mccheese's "Best Books in Russian Literature"

Add to my lists | Print this list

This is not "my" definitive list yet. Most of the 20th century is missing, but it’s a good start. This is the best order I can do for now – How can Onegin be third and not first, but then how can Margarita be lowered? It’s so impossible!

  1. 1.
    The Master and Margarita
    by Mikhail Bulgakov

  2. 2.
    The Brothers Karamazov (Vintage Classics)
    by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  3. 3.
    Eugene Onegin (Penguin Classics)
    by Alexander Pushkin

  4. 4.
    The Idiot
    by Fyodor Dostoevsky

  5. 5.
    Crime and Punishment (Penguin Classics)
    by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  6. 6.
    Dead Souls (Everyman's Library)
    by Nikolai Gogol

  7. 7.
    ?
    Faithful Ruslan: The Story of a Guard Dog
    by Georgii Nikolaevich Vladimov

  8. 8.
    Fathers and Sons
    by Ivan Turgenev

  9. 9.
    The White Guard
    by Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov

  10. 10.
    Anna Karenina (Barnes & Noble Classics)
    by Leo Tolstoy

  11. 11.
    Dr. Zhivago
    by Boris Pasternak

  12. 12.
    We
    by Yevgeny Zamyatin

  13. 13.
    ?
    The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin
    by Vladimar Voinovich

  14. 14.
    Notes from Underground
    by Fyodor Dostoevsky

  15. 15.
    Lolita (Everyman's Library Classics)
    by Vladimir Nabokov

  16. 16.
    A School for Fools
    by Sasha Sokolov

  17. 17.
    Envy (New York Review Books Classics)
    by Yuri Olesha

This is mccheese's list. Only mccheese can edit it. You can make your own version of this list.
Created by mccheese on May 26, 2006.
 

Comments

I gotta vote for... — 4 years ago

Cool list. I just discovered and am anxious to check out a few of these that I haven’t heard of. I collect and read Russian Literature only in the cold months, Nov. to April. It feels right, I suppose. And I adamantly refuse to read non-Russian lit. during this period-it might enhance my mood.

What about?

1)The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol (better than Dead Souls??)

2)The Sebastopol Sketches by Leo Tolstoy (brilliant, important)

3)A Hero of our Time by Lermontov (very funny, odd)

4)The Three by Maxim Gorky (quirky tale is one of my favourites)

5)Another vote for Chekhov-any of his collections are great.

ARidiculousMan


oops forgot one... — 5 years ago

“One day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch,” by Solzhenitsyn!


some other posibilities — 5 years ago

I think Chekhov should be on this list as he is one of Russia’s great writers- how about a collection of his short stories? A possible book to add in the 20th century area is Victor Pelevin’s “Homo Zapiens” or “Generation P” (Same book, different titles depending on what nation it’s produced in). This book is a trip to read and bluntly examines Russia’s cultural transition from a communist to a capitalist society. Also, “The Winter Queen,” by Akunin, while not one of the greatest works of Russain literature, is part of an extremely popular detective series in Russia right now, somewhat like the Russian version of James Bond. It is a light but enjoyable read.


Russian literature...among the best in the world! — 5 years ago

I’ve been looking for a list like this!




or
Login with Facebook