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/lit/ - Literature

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4934017 No.4934017[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

I've committed myself to reading as much Russian literature as I can this summer. I have very little reading experience but suddenly have found an insatiable appetite for it. I've almost completed Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and have compiled a short list of other Russian classics to read. Other than essentials such as The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, Dead Souls, War & Peace, and Anna Karenina, what do you recommend I read? What are some of your favorites and why are they compelling to you?

Alternatively, I'm hoping to stir up a general discussion of Russian literature, so have at it.

>> No.4934055

Oblomov is a must, also day in the life of Ivan Denisovich

bonus points if reading in Russian

>> No.4934056

My friend wants me to read some book that was turned into a musical...only pther Russian I've read is War and Peace, which was fucking awesome, and some short stories by Tolstoy.

>> No.4934075

>>4934017
Chomsky, Tolstoy, Bulgakov, Dostoyevsky, Mayakovsky,Strugatsky (science fiction), Bely

>> No.4934086

Dead Souls

>> No.4934088

>>4934055
Unfortunately not. I forgot to post originally that I was looking for translation recommendations as well. I know some things will inevitably be lost in translation, but I'd like to read the best translations (I know it's subjective) if possible.

>> No.4934095

Chekhov

>> No.4934120

>not reading the russians in winter

>> No.4934122

>>4934017
Read Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev and as many Chekhov stories as you can stomach

>> No.4934139

>>4934075
>Chomsky
You mean Chekhov, right?

>> No.4934141
File: 138 KB, 1024x768, samovarr.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4934141

>>4934017
OP, you should get some appropriate tea (and cups/glasses) and vodka (and glasses) for your endeavour. Maybe some Russian smokes. Immerse yourself to the degree you deem reasonable. It adds something to the experience.

>> No.4934154

>>4934141
Would having a serf be overdoing it a bit?

>> No.4934162

>>4934154
If you can make it happen I'd advice doing so. Never had the chance myself but I would love to have one.

>> No.4934163

>>4934141
>not having a samovar

>> No.4934166

>>4934154
>2014
>not having your serfs stoke the fire and prepare a samovar of tea as you read Tolstoy or Dostoevsky on a winters evening

>> No.4934169

>>4934139
Haha, yes, sorry, been drinking

>> No.4934171

>>4934154
What else would one use for a footstool?

>> No.4934173
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4934173

anybody read and quiet flows the don? it pretty ok so far

>> No.4934176

Is that you, Kevin?

>> No.4934179

>>4934176
jeff?

>> No.4934185

>>4934141
As a Russian, this makes me kek. You know that terrible cringe-inducing video with some fat weeaboo dude in Japan and local Japanese make fun of him? I often find that /lit and Russian culture have a similar connection.

>> No.4934187

Hey there, Ted!

>> No.4934191

Don't forget Gogol's short stories

>> No.4934193

>>4934185
>implying you don't have a samovar

>> No.4934199
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4934199

>>4934185
>implying we care about contemporary russians

Serfs the lot of you.

>> No.4934201

>>4934139
kek

>> No.4934204

>>4934191
Added to my list. I hear Chekhov's are great too?

>> No.4934206

>>4934204
Haven't read Chekhov but Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka is great. Get the P&V translation.

>> No.4934208

>>4934193
No, I have my tea at your mum's ^_^

>> No.4934209

>>4934017
Fathers and Sons

>> No.4934216

For Soviet era literature try Grossman's Life and Fate, and some of his other work. Life and Fate is generally considered the War and Peace 20th century literature.

>> No.4934221
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4934221

ivan krylov's fables
lermontov's hero of our time

there's probably a lit-essentials-mosaic somewhere in sticky

>> No.4934227

>>4934185
modern russians are to the great russian writers what the greeks are to the ancient greeks.

>> No.4934229
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4934229

Whatever you do end up reading, wrap it all up with a short story collection by Tchekov and one of his plays (e.g. the cherry orchard).

He was the 'sober after-thought' of Russia's literary golden age, and perhaps the world's most brilliant realist short story writer. At the very least, the sheer amount of work he's produced speaks of his deep understanding and sympathy for the human being. But don't just skim over his works; the simplicity is deceptive. Different themes are explored in each one, and every detail is important, as it should be in good writing.

As for the plays, which were written towards the end of his life, their outlook is also interesting because they all take on an eerily modern style in plot and dialogue. it can be said that this reflected the end of russian culture as he knew it and the birth of a new society. (Some say he even predicted the revolution, but that would be needlessly sensationalizing Tchekov. he had an amazing understanding of his society and his works were a mirror; those who do not fully understand that also try to call him a prophet.)

>> No.4934231

>>4934227
Modern anime is to great anime of the 80s what modern Greeks are to ancient Greeks.

>> No.4934253

>Bunin never mentioned.

Read Dark Avenues by Bunin, its full of short stories about love and sex.

>> No.4934318

>>4934231
>watching anime

>> No.4934459

Solzhenitsyn

>> No.4934588

>>4934017
A good one that I read recently was A hero of our time.

>> No.4935006

Lev Tolstoy
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Aleksandr Pushkin
Nikolai Gogol
Vasily Aksyonov*
Mikhail Artsybashev (b. Ukraine)* Andrei Bely*
Mikhail Bulgakov*
Ivan Bunin*
Nikolai Chernyshevsky*
Afanasy Fet*
Ivan Goncharov*
Maxim Gorky*
Vasily Grossman*
Ilf and Petrov*
Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky* Mikhail Kuzmin*
Mikhail Lermontov*
Nikolai Leskov*
Yuri Olesha*
Nikolai Ostrovsky (b. Ukraine)* Viktor Pelevin*
Andrei Platonov*
Varlam Shalamov*
Mikhail Sholokhov*
Fyodor Sologub*
Venedict Yerofeyev*
Mikhail Zoshchenko
Aleksander Griboyedov
Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin
Victor Serge

>> No.4935249
File: 1.92 MB, 300x225, 1397915694851.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4935249

>>4935006
>Mikhail Zoshchenko

>> No.4935319

>>4935249
>see gif
>find myself watching reviewbrah reviews shortly after in a fiendish manner

How does he doe it?

>> No.4935332

>>4935006
Seconding Pushkin. I you don't highlight Pushkin the ruskifag will get mad and start chasing you with a kalachnikov.

>> No.4935401

Read 'We' by Yevgeni Zamyatin. It's the original dystopian novel, inspired 1984 etc. and it's better. It's rather short, you can read it between two big ones.

>> No.4936553

>>4934017
Dr Zhivago - Boris Pasternak
Chekhov is good to

>> No.4936643

>>4934122
>Read Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev

I have this on my pdf folder. Heard so many good things and reading it during my ttc subway rides. pretty gud so far

>> No.4936659

chekhov and gogol short stories so much. i know they've been recommended already, but i'm recommending them again

oh, and everything in your op

also master and margarita, but read gogol first

>> No.4936683

+1 to Gogol, he's my favourite Russian author.

As well as Dead Souls, I'd recommend a book called The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol (translated by Pevear & Volokhonsky). Great collection of his short stories.

After reading Gogol, read The Double by Dostoevsky. It's one of his earliest works and you can see Gogol's influence all the way through it, but it's interesting the ways in which he's stylistically different and he makes it his own. It's quiet different in style to most of his other work

>> No.4936685
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4936685

>> No.4936700

>>4936685
Saltykov-Shchedrin!

Past master of trolling hooray-patricots

>> No.4936712

>>4934017
A hero of our time - Lementov (didn't read, going by reputation)
The Cossacks - Tolstoy (Nice story, decent characters, solid ending)
The Devil - Tolstoy (about 50 pages long, good to just read one night)

>> No.4936717

>>4934017

Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata is interesting. Featuring pianos, romantic intrigue and one hell of a pissed-off manifesto on why sex is evil. I dug it.

>> No.4936720

>>4936712
>recommending things you haven't read yourself
i hate when people do this

>> No.4936745

>>4936720
he added his disclaimer innit? it's still a great way to come across works you might enjoy.

>> No.4936749

>>4936720
/lit/ would be such a more quiet and better place if people didn't talk about shit they didn't even read

>> No.4936755

>>4936745
not really
if you want to know the canon, you can google that shit
the point of asking for opinions is to get personal favourites and to see what people actually liked
it's fucking pointless

>> No.4936765

>>4936755
asking for personal favourites from the canon is fucking pointless

>> No.4936768

It's a bit hard to find, but there's a more contemporary Russian novel called "Moscow to the End of the Line" by Venedikt Erofeev. It's very good, and very well written.

>> No.4936781

>>4934017
Pelevin, "Chapaev and Void"

>> No.4936796

Also OP, if you have a choice of translators and don't know which one to read, look for Pevear & Volokhonsky. They've translated most of the russian classics and are generally excellent.

I'd recommend staying away from very old translations like Constance Garnett - yes the books are much cheaper, but you're missing out on a lot

>> No.4936798

>>4936796
ignore this pleb's opinion OP

>> No.4936800

>>4936796
people always parrot this shit, it's getting cultish

i have to wonder how much comparative reading they've done and how much is just the hype machine

>> No.4936811

>>4936749
>>4936755
I have not seen A hero of our time mentioned on /lit/, so if the OP didn't know about it, I'd advise it to him, since I've heard it's worthwhile. And it's not exactly easy to just find good Russian literature, so I don't see what's wrong with it.

Other than that, I also listed two works I have actually read, but sure, bitch about the things you didn't like rather than contributing something yourself.

>> No.4936812

>>4936800
I originally read Crime & Punishment in Constance Garnett, then later re-read it in P&V. The different in quality between the two was quite large.

When reading books from a foreign language, the translator plays quite a large role. I don't think it's plebby or cultish to recommend high quality academics as translators rather than a random woman who just did her best and skipped any sentences she didn't understand.

>> No.4936813

>no Pushkin

>> No.4936816

>>4936811
someone had already recommended it in this very thread (presumably someone who'd actually read it and had a reason for recommending it)

>> No.4936818

>>4936811
I read it after seeing it pop up on /lit/ a lot, and wasn't particularly impressed. I understand that it was very influential, but it didn't do a lot for me.

>> No.4936820

>>4936800
I picked P&V for The Brothers Karamazov, Notes from Underground, and Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka after reading a lot of samples on Amazon

>> No.4936841

>>4934017
Read "Novel with cocaine" by M. Ageyev.
Excellent stuff, Ageyev is what Dostoevsky would be if he was also a great poet and had comedic genius + interest in drugs!
Other good books out of the obvious Pushkin/Dostoevsky/Gogol/Tolstoy: Oblomov by Goncharov, Kolyma Tales by Shalamov, anything by Chekhov...
But really Ageyev beats them all.

>> No.4936847

>>4936700
>Saltykov-Shchedrin
Yes, he's overlooked too.

>> No.4936866

>>4936841
I can't believe I forgot Bulgakov. He's among the greatest, incredible man that both has powerful imagination for grand schemes + the eye for wonderful small details...

>> No.4936918

>>4936816
Didn't see it, had only browsed the thread for Tolstoy.
>>4936818
Happens. It's not a particularly long book, so I'll probably end up reading it sooner or later.

>> No.4937581

>>4934017
CaP eh?

>horse beating dream

>> No.4937599

Has anyone got one of those picture charts from Russian literature? I wanna save it to my phone for future purchase outings!

>> No.4937759

>>4936812
>When reading books from a foreign language, the translator plays quite a large role.

Translator also plays a large role when reading a book from the native language.

>> No.4937838

>>4936685
>two women
>neither of whom are allowed clothing

>> No.4937850

>>4937838
Anna akhmotova was a turboslut

>> No.4939464

Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, Tales of Pushkin, The Death of Ivan Illich, The Idiot, The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol, The Karamazov Brothers.

>> No.4939860

I always liked Oblomov.

>> No.4939879

>>4937838
>>4936685
Davidov's privates received some close attention as well.

>> No.4939891

Why so little mention of Chekov?

>> No.4939979

>>4939891
ha

>> No.4940231

>>4939891
OP here, I think there were a couple mentions. I just bought the Chekhov short story anthology translated by P&V. Pretty excited. I also bought Dostoyevsky's The Idiot and Gogol's Dead Souls although I do plan on getting around to a lot more of the recommendations as well.

>> No.4940265

>>4940231
That's a decent place to start, good luck!

This is just personal opinion, but I would avoid reading Dead Souls and then reading the Chekhov straight after. The first time I read Chekhov I had just finished a selection of Gogol's short stories, and the contrast in styles made Chekhov seem extremely bleak and depressing. I came back to Chekhov a few months later after going on a Tolstoy binge and enjoyed him a lot more.

So if I were you, I would either sandwich The Idiot in between them, or read the Chekhov before the Gogol

>> No.4940307

>>4940265
I feel I ought to elaborate on this point.

Reading Gogol is like watching a beautiful animated film. It's consistently humorous, and the characters are all larger-then-life exaggerated caricatures who are involved in a slightly surreal and absurd storyline.

On the other hand, Chekhov is hard realism about the lives of poor Russian peasants. It's beautifully written, and you form deep emotional bonds with characters after just a few pages, but those characters inevitably end up getting fucked over and their hearts smashed to pieces on the floor in front of their eyes.

Both are exceptional authors. I just found that going straight from one to the other made me incredibly depressed, and sapped my enthusiasm for the Chekhov.

>> No.4940335

>>4934173
I have the books form a special edition. (Right now reading the idiot). What should i expect from the don?

>> No.4940490

>>4940265
>>4940307
So would you say that reading Gogol followed by Chekhov would not only exacerbate the depressing nature of the latter's stories but also in a way enhance them and make me have even greater appreciation for them? I mean I don't want to get depressed on purpose or anything, but I think contrasting them in that fashion that could be fruitful.

>> No.4940649

>>4940490
Yes, that's perfectly valid.

Gogol was writing much earlier than Chekhov as well, so you'd see the progression doing it that way around. In some ways Chekhov's style is a reaction to Gogol's.

Do what you want, if you think you can handle such a sudden plunge from fantastical surrealism to the depths of a man's heart then go for it. You probably will get a bit more out of it that way.

Also, if you enjoy Dead Souls, I would very strongly recommend the collection of his short stories that P&V translated, called The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol. The first half is all based on Ukrainian folklore, and is full of fantastic tales about the devil and wizards and country life. The second half is about government officials in St Petersburg and is extremely influential.

>> No.4940939

>>4940649
Thanks for the recommendation! I like the idea of reading Gogol's short stories as well. I don't want to bog myself down with long novels and lose motivation so these should be perfect.