Can somebody recommend some Russian literature?

[raccoon]

Just the size of War & Peace or Brothers Karamazov seems so daunting.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. War and Peace is a surprisingly easy read... like the world's best "beach" book

War and Peace ios long but the subject is so vast that it has a relative breeziness. A 100 page description of Napoleon in battle is a lot faster moving than a hundred page description of someone picking a pair of shoes, if you see what I mean.

Brothers Karamazov is daunting... wonderful but kind of disorganized. I have a fondness for The Idiot, but it's also very disorganized. (Though a tad shorter)

For shorter stuff, Gogol Dead Souls and Turgenev Fathers and Sons.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. dostoevsky

anything by him.
Leonid Andreyev They hanged seven, is riveting

Alexander Fedeyev wrote a couple of noteworthy books.

The russians a chock full of great writers, especially when they discuss humanity, the russian soul, or the sad face of communism.

[Warpy]

3. Start with something a little less dense

"Dr Zhivago" is a good one. "The Gulag Archipelago" was a great read, as I recall. That will get your feet wet as to the style of the narrative, which can be really dense and overpopulated. Once you get the hang of it, you can tackle "War and Peace."

[MicaelS]

17. "Dr Zhivago"..any idea how David Lean's film version compare

To the novel? HDNET has been showing it a couple of times this month. TCM will have it on later this month.

[JackintheGreen]

4. Solzhenitsyn wrote a lot of novellas

"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" is my favorite, but also "Cancer Ward" or "An Incident at Krechetovka Station"

If you like scifi, try Zamyatin's "We"

[Brickbat]

9. Have you read Bogdanov's "Red Star"?

Also a good one. Can't beat Bolshevik scifi.

[JackintheGreen]

10. No. I keep meaning to.

And then I get distracted or something. I'll put it on top of the queue, after I finish Miyuke Miyabe's "Brave Story."

[YOY]

5. Try the short stories of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov.

Several are wonderful.


Aslo for modern Sci-fi Sergey Lukyanenko writes some good shit.

[Brickbat]

6. Finding good translations can help.

I haven't read any of their work, but I've heard that the translation team of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is quite good, and that their version of "Anna Karenina" is definitive. It's on my list. I think they also recently finished "War and Peace," which I have read, but the translation I read was a total slog.

I second "Dr. Zhivago."

"Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Solzhenitsyn is a nice quick chop to the solar plexus. But it's a fast and important read.

There are many excellent short-story authors: Gogol, Chekhov, Nabokov. Sometimes it's easier to start with those.

[YOY]

8. Gogol rocks!

Right up there with Poe in my book. The story "V" is awesome.

[pscot]

15. Dead Souls is pretty cool

And I've been reading Chekov's stories for many years. Isaac Babel's Red Cavalry stories, and Tales of Odessa are some of the best things going.

[tigereye]

18. I love Babel - wonderful

[ixion]

7. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Day_in_the_Life_of_Ivan_Denisovich

[netania99]

11. I'm in the middle of a Russian reading spree

Some dupes of what other people have already mentioned: Nikolai Gogol has always been my favorite - "Dead Souls," any of the short stories, "The Government Inspector" (a play) - he'll make you laugh out loud if you like absurdity. I also enjoyed "A Hero of Our Time" (Lermontov)and "Oblomov" (Eugene Goncharov). Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" is a fast read, even though it's in verse. Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" ... So much good stuff!

I just started a book of short stories by a Soviet writer named Mikhail Zoshchenko ("Scenes from the Bathhouse"). I think he's going to take some getting used to (very stark).

Have fun!!

[Oregone]

12. An easy start is Crime and Punishment

Quick read, and tough to put down.

[closeupready]

13. Bulgakov's "Master and the Margarita" is supposed to be good.

I read Gogol in college, but haven't really read much other Russian literature since then.

[Orrex]

14. How about Fleming's "From Russia With Love?"

:hide:

[BlueIris]

16. Hook yourself up with anthologies of poetry by Russian poets of the Silver Age.

Some of the best writing in all of world literature is right there.