Russian Literature

This is really just a "fan page." I have enjoyed Russian literature over the years and made this page mainly for self reference. I am certainly not a scholar in this field nor do I know how to read or speak Russian.

Authors & Works I have Read

• Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales. Edited by Zenkovsky
  • The Descent of the Virgin into Hell (favorite)
  • Various others
• The Literature of Eighteenth-century Russia, Volumes I & II, edited and translated by Harold B. Segel. (Read some of these.)
  • Poor Liza. Others.
• Ivan A. Krylov (1768-1844) Statue
  • Fables (various)
• Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) Portrait
  • Dead Souls (2005)
  • Stories: The Nose, The Overcoat, Diary of a Madman
  • Regarding "The Nose," see: Nose statue stollen, nose statue found and a song inspired by The Nose!
• Alexander Herzen (1812-1870) Photo Stamp
  • Who is to Blame? (Jan 2012)
• Ivan Goncharov (1812-1891) Portrait
  • Oblomov (April 2013) A review. Goncharov's "Oblomov": A Critical Companion. The movie. The Big Lebowski?
• Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841) Portrait Wash Post travel story
  • A Hero of Our Time (2005 & July 2012) See this essay.
• Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883) Portrait
  • Fathers and Sons
• Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) Photo Grave
  • Netochka Nezvanova (9/2010)
  • Poor Folk (7/2014)
  • The House of the Dead (8/2014)
  • The Gambler (8/2014)
  • Winter's Notes on Summer Impressions (2013)
  • Notes from Underground (many times):
    • Truly Underground!
    • Ge's Last Supper
    • The Crystal Palace (Like the Colossus, it was destoried shortly after being built.)
    • The Colossus of Rhodes
  • The Double, The Eternal Husband, Bobok, Dream of a Ridiculous Man, White Nights, A Nasty Affair, A Gental Creature
  • Crime & Punishment (1982 & 2002) (Map of St Petersburg 1883)
  • The Possessed (1984) & Demons (2010)
    • Tragic Rites in Dostoevsky's The Possessed by Joyce Carol Oates
    • Every Woman Loves a Nihilist: Stavrogin and Women in Dostoyevsky's The Possessed by Nina Pelikan Straus
  • The Brothers Karamazov (1998)
  • The Idiot (1996, 2005)
    • Hans Holbein's The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb
    • On the Threshold of Representation: The Function of the Holbein Christ in The Idiot by Barbara Fister
  • The Adolescent (2010)
  • Diary of a Writer I & II: bits and pieces
• Nikolai Chernyshevsky (1828-1889)
  • What is to be Done? (7/4/08) [And that other What is to be Done? (~1980)]
• Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Portrait
  • War & Peace (Done !!! 08/28/06)
  • Anna Karenina (1995)
  • Resurrection (2003)
  • The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1984)
  • Essays: Education, Shakespeare
  • Stories: The Snow Storm, Three deaths, ...
• Nikolai Leskov (1831-1895)
  • Stores: The Steel Fea, Journey with a Nihilist,...; from collection translated by Willian Edgerton.
• Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) Photo
  • Stores: The Kiss, Ward No. 6, My Life (favorite), others.
  • Plays read:
  • Plays seen: Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard(?)
• Maxim Gorky (1868-1936)
  • Mother (9/08)
• Boris Pasternak (1890-1960)
  • Doctor Zhivago (3/12) (Also watched the movie.) Read about CIA involvement.
• Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940)
  • The Master and Margarita (6/08)
• Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966) Portrait
  • Poems of Akhmatova: Izbrannye Stikhi, translated by Kunitz & Hayward
• Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) Time cover
  • Lolita
  • Pnin
  • Invitation to a Beheading
  • Nabokov vindicated as a lepidopterist!
  • Funny Nabokov anecdote.
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) Obituary
  • One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (7/08)
• Lyudmila Petrushevskaya (b. 1938)
  • There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales (12/09)
• Fyodor Gladkov (1883-1958)
  • Cement
• Venedikt Erofeev (1938-1990)
  • Moscow to the End of the Line (1/2022)
• Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937)
  • We (2022)
• Arkady Strugatsky (1925-1991)
  • Roadside Pinic (3/2022)
• Vladimir Sorokin (1955-)
  • Day of the Oprichnik (11/2023)
• Aleksandr Skorobogatov (1963-)
  • Russian Gothic (9/2024) [Aka Sergeant Bertrand]

• Tolstoy by Henri Troyat (Very good. Highly recommended.)
• Nikolai Gogol by Nabokov (Interesting and amusing.)
• Pushkin: A Biography by Elaine Feinstein (Informative but not insightful.)
• History of Russian Literature by D.S. Mirsky (read parts)
• Dostoevsky and the Novel by Michael Holquist (Interesting, but not for the lay reader.)
• Dostoevsky and the Woman Question by Nina Pelikan Straus (read a little of)
• How the Russians read the French: Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy by Priscilla Meyer (Finished May 2012. Excellent! Highly recommened.)
• Nihilists; Russian Radicals and Revolutionaries in the Reign of Alexander II, 1855-81 by Ronald Hingley
• There is a five part series on Dostoevsky by Joseph Frank. Can't imagine when I'll find the time to read it!
  • Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849
  • Dostoevsky: The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859
  • Dostoevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860-1865
  • Dostoevsky: The Miraculous Years, 1865-1871
  • Dostoevsky: The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881
• I watched (Aug-Oct 2012) the lecture series Classics of Russian Literature by Irwin Weil. I highly recommend it!
• Literature and Revolution by Leon Trotsky, 1924. Photo

• Isaac Babel (Have his Comeplete Works.)
• Pushkin (Read parts of Eugene Onegin)
• Vassily Aksyonov (Obituary)
• Mikhail Sholokhov - Quiet Flows the Don
• etc.

• The radical politics of Russian literature's most famous English translator, Constance Garnett. NYT, June 28, 2023
• 19th-Century Russian Literature, by Professor Swensen of Brandeis University
• 19th Century Russian Literature by Paul Brians of Wash. State U.
• Dostoevsky Studies
• Old 1911 Encyclopedia article
• Slavic Review
• Russian Literature (journal)
• A book list
• International Dostoevsky Society
• A gay prospective on Russian literature
• Russia's Tsars
• Russian Art
• Great Russian Women. (No, it's not a dating site!) See:Anna Akhmatova.
• The Russian Alphabet
• Dostoevsky Research Station, by Christiaan Stange
• Dostoevsky's Pushkin Speech. Also see Google Books
• Gogol Bordello
• Copernicus Films
• Sovlit, a Soviet Literature Resource
• Review of new The Brothers Karamazov translation that doesn't understand translation issues

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