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Lara: The Untold Love Story and the Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago
Lara is the heartbreaking story of lovers Boris Pasternak, the author of Doctor Zhivago, and Olga Ivinskaya—the true tragedy behind the timeless classic.“Anna Pasternak does not spare an ounce of drama nor detail from the story of her great-uncle’s love affair with Olga Ivinskaya, the inspiration for Doctor Zhivago’s Lara. The result is a profoundly moving meditation on love, loyalty and, ultimately, forgiveness.” —New York Times–bestselling author Amanda ForemanWhen Stalin came into power in 1924, the Communist government began persecuting dissident writers. Though he spared the life of Boris Pasternak—whose novel-in-progress, Doctor Zhivago, was suspected of being anti-Soviet—Stalin persecuted Boris’s mistress, typist, and literary muse, Olga Ivinskaya. Boris’s affair devastated the Pasternaks, and they were keen to disavow Olga’s role in Boris’s writing. Twice sentenced to work in Siberian labor camps, Olga was interrogated about Boris’s book, but she didn’t betray the man she loved. Released from the gulags, Olga assumed that Boris would leave his wife for her but, trapped by his family’s expectations and his own weak will, he never did. Drawing on previously neglected family sources and original interviews, Anna Pasternak explores her great-uncle’s hidden act of moral compromise, and restores to history the passionate affair that inspired and animated Doctor Zhivago. Devastated that Olga suffered on his behalf and frustrated that he could not match her loyalty to him, Boris instead channeled his thwarted passion for her into his novel’s love story. Filled with the rich detail of Boris’s secret life, Lara unearths a moving love story of courage, loyalty, suffering, drama, and loss, casting a new light on the legacy of Doctor Zhivago.
332 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2016
411 people are currently reading
2124 people want to read
About the author
Anna Pasternak
12 books58 followersAnna Pasternak is an author, columnist, and journalist. She writes regularly for Sunday Times Style, Condé Nast Traveler, Harper’s Bazaar, and others. She lives in Oxfordshire, England, with her husband and daughter.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 150 reviews
February 19, 2020
I am fine with a person explaining their own point of view, but when they tell me what another person thinks, I take what is said with a pinch of salt. All too often, Anna Pasternak, the author of this book, tells us what her granduncle, Boris Pasternak (1890 - 1960), thought. Such statements are up for debate. Her views are by no means conclusive. I prefer when non-fiction authors present a wide variety of views and analyze each objectively. Could it not be that in this book the author simply finds what she is looking for—that Olga Ivinskaya, Boris Pasternak’s mistress, is Lara in the widely acclaimed Doctor Zhivago?!
When Olga and Boris first meet in October 1946, she was a thirty-four-year-old single mother working at the editorial office of Novy Mir. He was twenty-two years her senior, married to his second wife, Zinaida Neuhaus.
The book presents biographical information about the three families. The triangle love affair, and subsequent familial relationships, is a central theme. In addition, information concerning Boris Pasternak’s poetry and literary acclaim, how Doctor Zhivago came into print and how it came to be that Pasternak won and then turned down the Nobel Prize in 1958 are covered. That Olga suffered as a consequence of Soviet displeasure with Pasternak’s view of the Bolshevik Revolution is thoroughly detailed--her imprisonment in Lubyanka and exile to labor camps, once while Boris was still alive and then again after his death! Why, if he so loved and yet did not marry her, knowing full well that this would have protected her, is a question one must ask!
While I appreciated the straightforward facts presented, I do not buy that Lara is Olga, which is what the author states. The tie between Lara and Olga is drawn too tightly in this book. I believe Lara to be a composite figure that Pasternak created with great flair and artistry; I believe her to be based on traits of multiple women in his life.
Antonia Beamish gives a very good audiobook narration. Her performance I have given four stars. Her voice is clear. Russian names are articulated in such a manner that it becomes easy to recognize the many that populate Pasternak’s and Olga’s lives. The tempo varies somewhat, but only rarely did I feel she read too fast.
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*The Real Wallis Simpson: A New History of the American Divorcée Who Became the Duchess of Windsor 4 stars
*Lara: The Untold Love Story and the Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago 3 stars
When Olga and Boris first meet in October 1946, she was a thirty-four-year-old single mother working at the editorial office of Novy Mir. He was twenty-two years her senior, married to his second wife, Zinaida Neuhaus.
The book presents biographical information about the three families. The triangle love affair, and subsequent familial relationships, is a central theme. In addition, information concerning Boris Pasternak’s poetry and literary acclaim, how Doctor Zhivago came into print and how it came to be that Pasternak won and then turned down the Nobel Prize in 1958 are covered. That Olga suffered as a consequence of Soviet displeasure with Pasternak’s view of the Bolshevik Revolution is thoroughly detailed--her imprisonment in Lubyanka and exile to labor camps, once while Boris was still alive and then again after his death! Why, if he so loved and yet did not marry her, knowing full well that this would have protected her, is a question one must ask!
While I appreciated the straightforward facts presented, I do not buy that Lara is Olga, which is what the author states. The tie between Lara and Olga is drawn too tightly in this book. I believe Lara to be a composite figure that Pasternak created with great flair and artistry; I believe her to be based on traits of multiple women in his life.
Antonia Beamish gives a very good audiobook narration. Her performance I have given four stars. Her voice is clear. Russian names are articulated in such a manner that it becomes easy to recognize the many that populate Pasternak’s and Olga’s lives. The tempo varies somewhat, but only rarely did I feel she read too fast.
********************************
*The Real Wallis Simpson: A New History of the American Divorcée Who Became the Duchess of Windsor 4 stars
*Lara: The Untold Love Story and the Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago 3 stars
October 6, 2017
This biography centres around the relationship of Boris Pasternak and Olga Ivinksaya. Years ago I read Olga's biography and my heart went out to her because of what happened to her during the Soviet Era.
My "Zhivago Fever" was recently re-ignited when I recently read a brief biography about Pasternak. So I just decided to go with it.
Just after Peristrokia and before the fall of the Soviet system I wrote a paper on how Pasternak's book was banned during the Soviet era. All I had for research material were Olga's biography and copies of Novy Mir and Pravda that were in the University library. Lara would have been wonderful to have at the time.
Because Olga and Boris had a complicated relationship, government officials knew where to hit hard. And Olga got the brunt of it. Their relationship caused so much strife but they could not part from each other.
Anna Pasternak tells this story in very vivid detail. Even though I knew what happend to Olga I wanted to keep reading and find out more. This is one of those love stories that has so many obstacles, but the love never fades.
My "Zhivago Fever" was recently re-ignited when I recently read a brief biography about Pasternak. So I just decided to go with it.
Just after Peristrokia and before the fall of the Soviet system I wrote a paper on how Pasternak's book was banned during the Soviet era. All I had for research material were Olga's biography and copies of Novy Mir and Pravda that were in the University library. Lara would have been wonderful to have at the time.
Because Olga and Boris had a complicated relationship, government officials knew where to hit hard. And Olga got the brunt of it. Their relationship caused so much strife but they could not part from each other.
Anna Pasternak tells this story in very vivid detail. Even though I knew what happend to Olga I wanted to keep reading and find out more. This is one of those love stories that has so many obstacles, but the love never fades.
July 5, 2017
Perhaps inevitably, this is as much (or more?) a biography of Pasternak than of Olga Ivinskaya, the woman who the cover boldly proclaims to be 'Lara'. And the introduction by Anna Pasternak, the great niece of Boris, sees the love story at the book's heart through the lens of Pasternak's novel and the famous 1965 film: 'As I sat at Boris' desk in his study on the upper floor of his dacha... icicles hung outside the window, reminiscent of David Lean's film: I was reminded of Varykino, the abandoned estate in the novel, where Yury spends his last days with Lara... Julie Christie, embodying his Lara, effortlessly beautiful beneath her fur hat.'
In some ways, this is a family quest to both recuperate Olga, shunned by the Pasternak family, and to understand why Anna's great-uncle didn't either marry Olga or save her from the gulag. Other accounts of Pasternak have marginalised Olga or been far more prosaic about her relationship with the author.
Undoubtedly Olga suffered terribly as a result of her long-term affair: she was interrogated by the KGB while pregnant and spent two periods in the gulag, the second after the death of Pasternak. All the same, it's perhaps too simplistic to draw such direct and linear comparisons between the real Olga and the fictional Lara: after all, Pasternak gave Lara the sexual past of his second wife Zinaida and uses her a symbol in his novel standing for far more than just a beautiful women with whom Zhivago is in love - Lara is a composite, and one created by a poet not merely a lover.
So this is a very subjective, personally-involved biography, one perhaps limited by the fact that it finds what it goes looking for. Nevertheless, it offers up an intimate view of Pasternak, narcissistic but charismatic (and I loved the idea of a poet being worshipped in the way that an actor or rock-star might be - has that happened in England since Byron?), whose poetry is quoted by Stalin even while the dictator oversees the Great Terror.
In some ways, this is a family quest to both recuperate Olga, shunned by the Pasternak family, and to understand why Anna's great-uncle didn't either marry Olga or save her from the gulag. Other accounts of Pasternak have marginalised Olga or been far more prosaic about her relationship with the author.
Undoubtedly Olga suffered terribly as a result of her long-term affair: she was interrogated by the KGB while pregnant and spent two periods in the gulag, the second after the death of Pasternak. All the same, it's perhaps too simplistic to draw such direct and linear comparisons between the real Olga and the fictional Lara: after all, Pasternak gave Lara the sexual past of his second wife Zinaida and uses her a symbol in his novel standing for far more than just a beautiful women with whom Zhivago is in love - Lara is a composite, and one created by a poet not merely a lover.
So this is a very subjective, personally-involved biography, one perhaps limited by the fact that it finds what it goes looking for. Nevertheless, it offers up an intimate view of Pasternak, narcissistic but charismatic (and I loved the idea of a poet being worshipped in the way that an actor or rock-star might be - has that happened in England since Byron?), whose poetry is quoted by Stalin even while the dictator oversees the Great Terror.
February 21, 2017
This is the true love story that was fictionalized and written into Dr. Zhivago. I found it touching and sad to revisit the ways that the officials of the Soviet Union ruined lives such as Pasternak's and his lover, Olga's. Now I want to reread Dr. Zhivago, as well as Darkness at Noon and maybe 1984. The author of Lara is the granddaughter of Boris Pasternak's sister Josephine and has had access to a lot of family members and archives both from her family and at Stanford's Hoover Institute and other institutions. I was reminded of the thrill, then and now, when my freshman dining hall was occasionally visited by a charming old gentleman named Alexander Kerensky, who made his intellectual home at The Hoover Institute for War, Revolution, and Peace.
August 11, 2020
Labai įdomi istorija
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March 28, 2023
A powerful,extraordinary book.Rich in detail,heartbreaking,it portrays the summits and lows of a great man. If Dr. Zhivago is a love letter to Olga (Lara),this book is a-very deservedly-love letter to Pasternak.
April 5, 2018
The book was fine. I just couldn't get beyond Boris Pasternak's all encompassing ego. At one point, after suffering from an illness, he says to Olga, "You don't know how I have suffered." This to a woman who went to the gulag and endured torture because of her association with him. So, Pasternak is a genius and he created a classic work of fiction. But was it worth the suffering of all the women around him? two wives, one mistress, and even the mistress's daughter. In this age of #metoo and #timesup, I just don't have much patience with the likes of him. While he didn't actively abuse them, and supposedly loved them very much, his love seemed to be based solely on what they could do to help him get his novel written.
October 20, 2024
Das Buch ist sehr zu empfehlen, wenn man mehr über die Entstehungsgeschichte und Hintergründe des Romans "Dr. Schiwago" erfahren möchte. Das Buch ist durch seine Verfilmung so sehr zu einer Liebesgeschichte degradiert worden, dass ich "Dr. Schiwago" schon seit längerer Zeit als Roman lesen wollte, um die politischen und gesellschaftlichen Aspekte besser nachvollziehen zu können. Als ich dann auf das Buch "Lara" aufmerksam wurde und gesehen habe, dass es von Pasternaks Großnichte geschrieben wurde, nahm ich dies zum Einstiegsanlass in den Roman selbst. Das würde ich auch jedem empfehlen, da man mit einem tiefergehenden Hintergrund den Roman selbst zielführender und bewusster lesen kann.
February 13, 2017
This book reveals the back story of the novel “Doctor Zhivago.” The author is the granddaughter of Boris Pasternak’s sister.
Olga Ivinksaya met the well-loved, popular Russian poet Boris Pasternak in 1946 when he was giving a reading of his translated Shakespeare in Moscow. It was instant attraction. Olga was 34; Pasternak was 56. She had already been widowed twice and had two small children. By this point, Pasternak had abandoned his first wife and child to take up with the wife of one of his best friends, a pianist. By the time he met Olga, he had fallen out of love with wife number two but he could not find it in his will to divorce a second time. She was a solid, hard-working wife who took excessive care of him. He could, however, tolerate his own infidelity and carry on a relationship with Olga openly which she was to pay for dearly.
While all around him fellow poets and writers were disappearing mysteriously in the 1940’s for supposed subversiveness, Pasternak was able to escape arrest and death during Stalin’s reign only because he had translated some Georgian poetry (Stalin was from Georgia) which moved Stalin so much that his dictate was to “leave the cloud dweller alone.” Instead they targeted his lover Olga. She was eventually arrested by the state police, put in prison, and sentenced for “reeducation” via hard labor in Mordovia. She served 3 1/2 years of a 5-year sentence ( her sentence was commuted when Stalin died) and lost Boris’s child she was carrying in the process. She described some of this experience as “hell on earth.”
During all these years Pasternak was working off and on writing his Russian masterpiece of realistic fiction- an epic novel set in Russian events of his lifetime. Clearly, after Olga came into his life, she was the muse and inspiration that fueled his story and kept it going....she was Lara and the whole saga is but a thinly veiled semi-autobiograpical story of Pasternak and Olga’s great love. She also was his right hand in managing his literary affairs, typing, editing, etc. and was critical to the success of his efforts.
Completed in 1956, Doctor Zhivago was a novel too truthful and critical of 1920-30s Soviet propaganda for any of the publishing houses in Russia to touch. Pasternak was so keen to see it in print that he impetuously gave it to an Italian publisher- a decision that was to have grave ramifications.
Lots of fuss followed- he was awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize for Literature which he was not allowed to accept....the Soviet government blasted the novel as "a hostile political act directed against the Soviet state" and continued to hound all his literary efforts with Olga suffering right along beside him.
After years of working alongside him, what Olga really wanted was for Pasternak to marry her and protect her with his name but that was the one concession he would not make- he was a weak man in that regard and I think, too selfish and self-absorbed like so many artists are. The sad upshot was that after his death, Olga was again arrested along with her daughter, accused of crimes, and sent to a labor camp yet a second time for 3 1/2 years. She died at age 83 in Moscow in 1995. Quite a story.
Olga Ivinksaya met the well-loved, popular Russian poet Boris Pasternak in 1946 when he was giving a reading of his translated Shakespeare in Moscow. It was instant attraction. Olga was 34; Pasternak was 56. She had already been widowed twice and had two small children. By this point, Pasternak had abandoned his first wife and child to take up with the wife of one of his best friends, a pianist. By the time he met Olga, he had fallen out of love with wife number two but he could not find it in his will to divorce a second time. She was a solid, hard-working wife who took excessive care of him. He could, however, tolerate his own infidelity and carry on a relationship with Olga openly which she was to pay for dearly.
While all around him fellow poets and writers were disappearing mysteriously in the 1940’s for supposed subversiveness, Pasternak was able to escape arrest and death during Stalin’s reign only because he had translated some Georgian poetry (Stalin was from Georgia) which moved Stalin so much that his dictate was to “leave the cloud dweller alone.” Instead they targeted his lover Olga. She was eventually arrested by the state police, put in prison, and sentenced for “reeducation” via hard labor in Mordovia. She served 3 1/2 years of a 5-year sentence ( her sentence was commuted when Stalin died) and lost Boris’s child she was carrying in the process. She described some of this experience as “hell on earth.”
During all these years Pasternak was working off and on writing his Russian masterpiece of realistic fiction- an epic novel set in Russian events of his lifetime. Clearly, after Olga came into his life, she was the muse and inspiration that fueled his story and kept it going....she was Lara and the whole saga is but a thinly veiled semi-autobiograpical story of Pasternak and Olga’s great love. She also was his right hand in managing his literary affairs, typing, editing, etc. and was critical to the success of his efforts.
Completed in 1956, Doctor Zhivago was a novel too truthful and critical of 1920-30s Soviet propaganda for any of the publishing houses in Russia to touch. Pasternak was so keen to see it in print that he impetuously gave it to an Italian publisher- a decision that was to have grave ramifications.
Lots of fuss followed- he was awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize for Literature which he was not allowed to accept....the Soviet government blasted the novel as "a hostile political act directed against the Soviet state" and continued to hound all his literary efforts with Olga suffering right along beside him.
After years of working alongside him, what Olga really wanted was for Pasternak to marry her and protect her with his name but that was the one concession he would not make- he was a weak man in that regard and I think, too selfish and self-absorbed like so many artists are. The sad upshot was that after his death, Olga was again arrested along with her daughter, accused of crimes, and sent to a labor camp yet a second time for 3 1/2 years. She died at age 83 in Moscow in 1995. Quite a story.
May 26, 2019
I reread Doctor Zhivago to be well-prepared for this book which I really looked forward to and was convinced that I would love. In reality though, it was very longwinded and at times just tedious. The writer went on way too long about tiny details repeating some of the story over and over again, making it difficult to keep reading, especially toward the last half of the book.
What I liked - it was interesting to learn about Pasternak’s relationship with Olga, and to read about his very self-absorbed personality.
What I liked - it was interesting to learn about Pasternak’s relationship with Olga, and to read about his very self-absorbed personality.
March 18, 2017
Confession: I have never read "Doctor Zhivago". But at 15, I saw the movie on the big screen in one of those large, ornate movie theaters in Portland, Oregon. It was a monumental experience that remains with me.
"Lara", of course, refer to Zhivago's mistress in the story. Most author's first novels are heavily autobiographical, and Pasternak's is no exception.
Olga, Pasternak's inspiration for Lara, was in many ways an incredible woman. Readers must ask themselves just how far an artist should go for their art, as well as, to what degree of self-destructiveness should love take you?
For readers interested In a real love story with a backdrop of adultery, literature, history, jealousy and passion of multiple types, you should read this book. But better yet, if you haven't read "Doctor Zhivago" (or watch the movie), perhaps you should.
But "Lara" stands on its own. Once you've read it, you will be compelled to pursue the story, "Doctor Zhivago".
Excuse me now, I have a novel that I am finally going to read.
"Lara", of course, refer to Zhivago's mistress in the story. Most author's first novels are heavily autobiographical, and Pasternak's is no exception.
Olga, Pasternak's inspiration for Lara, was in many ways an incredible woman. Readers must ask themselves just how far an artist should go for their art, as well as, to what degree of self-destructiveness should love take you?
For readers interested In a real love story with a backdrop of adultery, literature, history, jealousy and passion of multiple types, you should read this book. But better yet, if you haven't read "Doctor Zhivago" (or watch the movie), perhaps you should.
But "Lara" stands on its own. Once you've read it, you will be compelled to pursue the story, "Doctor Zhivago".
Excuse me now, I have a novel that I am finally going to read.
June 10, 2017
Exceptionally well written. I first read Doctor Zhivago in high school and loved it, then saw the movie, and then read the book again after college -- the language is so lovely; naturally, as Boris Pasternak is a great poet. I am thrilled to learn that his son Evgeny Pasternak was able to accept Pasternak's 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature in 1989. (Somehow I missed this news - I was the mother of an infant and a three year old at that time.) I always wondered at the incredible depth Pasternak captured in his writing. This story of Boris and Olga, a real love story deeply woven and intertwined with that of his characters Yuri and Lara, and the transcendence of art over life is inspiring. Thank goodness for all of us that Pasternak risked all! Highly recommended.
May 5, 2017
A five rating all the way. Complex like Pasternak himself and an excellent window into how oppressive the Soviet Union was. The engine for the story is not just the writing of the novel but the constant tensions in the love triangle between Pasternak and his wife Zinaida and his mistress Olga, who would be recast in Zhivago as his beloved Lara. And like the book, a painful, emotionally wrought ending.
May 23, 2019
This was so interesting. I can't believe this was real life for these people.
(A small detail was when they were looking for an English translator for Dr. Zhivago, Vladimir Nabokov's name came up, but apparently he and Pasternak were not big fans of each other.)
(I wonder if Pasternak and Bulgakov were acquainted. Does anyone know?)
(A small detail was when they were looking for an English translator for Dr. Zhivago, Vladimir Nabokov's name came up, but apparently he and Pasternak were not big fans of each other.)
(I wonder if Pasternak and Bulgakov were acquainted. Does anyone know?)
July 15, 2017
Review to follow...
I haven't read, "Dr. Zhivago"........yet! I KNOW I'll read it sooner rather than later! I loved the movie starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. They have wonderful, onscreen chemistry. Also, I learned to play, 'Lara's Theme', on the piano when I was young; such beautiful music accompanied the movie, perfectly. The story, set in Russia, is a beautiful, historical fiction of romance, suffering, and loss. The two primary characters are based upon Boris Pasternak and Olga Ivinskaya. Anyhow...... I spotted this book and hoped it would serve as an informational foundation for me before I actually read, "Dr. Zhivago". I am NOT disappointed! I am now READY to read Boris Pasternak's masterpiece.
This book covers just about everything in Boris Pasternak's life; his artistic, talented parents, his loving brother and sisters, his art as a poet, his work as a translator, his marriages, his children, and his divorce. The author reveals Pasternak's life in the 30's during the Great Terror, the circumstances surrounding his forfeiture of the Nobel Prize in 1958, and his membership in the Union of Writers of the USSR. And most important, the book studies the 13 years before his death, the period of his passionate, all-encompassing love affair with Olga Ivinskaya; his literary muse and helpmate. I prefer not to use the word 'mistress'. Olga was so much more than that single word implies. She was his sustenance. She typed for him, loved him, and created a second home for him; a place where both he and his writing were admired and supported, unconditionally.
In "Dr. Zhivago", Pasternak's character, Lara, possesses the beauty, fortitude and intelligence of his real-life love, his Olga. Zhivago's and Lara's undying devotion to each other mirrors the magical, true love between Boris and Olga.
This book's author, Anna Pasternak, is Boris's great-niece; granddaughter of his sister, Josephine. At times, her book reads like a novel. In other sections, the book concentrates on details pertaining to Boris's novel and to the excruciatingly, circuitous path resulting in its foreign publication. Ms. Pasternak's sources are many: Boris's sister, his son, his daughter-in-law, his papers at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in California (donated by the author's grandmother), to name a few. A translation of Boris's letters to his family, compiled by Nicolas Pasternak Slater, as well as a treasure-trove of unpublished files found in HarperCollins, Glasgow vault provided even greater detail of Boris's and Olga's life together. The author was also able to interview Irina, who is Olga's daughter, and other of Boris's contemporaries. In Milan, Anna was treated to seeing the original "Dr Zhivago" manuscript, vaulted at the Feltrinelli Foundation!! Also vaulted there are Pasternak's and Feltrinelli's correspondence, as together they worked toward achieving the publication of "Dr. Zhivago".
I found several parts of this book to be especially compelling evidence of Boris's and Olga's love affair; their strong, shared resolve to publish Boris's novel, Olga's suffering during two incarcerations, the difficult circumstances during Boris's final illness, and the great outpouring of the Russian people to bid goodbye to their country's poet. I had to delay reading through to the end of Boris's final illness. I was at work. I waited until I got home to read through his illness and eventual death/funeral. I had to be at home because I knew that I would cry. I was 100% into this book, throughout every page, paragraph, and chapter! I highly recommend reading this book if you have any interest at all in Russian history, the book: "Dr. Zhivago", the romance of star-crossed lovers, Russian Literature, etc. This book is wonderfully written.
I haven't read, "Dr. Zhivago"........yet! I KNOW I'll read it sooner rather than later! I loved the movie starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. They have wonderful, onscreen chemistry. Also, I learned to play, 'Lara's Theme', on the piano when I was young; such beautiful music accompanied the movie, perfectly. The story, set in Russia, is a beautiful, historical fiction of romance, suffering, and loss. The two primary characters are based upon Boris Pasternak and Olga Ivinskaya. Anyhow...... I spotted this book and hoped it would serve as an informational foundation for me before I actually read, "Dr. Zhivago". I am NOT disappointed! I am now READY to read Boris Pasternak's masterpiece.
This book covers just about everything in Boris Pasternak's life; his artistic, talented parents, his loving brother and sisters, his art as a poet, his work as a translator, his marriages, his children, and his divorce. The author reveals Pasternak's life in the 30's during the Great Terror, the circumstances surrounding his forfeiture of the Nobel Prize in 1958, and his membership in the Union of Writers of the USSR. And most important, the book studies the 13 years before his death, the period of his passionate, all-encompassing love affair with Olga Ivinskaya; his literary muse and helpmate. I prefer not to use the word 'mistress'. Olga was so much more than that single word implies. She was his sustenance. She typed for him, loved him, and created a second home for him; a place where both he and his writing were admired and supported, unconditionally.
In "Dr. Zhivago", Pasternak's character, Lara, possesses the beauty, fortitude and intelligence of his real-life love, his Olga. Zhivago's and Lara's undying devotion to each other mirrors the magical, true love between Boris and Olga.
This book's author, Anna Pasternak, is Boris's great-niece; granddaughter of his sister, Josephine. At times, her book reads like a novel. In other sections, the book concentrates on details pertaining to Boris's novel and to the excruciatingly, circuitous path resulting in its foreign publication. Ms. Pasternak's sources are many: Boris's sister, his son, his daughter-in-law, his papers at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in California (donated by the author's grandmother), to name a few. A translation of Boris's letters to his family, compiled by Nicolas Pasternak Slater, as well as a treasure-trove of unpublished files found in HarperCollins, Glasgow vault provided even greater detail of Boris's and Olga's life together. The author was also able to interview Irina, who is Olga's daughter, and other of Boris's contemporaries. In Milan, Anna was treated to seeing the original "Dr Zhivago" manuscript, vaulted at the Feltrinelli Foundation!! Also vaulted there are Pasternak's and Feltrinelli's correspondence, as together they worked toward achieving the publication of "Dr. Zhivago".
I found several parts of this book to be especially compelling evidence of Boris's and Olga's love affair; their strong, shared resolve to publish Boris's novel, Olga's suffering during two incarcerations, the difficult circumstances during Boris's final illness, and the great outpouring of the Russian people to bid goodbye to their country's poet. I had to delay reading through to the end of Boris's final illness. I was at work. I waited until I got home to read through his illness and eventual death/funeral. I had to be at home because I knew that I would cry. I was 100% into this book, throughout every page, paragraph, and chapter! I highly recommend reading this book if you have any interest at all in Russian history, the book: "Dr. Zhivago", the romance of star-crossed lovers, Russian Literature, etc. This book is wonderfully written.
July 20, 2019
Does every creative person have a muse? Or is this phenomenon only given to true artists? Whether Boris Pasternak was creative in an ordinary way or whether he was a true artist, one thing is certain: his perfect muse was undoubtedly Olga Ivinskaya. By the time of their first meeting, Pasternak was already a renowned poet and, being proficient in several languages, he also made a respectable income from translations of contemporary popular literature from other countries.
The idea of writing a great Russian novel appealed to Pasternak, and while he tinkered structurally with his masterpiece Doctor Zhivago from as early as the 1930s, he would ultimately spend almost two decades completing the book. And author Anna Pasternak, great niece of Boris, is unambiguous about the fact that it was because of Olga that he finished the novel at all.
Though Doctor Zhivago is a timeless story of true and enduring love, and despite Boris being (or claiming to be, at any rate) a moral man, he went through two wives before finding—and keeping—Olga. He married Evgenia Lurie in 1922 and sired one son by her, Evgeny. Less than a decade later, he fell in love with Zinaida Neigaus, wife of his best friend. Boris and Zinaida divorced their respective spouses, married, and also produced a son, Leonid. Then, just over a decade later, he met and fell in love with Olga Ivinskaya, a twice-widowed woman with two children! He was 56 and she was 34 years old. This time, Boris’s wife would not divorce him, so he openly maintained relationships with both wife and mistress.
Pasternak was certainly a romantic, but he was not steadfast in his love. It is likely thanks to the various women in his life that he was able to create the great, idealized heroine of Lara in Doctor Zhivago. Anna Pasternak tells us that, “The seeds for Lara’s character were sown by his meeting Zinaida, but when Boris later fell for Olga Ivinskaya, it was she who fully embodied as a living archetype his Lara.”
Boris Pasternak lived first under a Lenin regime that subsequently gave way to a Stalin regime. Neither environment was propitious for artistic freedom and individual thinkers. Thus, Doctor Zhivago was produced under the worst conditions possible, and it is a testament of Olga’s devotion to the man and his work that she even went to prison for him and suffered all manner of torture and maltreatment. “Olga Ivinskaya paid an enormous price for loving ‘her Boria.’ She became a pawn in a highly political game. Her story is one of unimaginable courage, loyalty, suffering, tragedy, drama and loss.”
Anna Pasternak tells a formidable story. I come away with more feeling for Olga than Boris—more admiration for muse than artist. Lara: The Untold Love Story and Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago is well-researched and written beautifully. Particularly poignant is the death of Boris and the unfulfilled yearning of Olga to be his legitimate wife. The greatest service Ms. Pasternak does for readers is to provide a context for the creation of what is regarded as one of the greatest Russian novels of all time: a context in which the fiction of Yuri Zhivago and Lara Antipova is created from real-time events in the lives of Boris Pasternak and Olga Ivinskaya.
The idea of writing a great Russian novel appealed to Pasternak, and while he tinkered structurally with his masterpiece Doctor Zhivago from as early as the 1930s, he would ultimately spend almost two decades completing the book. And author Anna Pasternak, great niece of Boris, is unambiguous about the fact that it was because of Olga that he finished the novel at all.
Though Doctor Zhivago is a timeless story of true and enduring love, and despite Boris being (or claiming to be, at any rate) a moral man, he went through two wives before finding—and keeping—Olga. He married Evgenia Lurie in 1922 and sired one son by her, Evgeny. Less than a decade later, he fell in love with Zinaida Neigaus, wife of his best friend. Boris and Zinaida divorced their respective spouses, married, and also produced a son, Leonid. Then, just over a decade later, he met and fell in love with Olga Ivinskaya, a twice-widowed woman with two children! He was 56 and she was 34 years old. This time, Boris’s wife would not divorce him, so he openly maintained relationships with both wife and mistress.
Pasternak was certainly a romantic, but he was not steadfast in his love. It is likely thanks to the various women in his life that he was able to create the great, idealized heroine of Lara in Doctor Zhivago. Anna Pasternak tells us that, “The seeds for Lara’s character were sown by his meeting Zinaida, but when Boris later fell for Olga Ivinskaya, it was she who fully embodied as a living archetype his Lara.”
Boris Pasternak lived first under a Lenin regime that subsequently gave way to a Stalin regime. Neither environment was propitious for artistic freedom and individual thinkers. Thus, Doctor Zhivago was produced under the worst conditions possible, and it is a testament of Olga’s devotion to the man and his work that she even went to prison for him and suffered all manner of torture and maltreatment. “Olga Ivinskaya paid an enormous price for loving ‘her Boria.’ She became a pawn in a highly political game. Her story is one of unimaginable courage, loyalty, suffering, tragedy, drama and loss.”
Anna Pasternak tells a formidable story. I come away with more feeling for Olga than Boris—more admiration for muse than artist. Lara: The Untold Love Story and Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago is well-researched and written beautifully. Particularly poignant is the death of Boris and the unfulfilled yearning of Olga to be his legitimate wife. The greatest service Ms. Pasternak does for readers is to provide a context for the creation of what is regarded as one of the greatest Russian novels of all time: a context in which the fiction of Yuri Zhivago and Lara Antipova is created from real-time events in the lives of Boris Pasternak and Olga Ivinskaya.
April 13, 2020
I have watched the movie Doctor Zhivago many times and was fascinated by the scope that it presented of Russia before, during, and after the communist revolution and takeover of the Russian government. When I spotted this book, Lara: The Untold Love Story and the Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago by Anna Pasternak, I was immediately intrigued. The author is the Grand Niece of Boris Pasternak, one of the most popular of Russian poets and author of the novel Doctor Zhivago. That work was his passion even though he knew it would not be published in Russia because it did not portray the revolution and the communist leadership in a good light. The most interesting thing about this book to me was the massive changes to Russian life by forcing socialist policies of the population. The state takes ownership of all property, all agriculture is collectivized so that former owners became serfs working their same land for the benefit of the state. These are all common knowledge but the life of Boris Pasternack fairly parallels the story in his novel where the Zhivago character resembles what happened to the author. He is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature but is forced to decline it by Stalin's soviet government. People around him are followed, interrogated, and even imprisoned for their association with him. If you liked Doctor Zhivago, movie or book, you will find this fascinating. And if you are not familiar with Doctor Zhivago, you should be.
January 30, 2019
I would not call this a love story. To me, it was a horror story about four women victimized by a self-centered, vain, arrogant man in an oppressive, cruel society.
This is a very well written book that is easy to read about some weighty subjects. The author gives a very honest portrayal of her ancestor, warts and all, concentrating on the relationship with his mistress, Olga. The lengths this woman went to for Boris Pasternak, including being imprisoned twice and forced to miscarry his child while being shut out by his family is unbelievable. I appreciate that the author told the story in chronological order to make it easier to follow.
The book is also a good insight into the artistic genius that can be lost because of tyranical government forces who see art as a threat to their domination. It gives us a glimpse into Russia under Stalin and Krushchev that should serve as a warning about corruption and power.
Well worth the read.
This is a very well written book that is easy to read about some weighty subjects. The author gives a very honest portrayal of her ancestor, warts and all, concentrating on the relationship with his mistress, Olga. The lengths this woman went to for Boris Pasternak, including being imprisoned twice and forced to miscarry his child while being shut out by his family is unbelievable. I appreciate that the author told the story in chronological order to make it easier to follow.
The book is also a good insight into the artistic genius that can be lost because of tyranical government forces who see art as a threat to their domination. It gives us a glimpse into Russia under Stalin and Krushchev that should serve as a warning about corruption and power.
Well worth the read.
October 1, 2021
If you wish to read about an enduring love between two star-crossed lovers the world kept apart, skip this one. But if you wish to know more about a self-absorbed writer who found his greatest (though definitely not only -. as the book might want you to believe) inspiration in a much younger woman who actually showed him devotion over even her own life, this is a very, very interesting book. None of the people involved in it come out looking pretty and neat - but then that is life. Especially a life in the USSR when you dare to write something that goes against every societal norm. And love, love too is rarely pure or fair. It can still be what saves you and leaves a permanent trace on the world. This whole convoluted "review" could also just say: I found this book interesting and I want to re-read Doctor Zhivago now.
January 27, 2020
I recently read Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. I then found this biography of his friend, lover and muse. She was also a poet and translator as was Pasternak. Her name was Olga Ivinskaya. She was known as Lara in Pasternak’s semi-autobiographical novel Dr. Zhivago. This fascinating non-fiction account of Olga’s life also tells of Pasternak’s life. It is written by Pasternak’s great niece Anna Pasternak. The Russian government, headed by Stalin, banned Dr. Zhivago. Stalin did not imprison or kill Pasternak for his views. He was too famous and there would have been an international outcry.
Instead they arrested Olga and interrogated her for years in the Siberian
gulag. She was released and spent more years with Pasternak. After he died they arrested both her and her daughter.
This is women’s history at its best. I recommend it.
.
Instead they arrested Olga and interrogated her for years in the Siberian
gulag. She was released and spent more years with Pasternak. After he died they arrested both her and her daughter.
This is women’s history at its best. I recommend it.
.
February 11, 2021
A nuanced and revealing biography of Boris Pasternak, author of Doctor Zhivago. Hardly a sympathetic character, nonetheless, he comes across as fully human,if flawed. It also contextualizes the creation of Doctor Zhivago, increasing its significance and value.
March 15, 2018
Very well written, engaging and exciting.
July 27, 2018
Good back story on the author of Dr. Zhivago and how Russia was being run at that time
Had to read it for my name sake. Now I will have to read Dr. Zhivago.
Had to read it for my name sake. Now I will have to read Dr. Zhivago.
December 1, 2018
A must read for all Doctor Zhivago fans. How sad that Soviet Russia was what it was and Russia is again.
November 12, 2024
Interesting story of the political world and Pasternak's romance.
January 6, 2022
Well told non-fiction. I was fascinated by this story of a real life romance and the side history of Boris Pasternak’s life and writing, publication, and fallout regarding Dr. Zhivago. The book contained many letters and historical elements.
November 3, 2016
As the story of 'Doctor Zhivago' is set in both pre and post-revolutionary Russia I just assumed that it had been written prior to the Second World War – or the Great Patriotic War as it was, and still is, known in the Soviet Union/Russia. I said an assumption because it has the feel of a story that was written in a time, and about a time, where all was uncertainty, the future was unknown in a way that capitalist 'certainty' is not. There's a too great an assumption that revolutions just take place and then, for some bizarre reason, society should return back to what was 'normal'. However, that's not what true revolutions of the kind that took place in late 1917 are like.
It seems that Pasternak had the germ of the idea in the mid-thirties but nothing really developed until the late forties, the finished novel eventually being published 1957. These are important facts to remember when considering the novel, the subsequent film (which many more people would have seen, especially in the west, than had read the book), Pasternak himself, or his so-called muse, Olga Ivanskaya.
The reason for this is the second most traumatic to have effected the population of the country that was known for the majority of the 20th century as the Soviet Union, and that was the hugely destructive war which followed the invasion of the Nazis and the subsequent struggle of the Soviet people to rid the world of the fascist scourge.
This event is totally absent from both the novel and this book which describes the period when Pasternak actually got down to putting words on the page and finishing the novel over a period of about ten years.
Pasternak and Ivanskaya meet in Moscow in 1946 and you wouldn't have thought that huge swathes of the Soviet capital had been destroyed in the battles of a few years before and they both seem to live in a protected and privileged bubble. There are complaints about the housing conditions but there were those in Britain at the time and that island didn't suffer a fraction of the destruction – both in material and human terms – as did the Soviet Union.
This self obsession, which is the theme of the novel as well as this book, in a world that is in chaos due to social change and war, is what divides people when the story of Lara and Yuri is under discussion.
Not only are the individuals seen as victims all the time they are never considered as active players in an evolving story. With Pasternak and Ivanskaya everything is OK as long as Pasternak lives his privileged life as an internationally prominent intellectual and there is plenty to go around so that he can keep two households going at the same time. At such times there is no concern for the rest of the population as such privilege is seen, in some senses, to be a right.
The second of these households is that of Pasternak's wife and why she stayed with him (apart from financial gain) is something of a surprise. He seems to have been incredibly selfish and one of those persons who wanted his cake and still to eat it. I must admit that I found the second half of this book difficult for that very reason. I didn't enjoy being in the company of such an arrogant, self server.
It's a long time since I've either seen the film or read the book, after going through this 'explanation' of the genesis of the novel I would probably consider his hero and heroine with much more contempt than I would have done in my youth.
In capitalist societies artists are encouraged to centre their art around themselves, this fitting in with the selfish and individualistic aspect of the system. However, in societies where the collective holds greater sway a relationship with society in general, its problems and struggles, is placed in the forefront. Pasternak was writing at a time when his world view was still heavily influenced by the old exploitative system into which he was born and his selfish and individualistic ideas can be seen in his lifestyle in post-war Moscow as well as in his most famous work.
It seems that Pasternak had the germ of the idea in the mid-thirties but nothing really developed until the late forties, the finished novel eventually being published 1957. These are important facts to remember when considering the novel, the subsequent film (which many more people would have seen, especially in the west, than had read the book), Pasternak himself, or his so-called muse, Olga Ivanskaya.
The reason for this is the second most traumatic to have effected the population of the country that was known for the majority of the 20th century as the Soviet Union, and that was the hugely destructive war which followed the invasion of the Nazis and the subsequent struggle of the Soviet people to rid the world of the fascist scourge.
This event is totally absent from both the novel and this book which describes the period when Pasternak actually got down to putting words on the page and finishing the novel over a period of about ten years.
Pasternak and Ivanskaya meet in Moscow in 1946 and you wouldn't have thought that huge swathes of the Soviet capital had been destroyed in the battles of a few years before and they both seem to live in a protected and privileged bubble. There are complaints about the housing conditions but there were those in Britain at the time and that island didn't suffer a fraction of the destruction – both in material and human terms – as did the Soviet Union.
This self obsession, which is the theme of the novel as well as this book, in a world that is in chaos due to social change and war, is what divides people when the story of Lara and Yuri is under discussion.
Not only are the individuals seen as victims all the time they are never considered as active players in an evolving story. With Pasternak and Ivanskaya everything is OK as long as Pasternak lives his privileged life as an internationally prominent intellectual and there is plenty to go around so that he can keep two households going at the same time. At such times there is no concern for the rest of the population as such privilege is seen, in some senses, to be a right.
The second of these households is that of Pasternak's wife and why she stayed with him (apart from financial gain) is something of a surprise. He seems to have been incredibly selfish and one of those persons who wanted his cake and still to eat it. I must admit that I found the second half of this book difficult for that very reason. I didn't enjoy being in the company of such an arrogant, self server.
It's a long time since I've either seen the film or read the book, after going through this 'explanation' of the genesis of the novel I would probably consider his hero and heroine with much more contempt than I would have done in my youth.
In capitalist societies artists are encouraged to centre their art around themselves, this fitting in with the selfish and individualistic aspect of the system. However, in societies where the collective holds greater sway a relationship with society in general, its problems and struggles, is placed in the forefront. Pasternak was writing at a time when his world view was still heavily influenced by the old exploitative system into which he was born and his selfish and individualistic ideas can be seen in his lifestyle in post-war Moscow as well as in his most famous work.
September 6, 2020
Very interesting. I think the translation may have been a little "clunky" at times, but the true story of Bori Pasternak and his lover and mistress, Olga, who was the genesis of his fictional Lara, is fascinating. But I can clearly see that "Dr. Zhivago" is not to be read as closely paralleling Boris Pasternak's life story. And woe betide anyone who anticipates the film version of "Dr. Zhivago" to closely match Boris and Olga's reality. No one will mistake Oscar for Julie Christie. But she was a strong, loving, earnest, devoted, and beautiful woman, willing to suffer greatly for her love - the true love of her life, Boris. Pasternak's devotion to his artistry and to his homeland is emphasized. He was not trying to be a political writer, but, of course, the USSR hounded him as such. For him, his poetry and his fiction were art - and expressions (especially "Dr. Z") of love. But Pasternak's flaws and weaknesses are also emphasized. Unfaithful to two wives and claiming that Olga was his true soul mate, he refused to leave his second wife for her - and it can easily be argued that his insistence the mythical, mystical power of his and Olga's love might have been tainted by selfishness. Olga served many years in the brutal labor camps of the gulag, both during Pastrnak's life and afterwards, under Stalin and Krushchev. Even her daughter (who was not Pasternak's daughter) served a sentence. And their "crimes" were no more than association with Pasternak, who was hounded for years by the KGB, the party, the Soviet goons - but never sentenced to the horror that they suffered.
February 10, 2020
Quite one of the most moving books I have read. It details one man's obsession, and one woman's loyalty and the depth of love that one people can have for each other. As with all artistic geniuses Boris had a story in his heart that just had to be told. Restless in his private life marriage left him not really satiated with life until he met his muse and soon to be model Olga. Theirs became a story in itself that was not very different from his creation in his heart that was to be Doctor Zhivago. As with most Russian tragedies theirs was a story of almost insurmountable obstacles and intense sacrifice; all this under the shadow of an iron gloved totalitarian state. Defying the paranoid interpretations of the state machine the story, after many years, was published outside of Russia thus automatically turning Boris and Olga into pariahs. It says much that the state sought revenge by attacking those dearest to the author, even after his death , in an attempt to stifle the publication first, then save face by referred blame afterwards. Kruschev's comments are particularly insightful.The book is well written, well researched and the author's style puts you right there. Five really deserved stars and a worthy addition to any bookshelf.
February 26, 2017
A very thorough exploration of the relationship between Boris Pasternak and his two wives, several children, and the love of his life, Olga - the person romantically portrayed as Lara in Pasternak's Noble Prize winning novel DOCTOR ZHIVAGO. Like Lara, Olga spent several years in Siberia because of her relationship with her lover - a poet who brings the wrath of the Soviet leadership down upon them. Ironically, Stalin's love of Pasternak's poetry about the Soviet Republic of Georgia kept Boris fairly safe, but the secret police took revenge by persecuting Olga, both before and after Boris' death. The book is written by a grand niece of Boris Pasternak. Her access to family sources makes the story very interesting. I plan to give my sister a copy. She and I loved the book - and, of course, the movie.
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