Excellent and illuminating presentation. Thank you so much! I have read many of the books you have talked about, but the insights you've brought to this narrative are encouraging me to read them again. I did not know that _Dead Souls_ was an incomplete work. I agree: this is most disconcerting to learn.

@ReligionOfSacrifice

Ай бұрын

FAVORITE AUTHORS 1st) Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Insulted and Humiliated) 1) “The Insulted and Humiliated” by Fyodor Dostoevsky 4) "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 19) "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 30) "Demons" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 65) "My Uncle's Dream" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 80) "The Heavenly Christmas Tree" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 113) "Poor Folk" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 130) "The Gentle Spirit" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 141) "The Gambler" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 149) "White Nights" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 173) "Netochka Nezvanova" (nameless nobody) by Fyodor Dostoevsky 2nd) Leo Tolstoy (Resurrection) 3) "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy 9) "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy 17) “Childhood, Boyhood” by Leo Tolstoy 62) "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy 91) "A Confession" by Leo Tolstoy 3rd) Ivan Turgenev (Fathers and Sons) 5) "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev 11) "Smoke" by Ivan Turgenev 23) "Virgin Soil" by Ivan Turgenev 41) "Torrents of Spring" by Ivan Turgenev 64) "First Love" by Ivan Turgenev 101) "Acia" by Ivan Turgenev 107) "The Watch" by Ivan Turgenev 132) "Rudin" by Ivan Turgenev 141) "On the Eve" by Ivan Turgenev 152) "Home of the Gentry" by Ivan Turgenev 172) "Clara Militch" by Ivan Turgenev 177) "The Inn" by Ivan Turgenev 4th) James A. Michener (Chesapeake) 12) "Chesapeake" by James A. Michener 13) "Poland" by James A. Michener 36) "Caribbean" by James A. Michener 37) "Hawaii" by James A. Michener 197) “Mexico” by James A. Michener 5th) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich) 10) "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 28) "Cancer Ward" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 44) "In the First Circle" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 78) "The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: an Experiment in Literary Investigation" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Hope this channel blows up one day. Keep at it!

@alexmjc

11 ай бұрын

Thank you, appreciate it

Agreed: Turgenev is superb. Loved both Fathers and Sons and Sketches . Need to read Gogol

You got the big two covered...thanks. ""Another book by Leo Tolstoy: one of the greatest in all the languages of the world, War and Peace. Not only the greatest but also the most voluminous...thousands of pages. I don’t know that anybody reads such books except myself. They are so big, so vast, they make you afraid. But Tolstoy’s book has to be vast, it is not his fault. War and Peace is the whole history of human consciousness - the whole history; it cannot be written on a few pages. Yes, it is difficult to read thousands of pages, but if one can one will be transported to another world. One will know the taste of something classic. Yes, it is a classic. Nobody is more worthy of a Nobel Prize than Leo Tolstoy. His creativity is immense, he was unsurpassed by anyone. He was nominated, but refused by the committee because of his unorthodox stories on Christianity. The Prize committee opens its records every fifty years. When records were opened in 1950, researchers rushed to see whose names were nominated and cancelled and for what reason. Leo Tolstoy was nominated, but never given the prize as he is not an orthodox Christian. Leo Tolstoy is one of Russia’s wisest men of the 20th century and his ideas on non-violence deeply influenced Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology. Mahatma Gandhi declared three persons his master. The first was Leo Tolstoy, the second was Henry Thoreau, and the third was Emerson. Once Leo Tolstoy was asked - How many experiences did you have of divine ecstasy in your life? Tolstoy started crying. He replied - Not more than 7 in my life of 70 years, but I am grateful for those 7 moments and miserable too. In those moments it was evident that is could have been the flavor of my whole life but that didn’t happen. Those moments came and went on their own. But I am still grateful to God that even without any conscious effort on my part, once in a while He has been knocking at my doors. . Anna Karenina is one of my most loved books. How many times I have read it I can’t remember. I mean the number of times - I remember the book perfectly well, I can relate the whole book.. If I was drowning in the ocean and had to choose just one novel out of all the millions of novels in the world, I would choose Anna Karenina. It would be beautiful to be with that beautiful book. It has to be read and read again; only then you can feel it, smell it, and taste the flavor. It is no ordinary book .Leo Tolstoy failed as a saint, just as Mahatma Gandhi failed as a saint, but Leo Tolstoy was a great novelist. Mahatma Gandhi succeeded as - and will remain forever - a pinnacle of sincerity. I don’t know of any other man in this century who was so sincere. When he wrote to people ‘sincerely yours’ he was really sincere. When you write ‘sincerely yours’, you know, and everybody else knows, and the person to whom you are writing also knows, that it is all bullshit. It is very difficult, almost impossible, to really be ‘sincerely yours’. That’s what makes a person religious - sincerity. Leo Tolstoy wanted to be religious but could not be. He tried hard. I feel great sympathy with his effort, but he was not a religious person. He has to wait at least a few more lives. In a way it is good that he was not a religious man otherwise we would have missed Resurrection, War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and dozens more beautiful, immensely beautiful books"

So many of these books I still have to read. Almost all of them are on my TBR. Currently reading Chekhov's stories The Bet is one of my favorites so far

I know what you mean about Checkov’s plays. But somehow they make it for me. Because the dialogues are so dramatically crafted. Every sentence is charged . My favourite is The Seagull and the reason why it’s cause of this one sentence “if you ever have need of my life, come and take it”. I think the great book is the one that makes u feel smth u didn’t know u could. The Precipice by Goncharov is really good, in ideology, pretty much like Oblomov only the next step sort of. Great video. Thank u

@alexhindes3861

11 ай бұрын

Great take. I’ve been enjoying Chekov’s short stories, haven’t got to his plays yet, but I definitely find myself taking pleasure in how he transforms the mundane of everyday life into something emotionally raw.

Great video 👌 What should I do to prepare my reading? I find that reading classics without knowing anything (knowing nothing about the context) makes it much harder to understand them and you don't grasp many things that are going on. I know nothing of Russia, Russia's history, etc. Which specific concepts / Wikipedia articles should I look up before I read the works? I went to the library and got Notes from the Underground, The Cossacks and I have Anna Karenina at home (unread). I also picked up Gogol's The Overcoat. Thanks!

What about translators of these great works?

Devils is proving essential to my political delvings. Getting a lot more from it than from crime and punishment

Интересно, что британец рассказывает о русской литературе. Ну, я прочитал половину этих книг во 2-м классе. Вы может находите что-нибудь еще интересным? I know that you don't know Russian. Good luck with the translator. Thank you for the excellent lessons, I will definitely torment you with questions from different schools.

@alexmjc

Ай бұрын

Мдааа, интересно зачем тебе нужно было читать Лолиту во втором классе… Лучше бы тригонометрию учил что ли

@user-iu1em2cg9y

Ай бұрын

@@alexmjc Ее в 9-м классе в России учат

I think he should speak faster.