What do you think of russian literature? Do you like it? Which books did you read?
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Anonymous2008-06-07 9:32
>>1
Gogol is the single greatest prosaic in the history of literature.
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Anonymous2008-06-08 3:48
>>1
Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Pushkin are awesome. Much better than A WHOLE FUCKING LOT of Western authors.
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Anonymous2008-06-08 10:07
>>3
I would exclude Pushkin, because he's a poet, and great poetry rarely translates well. I wonder if anybody good ever translated Pushkin at least into English.
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Anonymous2008-06-09 7:44
Ivan Bunin is one of my favourite.
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Anonymous2008-06-09 11:35
While I disagree with many of his views, Dostoevsky is definitely great, The Idiot and The Gambler are amazing. But I think you need to be somewhat interested in psychology to read those, otherwise you might not get too much out of it.
I only always hear about classical Russian books though, anybody know of a few good contemporary ones?
>>4
I've heard many German translations of his works are quite excellent. Too bad I don't speak that language half as good as I would like.
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Anonymous2008-06-09 13:06
>>6
I'm from Russia. There are some realy good English tranlation of Pushkin.
>>6
>I only always hear about classical Russian books though, anybody know of a few good contemporary ones?
There are none, lol. No, seriously, not a single good book, not after the communist XX century and it's ugly nineties that followed. Wait a few years, though: time for them great Russian writers to start appearing again.
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Anonymous2008-06-10 7:19
>>8
No, I'm sure you know Mikhail Bulgakov's "Master and Margarita".
>>9 >>10
First of all, Bulgakov is by far not a contemporary author. He didn't even outlive Stalin, god damn. Then, he wasn't very good. I really don't like Master. Shit was soo trying to be Gogol, and failed soo badly. Notes of the Doctor were pretty cool, though.
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Anonymous2008-06-12 1:13
I've been on a Russian kick lately. I read Crime and Punishment on a whim, and now I'm hooked. Gone through Brothers Karamazov, War and Peace, and a collection of Checkov short stories. Just starting Dead Souls now.
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Anonymous2008-06-12 5:23
>>12
>Just starting Dead Souls now.
You're in for a perfect read, my friend. Dead Souls is the root of all Russian classical literature.
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Anonymous2008-06-12 17:22
>>11
I hate Gogol. We learned him at school. I want to vomit when I hear about Gogol. Sorry.
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Anonymous2008-06-17 15:52
i liked bulgakow, too. a rather contemporary favourite of mine is "moskwa - petushki" by wenedikt jerofejew. btw that's the german transliteration of his name, not sure on english. i want to read something older now, any recommendations where to start?
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Anonymous2008-06-18 5:43
>>14
Well, that is pretty horrible, because he's the absolute best Russia offered in literature yet. Can't you deal with yourself? I bet you don't remember shit from Taras Bulba or Dead Souls, so why not re-read them? They are absolutely amazing.
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Anonymous2008-06-18 12:48
Dostoevsky all the way. I have read Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment. Also read a little bit of Tolstoy, which was Anna Karenina. Russia literature is very good.
I don't see how anybody could willingly read TBK. It's just not good.
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Anonymous2008-06-24 2:00
@20
The book as a whole isn't great. But there are some brilliant parts. I especially liked Zosima's stories, and the meeting between Ivan and Alyosha.
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Anonymous2008-06-24 5:31
>>20
It's not as incredible as some people might say, and it's far from being his best novel, but it certainly is pretty awesome anyway.
My favourite is, err, how do they translate it into English? "The House of the Dead"... ha ha, oh dear; anyway, it's my favourite. It really is great.
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Anonymous2008-06-24 15:15
I am re-reading Leo Tolstoy's "The War and the Peace" now. It is great.
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Anonymous2008-06-25 1:01
I really liked reading Crime and Punishment, but I'm not terribly into War and Peace. I feel like I'm obligated to think it's good because of the reputation it carries, but the story doesn't interest me as much as Crime and Punishment did.
Of course, I always had weird tastes.
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Anonymous2008-06-25 4:43
>>24
I never liked Tolstoy at all. Fucker's too preachy sometimes.