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
Aleksandr Blok Selected Poems
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
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:
I'd add "Darkness at Noon" by Arthur Koestler for the full Russian experience.
Wow, you recommended a polymath, I'm shocked.
I guess I should also read something relevant, like Nietzsche. Any good starting points?
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
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.
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.
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.
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