Discovering Russian Literature discussion

I'm opening the thread for the nominations for August group-reading. So go ahead and nominate your favourite. If you're not sure where to start, check the bookshelf The nominations will end on July 03. Then the polling will start with your choices.

So start...Now!

I nominate... hm, it's so hard to choose lol
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Vrixton wrote: "I nominate... hm, it's so hard to choose lol
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky"

I too nominate the idiot. It's been sitting unread on my Kindle for an age. I'd love an excuse to read it.

I'm curious about this one: what do you think?

First Love and Other Stories

I nominate Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

I would like to nominate Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. It seems like an interesting book.

I will also nominate Dead Souls by Gogol. (I've already read The Idiot this year).

Death and a Penguin - Kurkov (is contemporary okay?)

Hmm, it's so hard to choose! There are so many awesome Russian books I want to read.
Well, I guess I'd like to go for One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, if you haven't previousoly read it.

I'd like to suggest Life and Fate by Vassily Grossman; it's an absolutely stunning novel, a family saga but with a huge canvas of characters set against the battle of Stalingrad in the Second World War.

Life and Fate

Seconding Life and Fate.

I'd go for Dead Souls as I have recently read it twice. It is a favorite! How about In the First Circle

I'm gonna go with my two previous nominations: Dead Souls and Eugene Onegin , as these are on my readinglist anyway. I wouldn't complain about The Possessed , either.

Also, I assume this isn't a venue for novels exclusively: the short stories of Gogol, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov are wonderful, and there are some very good, very richly-rewarding plays by Chekhov (The Seagull; The Cherry Orchard; Three Sisters), Tolstoy (The Living Corpse; The Power of Darkness), Pushkin ( The Stone Guest ), Gogol ( The Government Inspector ), Turgenev ( A Month in the Country ), and many more unmentioned.

As it might be evident, I am particularly interested in Golden-Age Realists and Romantics of Russian literature.

And I would like to pose a final question to our moderator Amalie: Are works from the Iron Curtain (i.e., Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, &c.) up for being read, even if they are not in the Russian language?

Dead Souls by Gogol

War and Peace and Eugene Onegin are my votes.

I'd like to read Solzhenitsyn too.

Dead Souls by Gogol or The Idiot by Dostoevsky

Robert wrote: "I'd go for Dead Souls as I have recently read it twice. It is a favorite! How about In the First Circle"

I second In the First Circle

Logan wrote: "Also, I assume this isn't a venue for novels exclusively: the short stories of Gogol, Tolstoy, ,..."

No, not only novels so plays and poetry are included and I love the idea of "Eugene Onegin."


Mark wrote: "Death and a Penguin - Kurkov (is contemporary okay?)"

I don't know... may be not right now. It is ok? :) But if more people are interested may be we can a "Side Read" discussion. There's a thread "Modern Russian Books and Authors" check there if more people are interested we'll see.

Had to look up Death and the Penguin, must say it intrigued me. I will be reading it soon, and am open to the Side Read discussion idea...

I pick this one!!!!! I've had it for almost a year now and haven't gotten the chance to pick it up yet. Looks good to me.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...

Dreams of My Russian Summers tells the poignant story of a boy growing up amid the harsh realities of Soviet life in the 1960s and '70s, and of his extraordinary love for an elegant Frenchwoman, Charlotte Lemonnier, who is his grandmother. Every summer he visits his grandmother in a dusty village overlooking the vast steppes. Here, during the warm evenings, they sit on Charlotte's narrow, flower-covered bacony and listen to tales from another time, another place: Paris at the turn of the century. She who used to see Proust playing tennis in Neuilly captivates the children with stories of Tsar Nicholas's visit to Paris in 1896, of the great Paris flood of 1910, of the death of French president Felix Faure in the arms of his mistress. But from Charlotte the boy also learns of a Russia he has never known, of famine and misery, of brutal injustice, of the hopeless chaos of war. He follows her as she travels by foot from Moscow half the way to Siberia; suffers with her as she tells of her husband - his grandfather - a victim of Stalin's purges; shudders as she describes her own capture by bandits, who brutalize her and left her for dead. Could all this pain and suffering really have happened to his gentle, beloved Charlotte? Mesmerized, the boy weaves Charlotte's stories into his own secret universe of memory and dream. Yet, despite all the deprivations and injustices of the Soviet world, he like many Russians still feels a strong affinity with and "an indestructible love" for his homeland.

I am new of the group and I wanted to ask how it works. Do you will make a poll to vote the book who will be read?
Because I have in my to-read list Death Souls and I would vote for this one and would do the possibile to join you.

My nomination: Resurrection by Tolstoy!!

Dorly wrote: "My nomination: Resurrection by Tolstoy!!"

Resurrection is a great novel.

The nominations are now officially closed. Thanks for all the great nominations.

Memebrs Please Read

I'd like to point out that I did not add the following nominations for the polls:

Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andreï Makine
Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov

Solzhenitsyn's "Cancer Ward" because there are already two novels included in polls; "Death and the Penguin" and "Dreams of My Russian Summers" because I felt they are more contemporary since we are still forcusing on the earlier classics. I also focused on the seconed works.

As for ideas of Group-reads on plays and Side Read discussions on more contemporary novels, I'll start a thread so all of you can decide together. That means I did not add plays as well to the polls although I said "yes" earlier. Sorry. :)

As for the question about works from the 'Iron Curtain' writers- I don't know- I guess it'll depend on the members choice. I guess that's up for discussion too.
Amalie.

I am relatively new to the group but I'm not sure I totally understand the guidelines for nominations; no contemporary novels or plays? Isn't "One Day in the Life.." contemporary? Do we mean by "contempoary" that is has been published very recently (Solzhenitsyn wrote during my lifetime, so I guess I'm a contemporary of his?)...it seems a bit odd, but perhaps I'm just getting the hang of it.

Michael wrote: "I am relatively new to the group but I'm not sure I totally understand the guidelines for nominations; no contemporary novels or plays? Isn't "One Day in the Life.." contemporary? Do we mean by ..."

Well basically this group's focus is on Russain classics so 'contemporary' means as contemporary as "Death and the Penguin", prose, poetry or plays since we got so many to read prior to these ones, I thought it's the best way to go, don't you think?

As for plays, perhaps we can do group-reads between months where we do regular reading... h'm... I don't know, I guess it's up for the members to decide.

I'm all up for short reads with plays or stories or something.

Amalie wrote: "The nominations are now officially closed. Thanks for all the great nominations.

Memebrs Please Read

I'd like to point out that I did not add the following nominations for the polls:

[b..."
Just a note re 'contemporary' -- "Master & Margarita" was completed c. 1940 & "Day in the Life of..." published in 1962. While there are only 22 years separating these events, it's been 49 years since "Day in the Life of..." was published. This point reminds me of the bit of shock I always experience when TMC airs a movie from the 70's or early 80's -- at what point does something slip out of 'contemporary' and into 'classic'? Also, if M.B. had lived to the ripe age of 89 as did A.S., he would have died c. 1980. So many perspectives to consider when pondering classic vs. contemporary.