Discovering Russian Literature discussion

20 Greatest Russian books to read before you die!

I found this challenge also in blog. It has three sections: Novels, Short Stories, Drama and Poetry and Nonfiction.

Novels

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov
Crime and Punishmentby Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
Life of Arseniev by Ivan Bunin
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev

Short Stories, Drama and Poetry

The Four Major Plays: The Seagull / Uncle Vanya / Three Sisters / Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
The Overcoat and Other Short Stories by Nikolai Gogol
The Complete Poems by Anna Akhmatova
A Cloud in Trousers by Vladimir Mayakovsky

Nonfiction

Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick
History of the Russian Revolution by Leon Trotsky

wow.thank you for posting this list. i can't wait to get started on it.

Yes! A great list! Thanks so much :)

So many books for me to read! But this looks like one of those challenges I can REALLY finish before I die :)

Just noticed The Master and Margarita is not in the list!

I thought I was pretty well read until I joined GR. I guess in the long run that's a good thing. There weren't even book clubs when I was able to read all the time. Just the librarian telling my mother, "She's too young for those books." Times have changed . . .

hopefully Id read all these books this year.

Interesting-- what do you guys think about Nabokov's novels being on that list? I mean, since both were written in the US, and in English.

Although he wrote Lolita in English, he himself translated it into Russian. So it's a novel written in two languages. Perhaps he realized around that time, this book will never be published in Russia. I'm not sure about "Pnin", but I think it connects with Russian culture.

Amalie wrote: "Although he wrote Lolita in English, he himself translated it into Russian. So it's a novel written in two languages. Perhaps he realized around that time, this book will never be published in Russ..."

I believe "Pnin" is about a bumbling Russian emigre professor at an American University, though I haven't read it (yet).

I have a couple of them lined up for this years read. I have read Anna Karenina, Lolita and Gogol.

It was a fanatic search before I could lay my hands on Gogol. It is very hard to find Gogol where I reside. Few takers of Gogol.

I think in 20 Greatest Russian books could've added some of new, modern Russian authors. For example http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13... is very good book. It's not so popular as classical Russian books but the book of Obraztsov is amazing as well!

Nabokov is totally Russian in his sensibility, even though his command of English is astonishing for a non-native speaker. I would definitely include him.

I have read most of the novels and some of the short stories. There is a ton of Russian poetry that I would vote to include (Tsvetaeva, Fet, Blok!), although poetry in translation is always difficult.

But where is Gogol's Dead Souls? Where is The Inspector General? Or Children of the Arbat? Anything by Vasily Aksyonov? What about Afanasiev's Russian Fairy Tales?

The nonfiction choices are even quirkier. Not that I have anything against the two books listed, but there are many more good books out there. I suggest people check http://newbooksnetwork (start with the History and Russian and East European channels) for suggestions.

John wrote: "I think in 20 Greatest Russian books could've added some of new, modern Russian authors. For example http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13... is very good book. ..."

Fully agree with you. I admire this author too. And he is really cool author! I've never heard bad things about how he writes and about the genre he has chosen.

No Master and Margarita? I call B.S.