Reading the Classics discussion

Group discussion thread for Dr Zhivago (Pasternak) Week 1, Parts 1-2

The novel begins with a sense of morbid expectation with the child Yura crying over his mother's grave. I think it's clear that there is going to be loss in the book – it is set during the Revolution.

Hoping it's going to be a rich read.

Will start this today, REALLY looking forward to it.

Glad I read a recommendation to take notes of all the characters while reading!

Rhondabee wrote: "Glad I read a recommendation to take notes of all the characters while reading!"

Use the Reading Guide I linked to in the Reading Schedule post. It's loaded with resources including character and plot summaries. Obviously read the book for yourself, but the guide is an excellent resource for what's actually a pretty complicated story.

I am almost done with the first segment, just starting chapter 11. I am taking my time and reading in short bits and starts.

I would like to discuss a short passage in Chapter 6, page 9 of the recommended kindle edition.

We see from the beginning of the novel that Yuri is suffering from the death and loss of his mother. He and his uncle are at the beautiful estate of Ivan Ivanovitch. Yuri is wandering the grounds alone - -

The passage speaks of "the enchantment about the place" and describes the flutelike, three note songs of the Orioles. These sounds remind Yuri of time with his mother and her love of nature.

Pasternak writes that Yuri experienced an auditory hallucination of his mother's voice. "It seemed to him that his mother was hallooing him and calling him somewhere."

This narrative is a perceptive description of the early summer calling of songbirds in general and particularly those whose voices resonate through the forests. The passage is very beautiful and very sad I think.

In general, there is a haunting 3-dimensional quality in hearing some spring birds like woodland thrushes ( in North America), a quality that is never quite captured in sound recordings.

None the less, the bird that Yuri would have heard is Eurasian Golden Oriole · Oriolus oriolus , a bird that is distributed all over Europe. In the sound recording below, you can hear many forest birds, but the flutelike calls and 3 note songs are the Golden Oriole. The recording was made near Oder-Spree, Brandenberg, Germany.

https://www.xeno-canto.org/562251

L_Gail wrote: "I am almost done with the first segment, just starting chapter 11. I am taking my time and reading in short bits and starts.

I would like to discuss a short passage in Chapter 6, page 9 of the re..."

That was really cool, so thank you for sharing it!

I'm about 2/3rds of the way through this weeks section, so will comment tomorrow. Have had some difficulty getting into the story.

This is going to be a heavy read for sure. I read that the inspiration for Lara's character was Pasternak's mistress, a 34-year-old widow with whom he had an affair when he was 56 and married. This is the story of Yuri and Lara (even tho there seem to be hundreds of characters), and while the plot summaries didn't say so, I'm imagining Yuri is based on Pasternak himself. This seems to be a good lens through which to view the rest of the book.

I strongly suggest you take advantage of the Reader's Guide (linked in the Reading Schedule). I've been flipping back and forth between the text and the character list to keep the players straight. This is particularly helpful since everyone seems to have 3 or even 4 different names. The list helps to keep straight how the different characters relate to one another.

The other way I am using the Guide is, after completing the readings (in this case Part 1 and then Part 2), I am reading the plot summaries and analysis. This is extremely helpful, and not at all time-consuming. The first two were no more than a page of reading each.

Well, the beauty of reading for pleasure is that we can invest as much or as little as we like. There are no exams !

The central problem, in my opinion, is that we are reading a translation. There is no getting around the fact that much is lost in translation.

My impression so far is that some sections are probably reasonably close to the original but far more of it is a bit rough. We get the facts but little more. There were some sections at the end of Part 2 that just seemed to me to be a jumble of words.

None the less, as I don’t read Russian and as I am not a Russian, I am game to get out of it, what I can.

So true! I found myself saying "just read it for what it is - there is no test!!! The multiple names was the reason I stopped reading it the first time I attempted to read Doctor Zhivago. I'm glad that I'm not the only one that struggled with this!

And as Brian stated, the guide was super helpful. I initially used it for the names but the chapter synopsis was very helpful as well. I read them after I was done reading the book just to make sure I was on the same page as Boris!

I've definitely read better translations of many other books. I think this one has a reputation for being wordy/unwieldy. Somewhere in the introduction was a comment that Pasternak was a far better-regarded poet than novelist. Perhaps that explains it.

The Tolstoyan cast of characters doesn't help, or the Russian convention of multiple nicknames and diminutives. But I'm with you both: in it for what's there, and willing to push through. Let's just say I'm really grateful for that Guide!

I'm struck by the exchange between
Uncle Lol ya and his publisher in Part One (5):
"Of course one does meet brilliant men,...It is a sign of mediocrity in people when they herd together, whether their group or loyalty is to Solovyev or to Kant or to Marx. The truth is only sought by individuals, and they break with those who do not love it enough..."

Those are inflammatory statements for a writer to make during the brutally repressive Soviet regime Pasternak survived. The rest of the exchange allows Nikolay Nikolayevich to relate resistance to the gospels. (I particularly enjoyed, "There you had blood and beastliness and cruelty and pock-marked Caligulas untouched by the suspicion that any man who enslaved others is inevitably second-rate. There you had the boastful dead eternity of bronze monuments and marble columns." Oh Boy, I'll bet "pock-marked Caligulas" went over well with the Kremlin Stalinists. No wonder they refused him
permission to accept the Nobel Prize.

In Part Two(19) Lara:
"'How splendid,' she thought, listening to gun shots. 'Blessed are the downtrodden. Blessed are the deceived. God speed the bullets. They and I are of one mind.'"

Somehow these statements by two people Yura admires sets a tone.

Uncle Kolya, darn autocorrect.

Polack wrote: "I'm struck by the exchange between
Uncle Lol ya and his publisher in Part One (5):
"Of course one does meet brilliant men,...It is a sign of mediocrity in people when they herd together, whether t..."

Insightful observations. Looking forward to thoughts on the section just ending now, Parts 3-4.

Brian wrote: "Polack wrote: "I'm struck by the exchange between
Uncle Lol ya and his publisher in Part One (5):
"Of course one does meet brilliant men,...It is a sign of mediocrity in people when they herd toge..."

This observation made me smile !