Has anyone here read Chess, by Rubén Gallego? Or White on Black? His description of life in the orphanage and the analogies he uses are really heartbreaking.
(PS: I'm reading its Spanish version)
PS2, for the delightful person who just messaged me: Yes, I can read; yes, I do know this is the Russian lit sub, and —guess what— he is, indeed, Russian.
This is a minor gripe/discussion for my first post here, and maybe I’ll say more about my personal context for my journey with Russian literature and language in a future post, but suffice it to say for this post: I have for the past several months begun a journey into really exploring Russian literature. Because of my background and current work as a PhD candidate in English, I have learned to be a bit picky about translations, viz. translation approach, apparatus/paratext, etc.
The minor gripe: so many of the translations I’ve decided to go with, which seem most enjoyable or otherwise right for me, come almost exclusively in lower quality books. I’m reading the Burgin/O’Connor translation of The Master and Margarita right now and while I am stunned by the reading experience, the paper quality in the only in-print version from Overlook Press is noticeably worse than many other edition lines (even Penguin Classics black spines hold up a bit better). This is less an issue of being a snob and more an issue of my pencil almost punching a hole through the page once or twice!
Has anyone else noticed this? I assume the explanation is maybe obvious—presses pay for the quality of the translation at the expense of the physical object—but all the same, it bugs me. Not a deal breaker, but one of those idle complaints I needed to put somewhere.
I'm just starting to explore Russian literature, and I'm already surprised by how relevant many of its themes still feel today
Hello, could anyone who speaks Russian translate what Anna says at around 1:26:00 in the 1997 adaptation (when shes talking to the doll)? Thank you so much in advance
I picked up Red Pyramid and Blue Lard on a whim for the summer NYRB sale. I know nothing about him. Any thoughts on him as a writer?
My first Dostoiévski book. I like read Nietzche a lot.
Hey everyone!
I've been a big lurker here for a few months as last year I somehow became obsessed with 19th Century Russian Lit. I have devoured everything I can from what I usually call the "BIG 6" of: Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Chekhov.
I'm wondering if you all could recommend your favorite works from Russian authors that are not on this list!? And I'd prefer to stick to pre-1917 revolution, if possible. Thanks everyone, I'm really looking forward to hearing some recs!!
Esteemed readers, exhausted moderators, and habitual recommendation-seekers, June's Monthly Megathread received over 3,200 views but only had 11 comments... A most curious ratio. If you are reading this, comment below. Reading Russian literature? Comment below. Not reading Russian literature? Comment below. Read a magazine in a waiting room and thought, "Well, that counts"? FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, COMMENT BELOW BEFORE THE BABA YAGA FLIES INTO A RAGE AND DELETES MY PROGRAM!
Now go on. Contribute to the grand chronicle of readership. This transmission will repeat next month, whether by steam, ink, or unseen electric impulse ^((unless I'm deleted...))
What do you think about Maxim Gorky? He was 6'4 tall and a favorite of Stalin well until he suddenly died one year after his son's death in 1936, maybe he was poisoned? Who knows. Listened to some of his short such as One Autumn Night and The Green Kitten and liked them. He looks like a chill guy.
From the few works of his that I've read, Gorky reminds me my favorite Russian author aka Ivan Turgenev because he's not soul searching and chaotic like Dostoevsky and yearning for spiritual guidance such as Tolstoy. Gorky keeps religion out of his writings I think.
I want to start reading him like I did with Turgenev. There are other Russian authors apart from Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. What do you think about Gorky and his works?
Overall my favorites are: Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, maybe Maxim Gorky is the next?
Recently I came across a short story book for children. The book had stories from Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde and Chekhov among others. While the book is well intentioned, the choice of stories left me disappointed. The book had the story The Huntsman by Chekhov, surely not the appropriate choice. That has left me thinking, if I had to choose one Chekhov story for a 10-13 yr old, which one would it be?
I commissioned Cattle Abduction Bookbinding to make me a copy of The Pale Horse. Though it turned out good, so thought I'd share.
please feel free to remove if this isn't welcome!
I built a small, free site for reading public-domain books (magicbookshelf.org). I just added The Brothers Karamazov and Crime & Punishment.
The reason I'm posting it here: when I first tried reading Karamazov, it was really difficult for me to keep up with everything.
Karamazov is the book where everyone gets lost in the names. Alexey / Alyosha / Alyoshka, Dmitri / Mitya, Fyodor Pavlovitch, Smerdyakov, two different Ivanovnas. The usual fix is to keep a wiki or a character list open, but those spoil everything that happens later.
I also felt like while these classics are free, I was not sufficiently hapy with the current ways to read to them.
So the reader comes with a companion I call the Margin: a guide to the people, places, and ideas in each book that only ever shows what you'd know at your current point.
For example.. Alyosha's entry while you're in chapter 3 and you get who he is by chapter 3, with nothing about his later arc.
A few notes:
Read it here: https://magicbookshelf.org/read/the-brothers-karamazov/
The Margin companion: https://magicbookshelf.org/margin/the-brothers-karamazov/
Some screenshots: https://preview.redd.it/vpf27x6wx9ah1.png?width=1206&format=png&auto=webp&s=52f8b4399073648daad7654b7972a98308882180
Подскажите хороших и интересных книг в жанре психологического романа, ну либо просто по психологии или философии.
Заранее, благодарю ✨
Hi all,
I wanted to share something with you that I’m hoping you just might enjoy.
A few years ago my wife moved away from Moscow, and one of the things she misses most is being surrounded by Russian culture and literature. This led to a small personal project for her, which has gradually evolved into an app called Dead Souls Daily.
The idea is simple: a daily quote from Russian literature, delivered through the app itself or directly to your home and lock screens via widgets.
What I thought would be a straightforward project ended up becoming surprisingly complex. Authenticating quotations was often more difficult than building the software. The same quote would appear attributed to different authors, translations varied significantly, and occasionally the same phrase would appear in multiple works. I spent a great deal of time comparing editions, translations, and sources in an effort to make the collection as reliable as possible.
The app is free to use, contains no advertising, and includes quotes from many of the major Russian literary classics. There are also themed selections for particular days and occasions, which has become one of my favourite aspects of the project.
The iOS version is already live, and the Android version should be released in about four days once testing is complete. If anyone here would be interested in joining the Android test group, I’d be very grateful.
I suspect this subreddit contains exactly the people who will notice mistakes, challenge attributions, suggest better translations, and generally tell me what works and what doesn’t. That’s precisely the sort of feedback I’m looking for.
If you’d like to take a look, I’d genuinely welcome any feedback; positive, critical, or otherwise.
For more information:
https://deadsoulsdaily.com
