Comments on: Biskie Reviews ‘The Idiot’

By: boltonian

boltonian — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 10:43:39 +0000

Peitha:

I read ‘The First Circle’ and ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (if I have the spelling right)’ many, many years ago. This was during my ‘Russian’ period, which was very brief and mildly depressing. The motivation was that my brother was learning the language at the time and enthused about all things Russian.

I have a collection of Clive James essays somewhere and in one of them he gives his reasons for learning Russian; he thought that Pushkin, beautiful in translation, must be so much more rewarding in the original. I think A.N. Wilson learned Russian for much the same reason.

By: Bill

Bill — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 01:34:32 +0000

Peitha: “Would I be correct in assuming most here have read Solzhentisyn? “We Never Make Mistakes” always stands out for me, along with Gulag of course.”

I never did, although I did read The Brothers Karamazov, long ago.

More recently I read Ivan’s War (Life and Death in the Red Army 1939-1945) — a harrowing tale — by Catherine Merridale. (Secondary schools in the U.S. teach a very warped version of WWII, overemphasizing the U.S. role at the expense of what the Russians endured) while the WSJ — of all places — recently featured a short history of the Russian Orthodox Church in a good article. This connects with Late Antiquity, which I am still reading on trains and in diners.)

My limited knowledge of Russia was supplemented by watching Andrei Rublev, an excellent flick (if a bit long), some years ago.

Bill

By: peitha

peitha — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 17:44:54 +0000

ChooChoo, Anna Karenina is a must read if you have the stomach for Russian novels. I first became ‘interested’ (not quite the right word but it’ll do for now) in when I was at school. We’d finished our O level exams (Englich Literature: we did, Julius Caesar, Poetry of the Thirties and The Mayor of Casterbridge) and in one of the English periods between exams and the end of term the teacher read to us the ball scene from Anna Karenina. After he had done so, he asked us all just one question, “What colour was the carpet?”

About 2/3 of the class thought it was red, about 1/3 thought it was blue. He noticed I hadn’t voted for either and asked me what colour I thought it was. I won’t spoil it for others but I got it right and the an interest in Russian literature was sown. Heck even to the extent at one time I started learning Russian! Fascinating country with a seemingly inexhaustible historical capacity for suffering but with a people who survive through it all, beautiful language though, much nicer to my ear than German, for example. I’m not saying of course German can’t be beautiful, but for some reason I just prefer Russian.

Would I be correct in assuming most here have read Solzhentisyn? “We Never Make Mistakes” always stands out for me, along with Gulag of course.

By: ChooChoo

ChooChoo — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:11:22 +0000

Biskie – your outline has fed my curiosity, so thank you! I now really want to read ‘The Idiot’. I’ve recently had similar inspiration to read ‘Anna Karenina’ too. I’m not very well up on those 19thc Russian authors. (I remember reading Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons a few years back and finding it painfully boring). I am not a novel eater, but I remember that ‘Middlemarch’ has some wonderfully drawn peripheral characters. Perhaps they supply some of the best chapters in the novel (though, of the three main strands, the Lydgate story is perfectly written). Am reading through a novel at the moment by Georges Bernanos, called ‘The Diary of a Country Priest’. It is exquisite so far and one of the main attractions are the author’s character sketches.

By: boltonian

boltonian — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:21:05 +0000

Biskie:

Many thanks.

If you put it on the ‘Books’ page can I be first in the queue?

I hope you enjoy ‘The Brothers,’ I didn’t but then I was very young when I read it.