with Slater; he's the translator of the newer Oxford World Classics edition. I typically stick with Oxford where possible as their translations are consistently the most literary in my view. Penguin translations are often modernised and include words which I don't find to be congruent with the original times in which the works were published. Reading a book from hundreds of years ago and seeing the word 'slut' removes me from the experience entirely.
I don't have it to hand right now, but as an example, the first page in the Penguin edition describes Raskolnikov's room as 'a cupboard that was more like a closet than a room' which doesn't really make any sense as a cupboard and a closet are practically the same thing in this context, whereas the Oxford calls it a garret (the correct terminology considering he is at the top of the house, under the roof) that is more like a small closet than a room. This makes more sense, and the language employed by Slater feels more appropriate to what I imagine was the norm at the time.
I've found this to be the case with every translation I've ever compared between Oxford and Penguin, alongside others also such as Wordsworth or Everyman's, so if it is available to you, always prioritise OWC editions. Apologies for the autistic rambling, but hopefully it's helpful.

[Anonymous No.20501200]

>>20498717
why would your picture be deleted?

[Anonymous No.20501881]

>>20498635
Try Sholohov's "Fate of a man" for starter.

[Anonymous No.20501935]

>>20498359
because they were based on Ukrainian folklore lol. Gogol knew where to get the good stuff.

[Anonymous No.20503003]

I have a lot of favorite passages from this book.