Discovering Russian Literature discussion

Thought of starting this thread. I'm currently reading Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward. I admit that reading it during the Holidays may be not the best timing but I have Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to switch back and forth. It is a very gray book, as represented by the winter and the hospital walls. I really like it so far, the text is elegant much more 19th century than 20th.

Amalie wrote: "Thought of starting this thread. I'm currently reading Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward. I admit that reading it during the Holidays may be not the best timing b..."

Keep us posted on Cancer Ward. it's on my short-list for To Read.

I'm really enjoying Petersburgin paperback and The Gambler on CD.

I am reading The Idiot. I wish I could say that I am enjoying it.

I'm reading Lolita now. I know it's probably Nabokov's most famous book, but I got into Nabokov with other less popular books, like The Eye and The Original of Laura.

Katy wrote: "I am reading The Idiot. I wish I could say that I am enjoying it."

I agree that The Idiot is not an easy read! But I do think it's a worthwhile journey, IMO.

words from people and people as pills wrote: "I'm reading Lolita now. I know it's probably Nabokov's most famous book, but I got into Nabokov with other less popular books, like The Eye and [book:The Original of Laura|..."

Loved Lolita. I also really liked the older film version.

I don't like the older (Kubrick) version because the actress playing Lolita is too old.

MountainShelby wrote: "words from people and people as pills wrote: "I'm reading Lolita now. I know it's probably Nabokov's most famous book, but I got into Nabokov with other less popular books, like [book:T..."

I love the book but not the movie (the 1997 version, I haven't seen the older one) starring Jeremy Irons. Despite the great acting and all, I find Lolita doesn't work as a film, the power of the book is in the writing and the movie tends to spice it up like a forbidden love story. The movie has transformed Humbert from the seducer into the seduced. Honestly, there are some books they should never make a movie out of, I personally believe Lolita is a such.

Me too, I am reading Lolita! I am loving it.

I'm reading Anna Karenina, the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation; I'm hoping to finish it within the next few days, since I only have a couple of hundred pages left. So far I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thanks for the info Steve. I have not read the P/V translation but would like to. I know I read the Garnett translation many years back. Good for you for completing AK--certainly an achievement.

Amalie wrote: "MountainShelby wrote: "words from people and people as pills wrote: "I'm reading Lolita now. I know it's probably Nabokov's most famous book, but I got into Nabokov with other less popu..."

A young ScarJo could have been an excellent Lolita. But I admit I am a big fan of her work.

Thanks, MountainShelby. I made a conscious effort to get the P/V translation, as opposed to the Garnett or the Maude, due to the criticisms that Garnett isn't faithful to Tolstoy's voice. I also have the P/V translations of The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment--so hopefully they truly do preserve the voices of the original authors, as I'd hate to read Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and not be able to sense a difference in their prose.

Everitt, yes, I've read that article; it was very illuminating. I had to pull it up, because I remembered there were a few other funny things Nabokov said regarding Garnett. Here was one such particularly amusing one:

"When Nabokov was working on a study of Gogol, he complained, 'I have lost a week already translating passages I need in "The Inspector General" as I can do nothing with Constance Garnett’s dry shit.'"

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005...

I just read the PV translation of Anna Karenina a couple of weeks ago, and I'm now re-reading the CG translation of it. I'm actually going back and forth between the CG on my phone and the PV book. And, I'll tell you - it's not a huge difference. There are some words translated differently, but nothing jarring. I'd say the biggest difference is that CG doesn't translate the French phrases.

If anything, the CG seems to flow a little better, but not at the expense of anything that I can see.

Other books translated by her may have suffered, but AK has not.

That is an interesting assessment. I have two versions of AK at home, both By Garnett. I must have read AK in the 1980s through the Garnett version. I didn't understand most of what I read (i.e., the political ideology), but that was no fault of the translation.

Thanks for letting us know that Katy! I read the Garnett translation like Shelby (message 19) and I liked it and yeah I've heard lesser complains about her Anna Karenina compared to other Garnett translations. But she was the It girl before P/V came along, I still give her credits, after all she is one of the first English translators who introduced Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Chekhov to the English-speaking public.

But I know what you mean. Her language is less reader friendly. Although less talked about, I also like Maude translation as well, we read several short stories with her translations and it went well.

For anyone who wants more info here you go. Check this out.

http://readrussia.com/magazine/winter...

Thanks for that link, Amalie, that was a fun read! Unfortunately, they passed over a translation of "War and Peace" that I have, and would like to know about the quality of--the one by Rosemary Edmonds. But the article has good things to say about her translation of "Anna Karenina," so I guess I'll take that as a good sign.

I'm about 150 pages into The Idiot and about to give up. I just don't like it. This is the THIRD FD book I've tried to read. (Got halfway into C&P before becoming so sick of protagonist I couldn't carry on, and not very far at all in Bros K before getting confused on all the names.)

I do not like or understand any of these people. They're awful. I want to move on and read something else.

Why is FD so popular?? This mystifies me.

Started The First Circle and "re-reading" Notes from Underground on CD.

OK, I recieved a book of Leo Tolstoy stories for Christmas. I took this as a sign to stop reading The Idiot. Just to be sure, I went and looked up the plot on Wikipedia. It is obvious that the book will not improve for me.

For the third time in my life, I am abandoning Dostoyevsky.

At least I can count on Tolstoy. He'll never let me down.

Speaking of Tolstoy, I just finished Anna Karenina, and really liked it. I didn't have a lot of experience with Tolstoy prior, but I thoroughly enjoyed his style and his characters. Though a fairly long book, it moved at a brisk pace. I'll certainly be reading War and Peace because of this experience. I just received PV's translation of The Brothers Karamazov as a gift, though, so I may tackle that next.

Yes! I loved AK. I'm not going to read W&P for a while, since I have some other things I want to read, first. But, I read his books What Is Art?and A Confessionlast month. The first Tolstoy I read was The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and today my husband gave me The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories. I'm going to read that, now that I've forgiven myself for abanding Dostoyevsky.

Very cool. I've read "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and "Master and Man," so maybe I'll finish up the "...and Other Stories" part now!

Katy wrote: "I'm about 150 pages into The Idiot and about to give up. I just don't like it. This is the THIRD FD book I've tried to read. (Got halfway into C&P before becoming so sick of protagonist I couldn't ..."

Dostoyevsky is a genius on how he puts on words the human states of mind, the thoughts, the feelings, the behaviours; he enters in the smallest details and for somebody this is perhaps boring.
The Idiot is the best book I have ever read, I love it and I love prince Mishkin. The group is going to read The Idiot, try to follow the discussion on it, perhaps you will begin to understand and appreciate the characters of this book.

For me, the power of Dostoevsky is in his understanding of the human condition in all of its darkest depths. Although his plots and characterizations are not perfect--and there is a glaring absence of "pretty writing" and a clever turn of phrase--he is the most compelling and vibrant of writers. His understanding of the dark side of the human psyche is nothing short of brilliant. His scenes of the agony of human existence have left me shaking. That being said, I do understand the challenge of reading D.--he is certainly not the most accessible of writers. David Foster Wallace wrote a very good essay on Dostoevsky which was praised by Joseph Frank, and rightfully so. Yes, I am a **huge** fan, but Dostoevsky has brought me comfort and enlightenment when no one and nothing else could.

dely wrote: Dostoyevsky is a genius on how he puts on words the human states of mind, the thoughts, the feelings, the behaviours; he enters in the smallest details and for somebody this is perhaps boring...."

You see, this is what I think Tolstoy does so well. He creates these entire personalities, and knows them better than they know themselves. He tells you what they're thinking and then tells you their unconscious motives. It's beautiful. And, I can tell that he really understands people. He somehow knows things about people that he can't know from first-hand experience, such as what it's like to die or to nurse an infant.

I guess it's not fair to compare FD to LT, but I really don't know how anybody could even name them in the same breath, except perhaps to point out how inferior FD is to LT.

I believe Nabokov felt similarly to you, Katy!

Katy wrote: "dely wrote: Dostoyevsky is a genius on how he puts on words the human states of mind, the thoughts, the feelings, the behaviours; he enters in the smallest details and for somebody this is perhaps ..."

I haven't read a lot of Tolstoj, only The Death of Ivan Ilych and haven't appreciated a lot. I have War and Peace and Resurrection but must still read them.
It depends of what we like and search in a book and Dostoyevsky goes to touch strings in me that no other writer had touched. But yes, personal tastes ;-) And I agree with what MountainShelby said.

Just read a review at latimes.com of the recently released 'Tolstoy: A Russian Life' by Rosamund Bartlett. I'm not sure if we discuss non-fiction much in this group, but this book does look good. FYI, the author also wrote a biography of Anton Chekov....

I think it's great to let everyone know about non-fiction, articles, etc.

I don't know much about biographies either. I'm currently reading White Guardby Mikhail Bulgakov. It may be not as famous as The Master and Margarita or Heart of a Dog but I like really it so far. The translator of this is Marian Schwartz. I'd recommend it.

Please let us up to date on your progress/ review! I attempted to listen to M&M on CD while commuting, but I quickly realized I needed a print version.I am not at all familiar with the others, though I should be.

I finished reading "Cancer Ward". It was amazing! A great allegorical masterpiece. It is both a deeply compassionate study of people facing terminal illness and a brilliant dissection of the 'cancerous' Soviet police state. Btw, it's not depressing. The character are more hopeful in the end in their own ways. A great read so Don't miss it!

I starting to read Rudin by Ivan Turgenev. I don't hear people talk a lot about Turgenev compared to his contemporaries. He is shadowed by Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. Too bad because I love his stories.

That's a great update--thank you!!

Thanks, Amalie--I actually just picked up Cancer Ward, and was hoping it wouldn't completely depress me. Glad to hear there's something uplifting to it.

Just finished C&P...wow, that was an experience. So many things floating around my head after reading that one; I think it will take a few days' meditation before it all really sinks in. Lots of conflicting and hazy emotions towards certain characters, not in the least Raskolnikov. 5 stars aren't enough. I'm actually leaning towards not starting "The Idiot" right away, because I want to fully savor what I read in C&P first; maybe I'll pick something else beforehand.

I took a ten year break in between reading C&P the first and second time!!

I've decided to start off 2012 by reading War and Peace. I love Tolstoy and I've been meaning to read this one for years.

War and Peace! What a book to start! I'm still "White Guard" and it's a good story. I've read both C&P and The Idiot. I'll try to join the discussion to refresh my memory.

Shanez wrote: "War and Peace! What a book to start! I'm still "White Guard" and it's a good story. I've read both C&P and The Idiot. I'll try to join the discussion to refresh my memory."

Hi Shanez:)

I must admit, I'm feeling a bit intimidated by the size of the novel, especially with the small print, but I will see it as a great achievement to finish it!

Rowena wrote: "I've decided to start off 2012 by reading War and Peace. I love Tolstoy and I've been meaning to read this one for years."

Me too! I haven't started yet but hopefully soon; it is rather intimidating.

Amelia wrote: "Rowena wrote: "I've decided to start off 2012 by reading War and Peace. I love Tolstoy and I've been meaning to read this one for years."

Me too! I haven't started yet but hopefully soon; it is r..."

Let's compare thoughts once you start on it:) There are so many people's names to remember but so far I'm enjoyin it!

Rowena, which translation do you have? I just started with the Pevear and Volokhonsky and without the character list at the beginning I would already be lost. The thing that kills me about Russian literature is that everyone has so many names! Given names, patronymics, family names, at least two nicknames, French names (in this case)...but I guess by the time you hit 1200 pages you know who everyone is :)

Hi Amelia,

That's how I read War and Peace--I just marched through it, and those who mattered filtered out, and the rest I let go. I am sure that is not the ideal way to read that book, but there was no other way for me to get through it at the time, even with a character list.

Amelia wrote: "Rowena, which translation do you have? I just started with the Pevear and Volokhonsky and without the character list at the beginning I would already be lost. The thing that kills me about Russia..."

Hi Amelia,

I have the Wordsworth Classic edition. So far so good but I agree about the confusion of Russian names, patronymics, nicknames etc!If this translation doesn't work out for me, I'll try a different one.

Well Rowena, good luck to both of us! And MountainShelby, let us know if you've got any other tips along the way!

Amelia wrote: "Rowena, which translation do you have? I just started with the Pevear and Volokhonsky and without the character list at the beginning I would already be lost. The thing that kills me about Russia..."

Amelia if you have problems with names try this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...

Even looking at it is scary :) so many characters. How come they haven't given character names in the beginning. Usually they have them.

Please Avoid the Constance Garnett translation. I hated the book after trying it once and hasn't tried W&P reading again since.

Shanez wrote: "Amelia wrote: "Rowena, which translation do you have? I just started with the Pevear and Volokhonsky and without the character list at the beginning I would already be lost. The thing that kills ..."

Wow. That is...extensive.