Anya Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 5784 days ago 636 posts - 708 votes Speaks: Russian*, FrenchC1, English, Italian, Spanish Studies: German, Japanese, Hungarian, Sanskrit, Portuguese, Turkish, Mandarin Studies: Ancient Greek, Hindi
| Message 17 of 24 20 December 2009 at 8:07pm | IP Logged |
I've already recommended in the forum the short stories by Nadezhda Teffi (Надежда Тэффи)
http://lib.ru/RUSSLIT/TEFFI/
I may also suggest:
the first book of Boris Akunin (Борис Акунин "Азазель"), detective story, the action is in 19th century
http://lib.ru/RUSS_DETEKTIW/BAKUNIN/azazel.txt
"The Defense" by Nabokov ("Защита Лужина")- the tragic story of chess player
http://lib.ru/NABOKOW/luzhin.txt
Tatyana Tolstaya "Kys"
http://lib.ru/PROZA/TOLSTAYA/kys.txt
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Stryozyk Newbie United States Joined 5461 days ago 39 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian
| Message 18 of 24 21 December 2009 at 1:09am | IP Logged |
I am so happy to have found this thread and thank everyone for the great recommendations. I would add:
Аркадий и Борис Стругацкий
Пикник на обочине - a short science fiction novel about the aftermath of an alien landing on Earth. Even if
you don't think you like science fiction, this novel is amazing. It is told mainly in rough language from the
perspective of a man who retrieves dangerous alien artifacts from the zone where they landed. It questions
the true nature of desire and the human soul.
I would include, indeed, anything written by the Strugatskys, as well as other excellent science fiction works
by Kirill Bulychev, Dmitri Bilenkin, and Yevgeny Zamyatin.
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iltoen Newbie Germany Joined 5879 days ago 21 posts - 22 votes Speaks: Turkish*
| Message 19 of 24 21 December 2009 at 4:20am | IP Logged |
everything from gogol or chekhov i suggest
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TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5455 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian
| Message 20 of 24 21 December 2009 at 9:21am | IP Logged |
Well, I'm very late to this thread, but my very favorite Russian works of literature haven't been mentioned yet so here goes.
Natalya Baranskaya: Nedelya kak nedelya (A Week like any other) - a brilliant portrait of a harried working mother in 60s Soviet Russia.
Yuri Trifonov: Any of the Moskovskie Povesti, but in particular Dom na Naberezhnoe - a biting critique of the Stalin period and the moral disintegration it produced in Soviet citizens right through to the 70s under Brezhnev.
Solzhenitsyn: Rakovii Korpus (Cancer Ward) - an allegory of Soviet society but also a beautiful portrait of humanity. He writes female characters incredibly movingly.
If you have any interest at all in Soviet society these works are vital. They are also relatively easy to read in the original Russian.
Russian literature is truly extraordinary. Once you get started you'll realize nothing else can compare.
Edited by TixhiiDon on 21 December 2009 at 9:22am
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nadia Triglot Groupie Russian Federation Joined 5505 days ago 50 posts - 98 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, French Studies: Hindi
| Message 21 of 24 22 December 2009 at 11:35am | IP Logged |
TixhiiDon wrote:
Solzhenitsyn: Rakovii Korpus (Cancer Ward) - an allegory of Soviet society but also a beautiful portrait of humanity. He writes female characters incredibly movingly. |
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Oh yes, I remember loving this book when I read it.
However, to anyone who only starts learning Russian I would recommend reading something easier than classics. Some children's stories usually are the best thing to start with.
Виктор Драгунский "Денискины рассказы" can be found here at http://www.lib.ru/. They are short, funny stories and I was very fond of them as a child.
Николай Носов and his short stories "Мишкина каша", "Фантазеры" and others
here Another fave -- Nosov's storie are very short, humorous and easy to read.
I also love "Вредные советы" by Григорий Остер -- these are short humorous verses for kids -- anti-advice on how to behave.
here
They run like this:
Никогда не мойте руки,
Шею, уши и лицо
Это глупое занятье
Не приводит ни к чему.
Вновь испачкаются руки,
Шея, уши и лицо,
Так зачем же тратить силы,
Время попусту терять.
Стричься тоже бесполезно,
Никакого смысла нет.
К старости сама собою
Облысеет голова.
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staf250 Pentaglot Senior Member Belgium emmerick.be Joined 5688 days ago 352 posts - 414 votes Speaks: French, Dutch*, Italian, English, German Studies: Arabic (Written)
| Message 22 of 24 22 December 2009 at 1:33pm | IP Logged |
I totally agree with TixhiiDon on Solzhenitsyn. Cancer Ward was my first book of Alexander S. I loved it so much.
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rahdonit Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie Ukraine Joined 6605 days ago 50 posts - 87 votes Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian*, English, German
| Message 23 of 24 22 December 2009 at 2:40pm | IP Logged |
I would recommend anything by Фазиль Искандер, in particular a set of stories "Сандро из Чегема" - full of humour and an interesting piece of reading about life in Abkhazia in the Soviet time.
Вaсиль Быков is not actually a Russian writer, but a Belorussian one, anyway, "Карьер" is worth reading, the action takes place both in the eighties of the 20th century and in the time of the 2nd WW
If you like "The Good Soldier Švejk" by Hašek, you will also certainly like "Жизнь и необычайные приключения Ивана Чонкина" by Владимир Войнович
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