17 April 2008

Summer Reading List

The semester draws ever nearer to its end, and I look more and more fondly towards the summer, when I'll have time (y'know, not counting my forty-hour-workweek) when I'll be able to do some serious reading. Here's what I have so far- let me know if you have any suggestions.

Anton Chekhov Short Stories

Boris Chicherin Liberty, Equality, & The Market

Mikhail Bakunin The Basic Bakunin: Writings 1869-1871

Vissarion Belinsky Selected Philosophical Works

Aleksandr Blok Selected Poems

Mikhail Bulgakov The Master and the Margarita

Ivan Bunin The Dark Avenue

Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karamazov*
Crime and Punishment
Notes from Underground

Orlando Figes Natasha's Dance

Nikolai Gogol
The Overcoat
Dead Souls

Maxim Gorky Children of the Sun

Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure*

Alexander Herzen My Past and Thoughts

Aleksey Khomyakov Whatever I can find!

Ivan Kireevsky Whatever I can find!

Osip Mandelstam The Noise of Time: Selected Prose

Vladimir Mayakovsky The Bedbug and Selected Poetry

Vladimir Nabokov Lolita

Boris Pasternak Dr. Zhivago

Richard Pipes
Russian Conservatism and Its Critics
Karamzin's Memoir on Ancient and Modern Russia: A Translation and Analysis

Andrey Platonov The Foundation Pit

Aleksandr Radishchev Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow

Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
The History of a Town
The Golovylov Family

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Leo Tolstoy War and Peace

*works I plan to reread

6 comments:

The Reactionary Epicurean said...

I'd add "Darkness at Noon" by Arthur Koestler for the full Russian experience.

Tristyn Bloom said...

Wow, you recommended a polymath, I'm shocked.

I guess I should also read something relevant, like Nietzsche. Any good starting points?

Wandering Americain said...

Well, as long as you're reading Russians, you might want to give Pushkin a shot too...

Particularly since, according to the times, failing to do so can get you dumped:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/books/review/Donadio-t.html

Eve said...

Oy, I'd say ANNA KARENINA not W&P--but then... I would.

For Nietzsche, it depends on your temperament and the questions you're trying to answer. I got a lot out of THE GENEALOGY OF MORALS very early on, and also think it's one of his most profound works, so there's that. BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL is easy and fun. THE GAY SCIENCE is hilarious. ZARATHUSTRA I'd recommend after you've read a couple of the others. I love it with a foolish love, but you need to be willing to treat it like a lover, and interpret it according to your desires and not its apparent worth.

KING LEAR. LOVE IN THE WESTERN WORLD. SABBATH'S THEATER. I don't know. Whatevs. See you in a week.

Tristyn Bloom said...

Eeh I read the Bronze Horseman (in English, and some of the Russian, although my Russian isn't really good enough for it yet); I wasn't blown away, but it's entirely possible that I let my resentment of Peter I color my interpretation.

I read Anna Karenina a while ago- enjoyed it, but not on the level I enjoy Dostoevsky. I'm reading W&P out of a sense of obligation, really, and also because Russia's perpetual identity crisis never ceases to amaze.

Thanks for the advice about Nietzsche, though; I'll definitely be looking more into it.

Wandering Americain said...

Not to stick my head into this again, but I'd would also recommend Love in the Western World... If you're looking for how to be Nietzschean without committing to postmodernity, it's definitely the place to go. Plus its extremely well written.