[Crossposted at A Voyage Thither...] 

Tales from the Reading Room has a really interesting short introduction to French literature. It's a good idea, and fun to think about adding or substituting personal favorites to that list. I thought I might run with this idea and publish my informal short introduction to Russian literature in hopes that it might become a cult internet classic. To be read roughly in the following order:

1. "The Nose," by Nikolai Gogol. I love this moderately short story, and I think it's the best place to start a crash course on Russian literature because it foreshadows the impulse toward imaginitive freedom that really rests at the foundation of Russian literature. A guy finds a nose in his bread one day and thinks he recognizes it as belonging to an acquaintence (a customer at his barber shop, actually). He tries to get rid of it by tossing it off of a bridge. And so on...

2. A Hero of Our Time, by Mikhail Lermontov. Mostly good for its psychological depth. The character of Pechorin is presented to the reader in a way that anticipates Dostoevsky's style. Although it's not totally devoid of romance, Lermontov's novel may be properly named as one of the world's first truly psychological novels. Pechorin happens to be quite an aloof and, at times, despicable fellow.

3. Fathers and Sons, by Ivan Turgenev. This book represents the first real acknowledgement in Russia of the clash between a dying culture and its possible replacement. Turgenev is typically credited with popularizing the word "nihilist" as a description of that breed of youth who refuses to recognize the old values. Unfortunately, Turgenev's Bazarov is something of a dandy and his death is almost inexplicable (maybe I need to revisit that book?).

4.  Demons, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Also known as The Possessed or The Devils, this is often lumped together with The Idiot and The Adolescent as one of Dostoevsky's lesser accomplishments. But that must be the mistake of people who have never read Demons. Easily as good as Crime and Punishment, and, in my opinion, better than Brothers Karamazov, Demons is based on the true story of anarchist rebel Sergei Nechaev and his attempt to destroy the old order in Russia. The book bends and weaves its way around the classic Russian question, "What is to be Done?," never failing to present more than one perspective on each of the central problems of the novel. It would be inexcusable to die before reading this book.

5. The Foundation Pit, by Andrei Platonov. Platonov returns to the fantastic experiments of Gogol with this allegorical deconstruction of the communist revolution and its aftermath. Written about fifteen years after the October revolution of 1917, Platonov's novel is one of the most engaging studies of the disaffection that spread across Russia when soviets realized that communism wasn't going to be easy. The story tells of Voshchev, a typical man whose metaphysical thinking is at odds with the materialist world-view of his country's political leaders.

6.  One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Reminiscent of Dostoevsky's The House of the Dead, Solzhenitsyn's dramatic and disturbing depiction of life in a Soviet labor camp is frightfully memorable. If you've never had to sleep under a thin blanket with bare feet on a slab of concrete, only to wake up in the morning to eat a plate of soup laced with cockroaches, only to be marched outside into the tundra to move ice in little more than a thin jacket--here's a safe place to try it out in your imagination. Only Solzhenitsyn's descriptions are so unflinching as to be thoroughly uncomfortable.

7. Buddha's Little Finger, by Victor Pelevin (1996?). Really anything by Pelevin. What an imagination. This guy decided around 1990 (with the collapse of everything he was taught as a young man) that Russia needed to stop trying to compete with the West. Instead, Pelevin looks East and recognizes the illusory nature of all things material--maybe it's an overreaction to the Soviet experiment, but it's also totally understandable given Russia's 20th century. Postmodern without the annoyingness, Pelevin's one of my favorite contemporary writers. I'd also recommend The Yellow Arrow or his book of short stories, The Blue Lantern. If you liked Borges, but wish that he was still alive and living in Russia--vote for Pelevin.

Honorable Mention:

-Tolstoy's novels (obviously... I'd vote for Resurrection).

-Yevgeny Zamyatin's We (1924)--a dystopian futurist novel from the Soviet era. If you like 1984, try this book.

-Leonid Latynin's The Face-Maker and the Muse (1977-78). This almost made my list, but would be somewhat redundant alongside Platonov's novel. This is in the Gogol tradition much more than it is in the Dostoevsky lineage (if those can be neatly separated).

-Victor Erofeyev's collection of short stories, Life with an Idiot (1991).

Also... I'm realizing that I've read almost no Russian literature by women (with the exception of Akhmatova, who is amazing). I'd love to. Any suggestions?