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Would like suggestions for Russian literature

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AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#1: Nov 1st 2011 at 3:53:01 PM

Okay, so I've decided I'm going try and start reading some Russian literature. Like the title says. (You can partially blame Hetalia for this. <.<)

But I'm not quite sure where it would be a good place to start. Does anyone here have any favorites they would suggest?

Yuanchosaan antic disposition from Australia Since: Jan, 2010
antic disposition
#2: Nov 1st 2011 at 4:46:31 PM

The Master And Margarita, and anything by Nabokov. Pale Fire, Bend Sinister and Lolita are all great, but they aren't particularly easy reads. I started with Lolita, Nabokov wise.

"Doctor Who means never having to say you're kidding." - Bocaj
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#3: Nov 1st 2011 at 6:48:37 PM

I've heard that Nabokov is pretty hard to get into. That first suggestion sounds kind of trippy.

Fancolors I draw stuff. from Land of the Mamelucos Since: Nov, 2010
I draw stuff.
#4: Nov 1st 2011 at 7:11:52 PM

Chekov and Tolstoi/Tolstoy/whatever-spelling-you-prefer are personal favorites of mine. I liked Dostoyevsky too, but I haven't read anything other than The Idiot.

Jordan Azor Ahai from Westeros Since: Jan, 2001
Azor Ahai
#5: Nov 1st 2011 at 7:19:14 PM

I'd recommend Eugene Onegin by Pushkin and pretty much anything by Gogol.

Hodor
DoktorvonEurotrash Lex et Veritas from Not a place of honour (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#6: Nov 2nd 2011 at 3:10:05 AM

I can recommend The Idiot by Dostoyevsky. It's excellent.

edited 2nd Nov '11 3:10:12 AM by DoktorvonEurotrash

whataboutme -_- from strange land, far away. Since: May, 2010
-_-
#7: Nov 3rd 2011 at 1:42:58 AM

I hear Dostoyevsky's good, though I haven't read anything by him yet. Also, if you're into mild sci-fi I could recommend Alexander Belyayev. His works are very hard to find in other languages though.

edited 3rd Nov '11 1:43:25 AM by whataboutme

Please don't feed the trolls!
AnEditor Since: Sep, 2011
#8: Nov 3rd 2011 at 1:38:18 PM

Seconding Lolita. Dostoyevsky is good, although I actually found him harder to get into than Nabokov. I don't mean he was harder to understand, I mean Nabokov caught my interest more easily.

The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they're going to be when you kill them.
C0mraid from Here and there Since: Aug, 2010
#9: Nov 4th 2011 at 3:10:53 PM

A Hero of Our Time by Lermontov is the best I've read that hasn't already been mentioned in this thread.

Am I a good man or a bad man?
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#10: Nov 4th 2011 at 8:13:22 PM

Thanks for the suggestions! I was really concerned I'd get like, no answers. <.< Which has happened to me before. I'm going with The Idiot first on account of that being the one I was able to find in the bookstore. I'm going to have to remember the rest for later.

AmusedTroperGuy Since: Sep, 2010
#11: Nov 5th 2011 at 3:56:01 PM

All the mentioned above, plus Nikolai Gogol.

MilosStefanovic Decemberist from White City, Ruritania Since: Oct, 2010
Decemberist
#12: Nov 6th 2011 at 3:19:48 AM

Chekhov is entertaining and pretty easy to read.

The sin of silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Apparition in the Woods
#13: Nov 7th 2011 at 1:41:59 PM

Seconding Gogol, and furthering the Nabakov love. I recommend the short stories of both, especially the latter's "The Vane Sisters". Seriously, that last paragraph, once you get it...

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
Hatshepsut from New York Since: Jan, 2011
#14: Nov 7th 2011 at 6:17:20 PM

Ivan Turgenev seems to be incredibly famous in Russia, not so much in the USA, so far as I can tell. Hated by contemporary radicals, hated by contemporary conservatives, love-hate relationship with Dostoevski (who includes a parody of him as a character in Demons), I would suggest Fathers and Sons or Diary of a Superfluous Man as being the two things of his I have read.

Most of the other stuff mentioned here I have also enjoyed, so I had to dig around for something original.

honorius from The Netherlands Since: Jun, 2010
#15: Nov 10th 2011 at 1:51:57 AM

Moscow-Petushki by Venedict Yerofeyev.

It's an insane stream-of-consciousness by a drunk guy, with a lot of instructions for probably dangerous cocktails.

And there is a Chevengur by Andrei Platonov which is a pretty good and hilarious description of the Russian civil war.

If any question why we died/ Tell them, because our fathers lied -Rudyard Kipling
RalphCrown Short Hair from Next Door to Nowhere Since: Oct, 2010
Short Hair
#16: Nov 11th 2011 at 4:42:36 PM

Anyone but Mikhail Sholokhov! Anyone but Mikhail Sholokhov! Anyone but Mikhail Sholokhov!

Under World. It rocks!
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#17: Nov 11th 2011 at 6:56:26 PM

[up]Why all the hate for that guy?

dwarfstar Since: May, 2011
#18: Nov 12th 2011 at 2:17:09 PM

I will be the umpteenth person to suggest Nabokov, because he's really good and doesn't get enough attention for his books that aren't Lolita. My favorite from him is Ada or Ardor.

your constant harassment of the female gender makes me sick
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