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Doctor Zhivago

by Boris Pasternak

3.92 · rating details · 15,231 ratings · 766 reviews

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

In the grand tradition of the epic novel, Boris Pasternak’s masterpiece brings to life the drama and immensity of the Russian Revolution through the story of the gifted physician-poet, Zhivago; the revolutionary, Strelnikov; and Lara, the passionate woman they both love. Caught up in the great events of politics and war that eventually destroy...more

Hardcover, 544 pages

Published November 26th 1991 by Everyman's Library (first published 1957)

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Feb 25, 2011

Newengland rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classics-newly-read, finished-in-2011

You'd think, having Julie Christie as a mistress and Geraldine Chaplin as a wife, that you couldn't do much better than that in life. Alas, you can, because if it's that good and it's all taken away and your net time with each amounts to squatski (Russian for "squat"), in the scheme of your life, maybe life's a bitch after all.

Dr. Zhivago brings us another Russian opus dealing with man as pawn against the great playing board of history. You can see why the Soviets banned ...moreYou'd think, having Julie Christie as a mistress and Geraldine Chaplin as a wife, that you couldn't do much better than that in life. Alas, you can, because if it's that good and it's all taken away and your net time with each amounts to squatski (Russian for "squat"), in the scheme of your life, maybe life's a bitch after all.

Dr. Zhivago brings us another Russian opus dealing with man as pawn against the great playing board of history. You can see why the Soviets banned the book, too, as its view of the Bolsheviks becomes increasingly dim as the book plays out. I remember, in fact, talking the book (and movie) up when I was in the Soviet Union back in the 70s. My tour guide was much intrigued and furtively questioned me about both, but stopped suddenly, perhaps thinking for a panicked nanosecond that I was a plant (ficus, peace lily, whatever). Nyetski, comrade. Just an interested reader.

I considered 4-stars because the book has stretches that could be excised without harming it in the least. And it commits the cardinal sin of including an epilogue after its two protagonists have exited the scene. (The sound you hear is pages flipping.) It ends with some 30 pages of Doc's poetry, few of which survive the turbulence of translation.

But that's the point and the reason for the fifth star, actually. Poetry. Frequently, the narrative in this book slows down for some beautiful poetic writing, for some reason handled more deftly by Pevear & Volokhonsky in the prose than in the unforgiving confines of verse. Zhivago is a Renaissance man of Russia, interested in poetry, writing, philosophy, history, medicine, etc. He's a regular William Carlos Williams of the steppes, coming in from his doctor calls to write poetry like he does. Here's typical fare, as a for instance of the descriptive flare Pasternak has:

"Meanwhile it was getting dark. The crimson-bronze patches of light the sunset scattered over the snow were swiftly fading, going out. The ashen softness of the expanses quickly sank into the lilac twilight, which was turning more and more purple. Their gray mist merged with the fine, lacy handwriting of the birches along the road, tenderly traced against the pale pink of the sky, suddenly grown shallow.

"The grief in his soul sharpened Yuri Andreevich's perceptions. He grasped everything with tenfold distinctness. His surrounding acquired the features of a rare uniqueness, even the air itself. The winter evening breathed an unprecedented concern, like an all-sympathizing witness. It was as if there had never been such a nightfall until now, and evening came for the first time only today, to comfort the orphaned man plunged into solitude. It was as if the woods around stood on the hillocks, back to the horizon, not simply as a girdling panorama, but had just placed themselves there, having emerged from under the ground to show sympathy."

Larissa Fyodorovna (Lara) is a character for the ages -- beautiful, intelligent, emotional, strong, maternal, romantic, and realistic all at once. Small wonder so many western girls were named after her once the book (and then the movie) was released. She links together disparate characters like Zhivago and his wife, Tonya; the repugnant Komarovsky; Pavel Antipov (Strelnikov). And she surely comes across as the wife everyman envisions but never gets (Zhivago included, though his vision at least took form for an ethereal second).

Like War & Peace, the book goes back and forth between wartime scenes (a man's world) and domestic ones (man and woman) seamlessly. Pasternak is equally adept at both. The sharp contrasts, I think, are a great metaphor for Russia itself -- the sheer scope, size, and beauty of the landscape serving unwillingly as backdrop to the 20th century's tremendous shocks to her people.

When all is said and done, you'll come away with certain scenes -- especially from Varykino -- permanently embedded in your longterm memory. How many books can lay that claim? Rhetorical question, of course. Haunting, poignant, memorable, all graciously written.
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Michael Excellent review, NE. I wanted to see your overall take on the book, since the CR discussion is slow getting underway. But here's my question: Are ...more
Mar 03, 2011 06:43am

Newengland OK, keep Lara and give me Julie (and a time machine, thank you).

Nice summing up of Lara's record, though I'm not ready to agree with the pro...more
Mar 03, 2011 01:16pm

Aug 02, 2010

K.D. rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006 to 2010)

Shelves: 1001-core

AUGUST 2 REVIEW:
After finishing the book last night, I immediately wrote my review. I always do that because I right away start reading the next book. Also, writing what I learned from the book and what I felt while reading it are easier if the story is still fresh in my mind.

However, for almost the whole day, I thought that I missed the whole point of the story. My August 1 Review below definitely was too weak for a beautifully told forbidden love story of Yuri and Lara.
...more

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Nov 12, 2010

Pavel rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: russian, classics, easy-reading-on-a-lonely-rainy-even, books-that-defined-my-personality

"The time is out of joint"

In the mid 90s I was surfing through radio chanells and stumbled across techno music station and 2 Djs were talking. Their idea was that Pasternak somehow prevents their music to succeed, they were convincing their listeners to quit paying attention to Pasternak "and everything like that" and start to admire something more important, which of course was their techno music. Not that I'm going to lecture those people, especially as because...more"The time is out of joint"

In the mid 90s I was surfing through radio chanells and stumbled across techno music station and 2 Djs were talking. Their idea was that Pasternak somehow prevents their music to succeed, they were convincing their listeners to quit paying attention to Pasternak "and everything like that" and start to admire something more important, which of course was their techno music. Not that I'm going to lecture those people, especially as because they won't read this, but I was actually very surprised that they didn't saw how they can't concieve their concept without Pasternak, while bashing him. If he was that NOT important, why even mention him?

Nevertheless he was probably last genious Russian novelist after Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, although he wrote only one novel actually. Here is "Doctor Zhivago" concept as I understand it:
the book is about immortallity, how to live a life and stay immortal through your work and creations. Epic story of Yury Zhivago life is a path for creation of "his" genious poems. You read his life, you see all the turns and choices that he made and by that you see how those poems were made. The book ends with his death which opens last part - poems themselves (I have no idea if they are well translated into English, but they absolutely uneclipsed). I believe that is the reason why all the film adaptions of "Doctor Zhivago" fail so much - they just re-tell plot-lines, story as it is and loose main concept of the novel - poetry as a path to achieve immortality.

No great Russian writer was ever writing in such a simple, clear style since Tolstoy. Whole first half of XX century Russian literature was anything but simple. Symbolism, modernism, absurdism, akmeism etc, etc. Style of this book is hidden behind recognizable, common manner, which gives reader possibility to get all the ideas, thoughts and concepts without even noticing them. In simple words the book is very clever and delicate but page-turner at the same time.

Whole Zhivago and Lara story is put into epic context of our tragic history of the first half of XX century. Pasternak obviously was going to name things as they are and he knew he will be hit hard for that. You see everything that communists have done with our country through the eyes of an intellligent man, a doctor, a poet and you see that dark matter that catches those people and most of them died and those who survived - suffered and again - probably the only way for them to leave something behind themselves was to write something that will outlive them and those cruel times. Pasternak recieved Nobel for this book but was humilated in his homeland. "Pasternak is worse then a pig" - it was a motto. in USSR the book was published only in 1988, but yes, as he wanted - it outlived cruel times and provided its creator with immortality.

And I'm swithching from 4 stars to 5 of course (and yes, I know that majority of bookish intellectuals think "Doctor Zhivago" is a trash, I don't care".(less)

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Mar 12, 2011

Sue rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classics, historical-fiction, read-in-2011, literary-fiction, favorites

Set in in the years leading up to, during, and after the Russian revolution, Doctor Zhivago touches on multiple facets of the Russian people, land, history, religion, politics as seen through Zhivago's eyes (as well as those he encounters during his life).

It is a complex book, moving sometimes swiftly and sometimes very slowly from one character to another, from city to country, from one battlefield to another, from war to unsettled peace. The descriptions of the countryside are poet...more

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Nov 07, 2009

Griffin Betz rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: patient readers who enjoy rich settings as much as (or more than) tight narratives.

Shelves: read-fiction

My first reading of Dr. Zhivago was in high school. At 15, the book was a chore. Impenetrable and numerous Russian names (often for the same character) and endless description of the Russian landscape left me exhausted and unimpressed. After re-reading and enjoying other high school assignments, I came across Dr. Zhivago on my bookshelf and wondered if I would find more appreciation for Mr. Pasternak's novel ten years later.

Yes, I did. And no, I didn't.

With ten more y...moreMy first reading of Dr. Zhivago was in high school. At 15, the book was a chore. Impenetrable and numerous Russian names (often for the same character) and endless description of the Russian landscape left me exhausted and unimpressed. After re-reading and enjoying other high school assignments, I came across Dr. Zhivago on my bookshelf and wondered if I would find more appreciation for Mr. Pasternak's novel ten years later.

Yes, I did. And no, I didn't.

With ten more years of life, a wife and a job I found a connection with the characters. I understood the way outside forces can pull a person in strange directions and the way life can drop a person into unexpected and unwanted situations. I understood that sometimes people are swept into and out of the place they want to be - and why they stay where things are bad and leave where things are good. Dr. Zhivago is at its heart a love story. No 15 year old understands the kind of love Pasternak puts in his character's hearts. Ten years on, I understand Yuri far better than I did in High School. I also had a far greater appreciation for Pasternak's obviously loving descriptions of his homeland.

That said, the things that drove my dislike of Dr. Zhivago the first time were still still there. The sprawling story and unending task of keeping the characters straight was still a detraction. I don't know if my problem with character names springs from the fact that, being Russian names, they are unfamiliar to my mind or if Pasternak simply failed to rein in his cast of thousands. Unresolved plot lines rarely bother me but, when combined with extensive background on what ending up being minor characters, Dr. Zhivago felt a bit as if Pasternak let the narrative get away from him. Maybe that was the point. Sometimes life just gets away from you. After all, he's the one with a Nobel Prize. Who am I to criticize?

While I actually liked the novel this time, I feel as if I should have liked Dr. Zhivago more than I did. Maybe it's that I can't escape my first impression.

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Oct 16, 2007

andrea Newberry rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone who doesn't mind slogging through the confusion of Russian Names

An epic tragic tale spanning the tumultuous life of a poetic dissenter during the Russian Revolution and early era of communism. The story moves along disjointedly depicting moments in Zhivago’s life beginning with the funeral of his mother at age 4 to his growing up on Moscow among relatives while going to school, his family life with his wife/companion from childhood, his involuntary experiences in WWI and the revolution, and the timeless tale of his love affair with Lara, the woman he looks ...more

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Mar 23, 2010

Charity rated it

Shelves: 1001books, russia, big-uns

I had really high hopes for this book...maybe because I really enjoyed the movie adaptation and maybe because it is an often talked about, revered book...but, frankly, the book did not live up to my expectations. Now, I have read several Russian novels (though I am no expert, by any stretch of the imagination), so I don't trip over the names, and I find bleak books to be endearing. Why, then, did I have such a difficult time curling up with Yury and Lara as this winter came to a close? I don't r...more

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Jan 11, 2008

Amy rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Amy by: I knew on my own I had to read it

You can not miss this book! If you get the chance, you MUST read it.

Not only because it's a great historical and literary addition to one's memory bank, but also for what it (and all Russian novels, by the way) teaches you about human nature.

Antonia is Dr. Yuri Zhivago's wife, his partner and clearly his biggest fan. Lara is Zhivago's mistress--sort of by accident. She's there for him when Antonia isn't or cannot be, like when Zhivago gets deathly ill miles from home. She...more

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Sep 05, 2010

El rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-list, permanent-collection, wanderlust, late20th-centurylit, russia

As I've already stated, this book has been on my bookshelf since I was about thirteen when my mother gave me a copy for Christmas one year. She talked to me about the story, about the movie and her adoration of Omar Sharif because of said movie. And because I was a punk kid I never sat down to read it. (Correction: I sat down a couple times to read it over the years but never managed to make it past a page or two because I evidently had more important things going on in my life.)

So now, at thirty-two, it finally seemed time. And this time I not only made it through the first couple pages - I didn't want to put it down at all.

Part of my problem may have been people referring to this as "the greatest love story of all time", and back as a punk kid, who needed that? My mom may have talked to me about the other stuff in this book, like that it covers the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War that started a year later, but if she did I have no recollection of it. It didn't land on my radar. Even as an adult when I started ~~obsessing over~~ reading Russian literature this was always the one book that stared at me, as if Pasternak were saying, "Yo, whatever, we're all chill here. I'll always be around, you just let me know when you're ready." (Pasternak is much nicer to me in my imagination than is Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn who has bitter, bitter eyes. Yeah, I'm looking at you now, The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956.)

I've probably written down more passages into my journal from Doctor Zhivago than any other book I've read in recent history, just because they were either written so elegantly or they struck such a chord somewhere deep inside my crusted up little heart. I don't even particularly condone illicit literary love affairs - I feel someone is always going to get hurt so when I have to read a book along those lines it makes me sad for the guy/girl who gets pushed to the side. Someone needs to write a book of all those characters who got the short end of the stick. Maybe they could get some literary happiness someday. Hell, maybe I should write that book.

Now I can finally watch the movie and see if I also have a boner for Omar Sharif, or if my love of the story was the only thing my mom passed on to me.

Reading Doctor Zhivago refreshed in my memory all the reasons I love literature and books, and why I probably will never manage to have an e-reader. Part of my love for this book comes with the fact that it was a gift from my mom, even if I didn't fully appreciate it at the time. Sure, it's a mass market paperback, nothing to write home about really, except that it was a gift. It's a story she read probably at that same age and it took her away and made her love life and literature. She may not have intended for me to have that same experience so late in my life, but it's the thought that counts. And somehow I don't think that her forwarding me an e-reader copy of this book at the same age would have made such an impression on me, and I may never have read it to begin with. Books are gifts, not up/downloads.(less)

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Jun 25, 2009

Dusty rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2009

As far as I know, Doctor Zhivago appeals for three reasons. First, it is an epic by and about a man caught in the thick of the tumultuous period of Russian enlightenment and revolution. Second, like many epics, it follows the romance between a man and a woman (or in this book´s case, three women) whose love is made impossible by the political circumstances in which they live. Third, and lastly, it was bravely published in the 1950s, censored immediately by the Soviets but heralded by non-Red lit...more

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Jun 01, 2010

Erin rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Erin by: self

Shelves: fiction-lit, russian-lit, foreign-lands, love-story, war, 1001-books

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 26, 2008

nanto rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: history-and-sociology, novel, somewhere-out-there-lib, buku-dan-film, nant-s-book

Soal cerita tentang buku ini semua pasti semestinya tau. Semestinya yah! Walau ternyata ada yang bikin saya ngenes karena pernah mendengar celetukan seseorang. Dia menganggap Zhivago yang karangan Pasternak yang Rusia itu sebuah buku kiri. Waduh mbok kabeh seko Rusia kui mesti kiri opo? Opo Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn pengarang Gulag yang Rusia Nasionalis itu itu juga nantinya jadi kiri?

Buat sebuah negeri seperti Indonesia yang pernah dicekam horor "komunisme" oleh sebuah rej...moreSoal cerita tentang buku ini semua pasti semestinya tau. Semestinya yah! Walau ternyata ada yang bikin saya ngenes karena pernah mendengar celetukan seseorang. Dia menganggap Zhivago yang karangan Pasternak yang Rusia itu sebuah buku kiri. Waduh mbok kabeh seko Rusia kui mesti kiri opo? Opo Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn pengarang Gulag yang Rusia Nasionalis itu itu juga nantinya jadi kiri?

Buat sebuah negeri seperti Indonesia yang pernah dicekam horor "komunisme" oleh sebuah rejim, celetukan itu patut dimaafkan karena hanya orang yang senang nyerempet bahaya yang akan mencari buku yang seringnya dilarang. Memang semua yang berbau kiri akan dilarang pada jaman dahulu, tetapi bagaimana seseorang itu tau ini buku kiri, lah wong dia tidak pernah cari-cari buku yang dilarang. Lagi pula buku Pasternak yang ini padahal tidak pernah menerima bintang jasa pelarangan oleh Kejaksaaan Agung loh! Kok masih kena label kiri sama seseorang itu yah?

Kenapa saya menolak label kiri bagi buku ini. Alasan utama saya adalah bagaimana Pasternak mencoba menyuarakan ideologinya melalui si tokoh protagonisnya, Dr. Zhivago. Penggambaran sosok dokter humanis yang mencintai Rusia yang tengah diamuk badai revolusi merupakan gambaran yang masih kabur buat menempatkan garis ideologisnya. Namun bagaimana dia mengutarakan perasaan sentimentilnya dalam lirik-lirik puisi di tengah sebuah revolusi yang menistakan perasaan individual dan lebih memuja "sastra untuk rakyat". Bagaimana anda menilai posisi orang sedemikian di tengah rejim yang akan dengan mudahnya menghilangkan mereka yang tidak sejalan?

Zhivago dalam cerita Pasternak buat saya adalah sosok yang kehirauannya pada ketimpangan pada era Feodalisme Tsar sejalan dengan kaum Bolshevis namun implementasi dan kemudian langkah dia dan kaum Bolshevis bersimpang jalan. Zhivago jelas korban dari hilangnya hak privat pasca-Revolusi Bolshevik. Termasuk hak untuk sentimentil hehehe (Kalau jaman itu Sheila on7 sudah hidup tentunya lagu "generasi patah hati" bakal dilarang tuh, dan semua kaum Ungu-isme dan Kangen-isme tentunya).

Gambaran lebih lengkapnya tentunya dengan membaca karya Pasternak yang lain. Posisi Pasternak menempatkan hak pribadi penyair untuk dapat mengemukakan lelangut dirinya tanpa mengabaikan persoalan sosial kirannya bukan sebuah garis Bolshevis.

Akhir kata, meski Rusia hampir sepanjang tahun diselimuti salju, bukan tak ada hikmah dibalik itu. Tanyakan pada orang Rusia, tentunya mereka yang akrab diselimuti salju akan dapat memberikan pada anda betapa warna putih ternyata beragam. Pun bagi kita yang tadinya dari kejauhan menganggap Rusia itu sama, kini bisa lebih melihat mereka sebagai sebuah bangsa yang beragam. Dengan membaca karya dari Rusia tentunya.(less)

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Jan 15, 2008

Birrells rated it

· review of another edition

I found this book in my grandma's library. I actually read it 2 summer's ago. While I'm a fast reader, this book took me nearly 3 months to read on and off. I've always wanted to read it. It was definitely the most difficult book I've ever read. I learned alot about the era of time the book was set in. I also learned alot about the history of Russia and surrounding countries and the government upheavel. It's interesting considering what I learned in World History and the view from our text books...more

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Aug 22, 2011

Mike Green rated it

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Shelves: classics, fiction, favorites

Not long after I began reading this book I became aware that I was truly reading a masterpiece. Pasternak's words are some of the most beautiful that I've ever read in my life. His descriptions jump from the page and his similes are the best I've ever seen. I feel blessed that I had the opportunity to read such a masterwork of high art.

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Jan 01, 2010

Michelle added it · review of another edition

"Caution - this is definitely NOT the movie. The movie took liberties and focused on the love story between Lara and Yuri. For those who think that this book is going to be just like the movie, please take note.[return][return]Now that I have that out of the way, Mr. Pasternak's novel is very much a love story but rather than between man and woman, it is between a man and his country. Mr. Pasternak's love for Russia is evident in the care he takes with the scenery and developing the charact...more"Caution - this is definitely NOT the movie. The movie took liberties and focused on the love story between Lara and Yuri. For those who think that this book is going to be just like the movie, please take note.[return][return]Now that I have that out of the way, Mr. Pasternak's novel is very much a love story but rather than between man and woman, it is between a man and his country. Mr. Pasternak's love for Russia is evident in the care he takes with the scenery and developing the characters in such a way that the reader truly understands what it means to be Russian. His pastoral descriptions are breath-taking and make one want to move to Siberia. His dialogue is pure poetry.[return][return]There is so much that occurs in this novel that it is difficult to summarize them into one short assessment. Dr. Zhivago's life is truly tragic and mirrors pre- and post-revolutionary Russia. From the loss of his mother at a young age to the loss of his beloved Lara, Yuri faces world wars, civil war, imprisonment by revolutionaries, and so much more. Lara, too, faces her own trials and tribulations throughout the novel. In fact, the best description is that each major character faces his or her own personal revolution. Interspersed with the tragic details are details about life in revolutionary Russia.[return][return]Speaking of revolutionary Russia, as an American, the descriptions of life in the early stages of the U.S.S.R. is fascinating. Mr. Pasternak gives the reader a glimpse of a world that the Western world has vilified and which the Russian culture has kept secret from outsiders. It is an amazing study of culture and history, written by a man who truly does love his country. I feel privileged to have been able to get a glimpse of this mysterious world. In addition, it has helped me understand a bit more about the Cold War and the machinations behind it.[return][return]Make no mistake, this is an extremely challenging read. However, if you stick with it, you will be rewarded with a better understanding of Soviet Russia, the Russian culture, and with some of the most beautiful passages I have ever had the pleasure of reading. This isn't for the faint of heart, and I'll admit that I had to do some side research to make sure that I understood the history behind the story. In spite of that, I am extremely glad that I read this novel and would recommend it to others who are interested in Russian history."(less)

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Mar 08, 2009

CaterinaAnna rated it

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Shelves: bookcrossing

Can't find the ancient edition I have in the list, so have picked this one instead.

I was disappointed in this: not because of the film - I remember little of that except for a few scenes with plot and dialogue missing - but because it seemed to fall between the broad historical novel and the romance without being either thoroughly.

As with War and Peace, I learnt some Russian history from it, but there was more underlying assumption that one already knew the history affec...more

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Jan 03, 2009

Laurie rated it

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Reviewing a classic is always difficult business. Most people are likely familiar with the storyline, if only from the Omar Sharif film. Pasternak tells the story of an elite doctor and his family whose lives are thrown into turmoil by the Russian Revolution. During the revolution Zhivago loses his connections to his family and his wealth. But weaving throughout this undeniably tragic tale is the real focus, Zhivago's blossoming relationship with a young woman, Lara. The two come in and out of c...more

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Sep 14, 2008

Wayne Shorey rated it

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Shelves: will-read-again

I have always found it difficult to answer those "favorites" questions: "What is your favorite movie/ ice cream flavor/ etc.?" Being an obsessive reader, I would have expected that naming my favorite book would be the hardest thing in the world, much harder than naming my favorite flavor of ice cream. But suddenly one day I realized that Dr. Zhivago is exactly that; my favorite book of all, just ahead of Middlemarch. So much so that I usually start to read it again as soo...more

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Wayne Shorey This intrigues and startles me. I actually often hesitate to mention that Middlemarch is one of my top two favorites, just because I know SO MANY peo...more
Oct 07, 2008 04:29pm

Wayne Shorey I agree completely with almost every word of your message, even about Tess... :o)

My bookshelf isn't too representative of my reading; thou...more
updated Oct 10, 2008 06:10pm

Jan 02, 2012

Marigold rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: award-winners, classic, historical-fiction, love-story

I always feel a little odd writing a review of a Nobel Prize winning piece of literature. Especially when I’m only giving it 3 and a half stars! Who am I to say this wasn’t a thrilling book?! Doctor Zhivago is really about all of Russia, seen through the eyes of Yuri, who is the title Doctor Zhivago character. It takes place during the Russian Revolution of 1918, followed by the Russian Civil War, & there’s a bit of action during World War II as well. Pasternak’s depiction of war is devastating ...moreI always feel a little odd writing a review of a Nobel Prize winning piece of literature. Especially when I’m only giving it 3 and a half stars! Who am I to say this wasn’t a thrilling book?! Doctor Zhivago is really about all of Russia, seen through the eyes of Yuri, who is the title Doctor Zhivago character. It takes place during the Russian Revolution of 1918, followed by the Russian Civil War, & there’s a bit of action during World War II as well. Pasternak’s depiction of war is devastating & horrific. I found a lot of it really difficult to get through. It’s not full of gore or blood. In fact there are very few actual battle scenes. It’s just full of what you might expect in wartime – not glorious battles, but rather random violence, senseless death, & the horror of people who can no longer have lives beyond survival. Throughout the book, characters move from place to place, seeking safety, food, shelter. They look for their family members & friends, from whom they’ve been separated. Have you ever had one of those dreams, where you wander around looking for people & you’re cold & hungry & you’re filled with a sense of impending doom? And just when something either wonderful or very, very bad is about to happen, you wake up? That’s what Doctor Zhivago is like. One of my frustrations with the book is that random, minor characters (all of them with at least three names) keep showing up, & you hear their story, & just when you get interested & you want to know what happens to this person, they disappear! But don’t despair – they all turn up later on in the book – by which time you’ve forgotten about them, so it might be good to take notes!

Yuri is an idealistic & romantic man who can’t decide whether he’s really a doctor or really a writer/poet. He also can’t decide how he feels about the war & political situation in Russia. “To the moderates, whose obtuseness made the doctor indignant, he seemed dangerous; to those whose politics were advanced, not Red enough. Thus he belonged to neither group, having moved away from the former and lagging behind the latter.” One of the themes in the novel is this feeling of being torn – between careers, political & spiritual ideologies, women (or men, in the case of the female characters), between literally coming or going. The world of Yuri & his family has been torn apart to the point where it’s difficult to come to any decisions, because they don’t know what might happen the next day – so why decide to take action, when the premise of your action might be completely different 24 hours later? As a semi-recovering control freak, I find this idea horrifying!

The book follows Zhivago as he suffers the consequences of a life torn apart by war & his inability to make decisive moves. He never really commits to either medicine or writing, & never really commits to one woman, though he is married for a long time to Tonia, & also has his most significant, satisfying love affair with Lara, his soul-mate. She too is damaged by her past, the war, & a feeling of being torn between Zhivago & actually two other men—one her husband, a sort of super-idealistic war hero/political figure; & one her former abuser, who keeps re-appearing in her life at opportune moments to “rescue” her. (Pasternak gives an effective depiction of an abusive relationship, if you read between the lines a little.)

I enjoyed the main story-line involving Zhivago & his wives & lovers, & all the things that happen to him over the course of many years—though I was distracted by all the disappearing, re-appearing minor characters. I loved Pasternak’s language—particularly effective when he’s describing scenes in nature or the background of something that is happening. I was not so thrilled with the use of dialogue, which I found stilted & unrealistic. I’m not sure if this is because Zhivago is a Russian novel translated into English, or something else. I was frustrated by the long digressions into philosophy & politics—many of which I confess I speed-read. I agree with some of the other reviewers that Zhivago’s poetry, relegated to an appendix in the book, should have been spread throughout the novel, as I think it would have helped me understand Yuri better, particularly at his moments of greatest inertia.

Though I found it a very challenging read, I’ll remember these moments.

A description of how Yuri sees the revolution in the midst of happening, & his realization that it’s only the beginning of something that will sweep them all away: “All around, people continued to deceive themselves…everyday life struggled on, by force of habit, limping and shuffling. But the doctor saw life as it was. It was clear to him that it was under sentence. He looked upon himself and his milieu as doomed. Ordeals were ahead, perhaps death….He would have gone insane had he not been kept busy by the details of daily life….He realized that he was a pygmy before the monstrous machine of the future; he was anxious about the future, and loved it and was secretly proud of it, and as though for the last time, as if in farewell, he avidly looked at the trees and the clouds and the people walking in the streets…and was ready to sacrifice himself for the general good, and could do nothing.”

Describing a certain quality of winter light: “This rarefied light would be unbearable if it were not so short-lived, coming at the end of the brief autumn day just before the early dusk. Such was now the light in the staff room, the light of an early autumn sunset, as succulent, glassy, juicy as a certain variety of Russian apple.”

Yuri realizes that he & Lara cannot forever remain in a somewhat idyllic shelter they’ve found where they are making love, burning tons of firewood, playing in the snow & talking about their feelings for one another: “He was dazzled by the white glow playing on the shadowless, moonlit snow and could at first see nothing. Then the long, whimpering, deep-bellied howl sounded again, muffled by the distance, and he noticed four long shadows, no thicker than pencil strokes, at the edge of the clearing just beyond the gully. The wolves stood in a row, their heads raised and their muzzles pointing at the house, baying at the moon or at its silver reflection on the windows. But scarcely had Yuri Andreievich realized that they were wolves when they turned and trotted off like dogs, almost as if they could read his thoughts.”

And just after his discovery that wolves are watching them: “The air was getting noticeably colder, but it was sunny. The snow was yellow at noon, with orange seeping into its honey color like an aftertaste at sunset. The laundering and washing that Lara had done the day before had made the house damp. The steam had covered the windows with thick hoarfrost and left black streaks of damp on the wallpaper. Yuri carried logs and water…and helped Lara with her endless chores. In the rush of some task or other their hands would meet and join, and then they set down whatever they were carrying, weak and giddy with the irresistible onslaught of their tenderness, all thought driven from their heads.”

I think this section of the book where Yuri & Lara are in love & trying to survive a Russian winter with very little food & a limited supply of firewood, is the most memorable one (no doubt why they made a movie of it). Pasternak’s writing about the surroundings, their feelings, & the sense that they are living in a very breakable glass dream, is something you’ll remember forever, though it's by no means the bulk of the book.
(less)

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Nov 12, 2011

Caroline Gordon rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: russian, literature, fiction

I'm lost meandering through this book like the train carrying Yuri and Tonya into the Russian backwaters. I really want to like this book, just listen to this endorsement featured on the back cover: "A book that made a most profound impression upon me and the memory of which still does...not since Shakespeare has love been so fully, vividly, scrupulously and directly communication" and this "..[belongs] to that small group of novels by which all others are ultimately judged"....more

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Sep 29, 2011

Kathy rated it

· review of another edition

I read this a few years ago and just remember that it was excruciating to finish. Normally I'm a huge fan of Russian literature, so this was a disappointing first for me.
After some clunky dialogue, Pasternak will suddenly decide to describe some trees for what seems like forever. Although sometimes beautiful, it became eye-rollingly tedious and I'd skip to the end of the paragraph to wait for something to happen. I love description, but not to the detriment of what is supposed to be trans...more

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May 29, 2011

Michael rated it

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Doctor Zhivago turned out to be a more ambiguous novel than I had expected. It demanded a little effort to read, too, which can be a good thing. It wasn't a book simply to be consumed and enjoyed, but rather one that required me to stretch a bit to meet it on an equal footing. And it was worth doing so. In many ways, this 1957 novel is an early obituary for the Soviet Union. It concludes with a chapter of poetry, which may not be as central to the story as author Pasternak believed, but whi...moreDoctor Zhivago turned out to be a more ambiguous novel than I had expected. It demanded a little effort to read, too, which can be a good thing. It wasn't a book simply to be consumed and enjoyed, but rather one that required me to stretch a bit to meet it on an equal footing. And it was worth doing so. In many ways, this 1957 novel is an early obituary for the Soviet Union. It concludes with a chapter of poetry, which may not be as central to the story as author Pasternak believed, but which ends the book with another set of challenges. Did Pasternak put his poetry in there because he feared he would be exiled or executed and never get another chance at publishing it?

Another ambiguity is the character of Dr. Zhivago himself. The danger of having seen the movie before reading the book, as I did, is that Robert Bolt's superb dramatization for the screenplay actually improves on some important aspects of the novel, from a cinematic perspective. But it weakens the complexity of the overall experience Pasternak created. Zhivago seemed heroic and romantic in the movie, and who will ever forget Julie Christie? But in the book they are different people. Zhivago abandons every person he loves, one by one, all the way through. The Julie Christie character, Lara, is more deeply compromised in the book even than she was in the movie. The movie suppressed the contradictions in their personalities to make a more dramatic, and easier to absorb, story. It improved, by more fleshing-out, the characterization of Zhivago's rival Komarovsky.

Of course, in addition to the novel's innate appeal, there is the historical aspect. It gives a riveting glimpse into life during the civil war that followed the first Russian revolution -- the eventual victory of the Reds over the Whites. There is the hope of better days and wonderful ideals that some had in the original revolution; and then the crashing reality of the actual Bolshevik regime that wins the war. It was a brave book to write, but one with its own complicated ambivalences, too.(less)

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Jan 20, 2011

Coli Barth rated it

· review of another edition

Dr. Zhivago is a book based around a relatively simple and straightforward plot, that due to its massive list of characters, not to mention their difficult to pronounce and undifferentiable names, is sometimes difficult to discern. Following Dr. Yuri Zhivago through the numerous momentous and incredibly coincidental situations that he stumbles upon is interesting and all the more exciting due to their complete unexpectedness. His entire life, it seems, is based on a series of complete accidents....moreDr. Zhivago is a book based around a relatively simple and straightforward plot, that due to its massive list of characters, not to mention their difficult to pronounce and undifferentiable names, is sometimes difficult to discern. Following Dr. Yuri Zhivago through the numerous momentous and incredibly coincidental situations that he stumbles upon is interesting and all the more exciting due to their complete unexpectedness. His entire life, it seems, is based on a series of complete accidents.It almost comes to the point that when you are introduced to even a minor new character, you can almost guarantee that you will meet them again in some coincidentally consequential situation later on.
There is the basic story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl again. But in this particular case, boy ends up losing girl all over again and dies before he can find her for the second time. The love story, or stories, of this book are incredibly tragic but also inspiring because they take place in such an inhuman and merciless environment. Russia in the 1910's and 20's was a brutal, cold, and dangerous place to live. The fact that the characters managed to keep their love alive through the tragedies and hardships they faced was incredible and awe inspiring, but ultimately doomed.
I feel like this book addressed several important topics. We see, for instance, how good intentions can lead a person astray. The biggest example of this would be the Russian Revolution, which started as a desperate bid for freedom from the Russian people but ended in poverty and misery for millions of people. Idealism was beautiful, but also extremely dangerous, and revolutionaries were eventually shunned by the common people for the destruction the unintentionally brought about.
Another theme is the need to companionship. nearly every character in this book is searching for someone, hunting them down amid the chaos of their daily lives.
In conclusion, this was a good read, with few drawbacks. It was interesting, lively and somber at different times, and informative . But it was also occasionally difficult to follow and understand, due to the authors unique writing style and the varied characters. (less)

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Dec 22, 2010

Esther rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classic

In spite of the things I dislike about Russian novels: 1) Too many long names - and then the different versions of those names - sometimes as many as three! 2) Too much about politics (yes, I know, I asked for it). 3) Too much philosophy. And 4) No sense of humour whatsoever - in spite of all the things I didn't like about Dr. Zhivago, I cannot deny that it was compelling, and was interspersed with some incredibly beautiful writing (in between all that other stuff I didn't like). Pasternak is ex...more

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Oct 27, 2010

Caitlin rated it

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This is a brutally honest rendering of the tragedy of the Russian Revolution. Through his characters Pasternak explores the fallacies of the different philosophies of the political groups. The only conscencus among the group is that the rein of the czars needed to end. The Romanov family ruled for over 300 years and the progress the country made was not up to the standard of the rest of Europe. Highlighing the tragedy of the civil war, which started near the end of WWI, is the lovely story of th...more

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Oct 22, 2010

Jillian rated it

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Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago is too intellectual for its own good. Instead of staking his emotions in the passages, the author takes the intellectual's viewpoint: the Russian Revolution was necessary but what the revolutionaries brought was even worse. We all know that, we took a history class at some point. Everything is so much easier with hindsight.

Yes, this book was written in the late 50's, the Cold War is still at large, but Zhivago never really seems passionate about the issu

...more

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Oct 20, 2010

Mweene rated it

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I read this book 20 years ago and so my memories of it may appear foggy but i just have to say something. The love between Yuri and Lara left me speechless. To think that even today i can still remember how desperately i wanted these two to stay together says it all. The book is a master piece. It makes you care about the characters profoundly and those Russians just know how to put on paper what human emotions are really all about. There are moments of course when the book seems to drag but it ...more

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Aug 15, 2010

Bob rated it

· review of another edition

I've never seen the whole film but its treacly "metrocolor" and images of idealistically glaring revolutionaries in austere steel-rimmed specs are hard to shake while finally reading the book.

My 1991 Pantheon edition has an introductory essay by John Bayley (Iris Murdoch's husband, I remind you) in which he cites a few contradictory positions on the book, notably Nabokov calling it "a piece of muddled and sentimental fiction ill-advisedly composed by a man who was a ta...more

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Jun 22, 2010

Charlotte rated it

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Shelves: victorian

This was a very tedious read for me. The cast of characters if difficult to keep straight. They all have multiple names, the names are long, weird Russian ones, and it is initially difficult to separate the important characters from those whose only purpose is to appear in a scene or two to add atmosphere. There were a couple of scenes that I loved (one has teenage Lara lying awake and experiencing the excitement and danger of burgeoning sexuality, one is of Yuri being shaved after having esc...more

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Feb 15, 2010

Tommy rated it

· review of another edition

I loved this book. It was beautiful, heartrending and full of small moments of intense love and despair. The relationships between characters are very complex with lots of depth and facets that make it hard to blame them for the sometimes questionable yet very real decisions they make. It's almost by the very act of surviving they are absolved from what in different times would be judged as abandonment of families and responsibilities. This also leads you to wonder if two of the characters ever ...more

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About Boris Pasternak

Also known as (Russian spelling): Борис Пастернак

Boris (Leonidovich) Pasternak was born in Moscow to talented artists: his father a painter and illustrator of Tolstoy's works, his mother a well-known concert pianist. Though his parents were both Jewish, they became Christianized, first as Russian Orthodox and later as Tolstoyan Christians. Pasternak's education began in a German ...moreAlso known as (Russian spelling): Борис Пастернак

Boris (Leonidovich) Pasternak was born in Moscow to talented artists: his father a painter and illustrator of Tolstoy's works, his mother a well-known concert pianist. Though his parents were both Jewish, they became Christianized, first as Russian Orthodox and later as Tolstoyan Christians. Pasternak's education began in a German Gymnasium in Moscow and was continued at the University of Moscow. Under the influence of the composer Scriabin, Pasternak took up the study of musical composition for six years from 1904 to 1910. By 1912 he had renounced music as his calling in life and went to the University of Marburg, Germany, to study philosophy. After four months there and a trip to Italy, he returned to Russia and decided to dedicate himself to literature.

Pasternak's first books of verse went unnoticed. With My Sister Life, 1922, and Themes and Variations, 1923, the latter marked by an extreme, though sober style, Pasternak first gained a place as a leading poet among his Russian contemporaries. In 1924 he published Sublime Malady, which portrayed the 1905 revolt as he saw it, and The Childhood of Luvers, a lyrical and psychological depiction of a young girl on the threshold of womanhood. A collection of four short stories was published the following year under the title Aerial Ways. In 1927 Pasternak again returned to the revolution of 1905 as a subject for two long works: "Lieutenant Schmidt", a poem expressing threnodic sorrow for the fate of the Lieutenant, the leader of the mutiny at Sevastopol, and "The Year 1905", a powerful but diffuse poem which concentrates on the events related to the revolution of 1905. Pasternak's reticent autobiography, Safe Conduct, appeared in 1931, and was followed the next year by a collection of lyrics, Second Birth, 1932. In 1935 he published translations of some Georgian poets and subsequently translated the major dramas of Shakespeare, several of the works of Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, and Ben Jonson, and poems by Petöfi, Verlaine, Swinburne, Shelley, and others. In Early Trains, a collection of poems written since 1936, was published in 1943 and enlarged and reissued in 1945 as Wide Spaces of the Earth. In 1957 Doctor Zhivago, Pasternak's only novel - except for the earlier "novel in verse", Spektorsky (1926) - first appeared in an Italian translation and has been acclaimed by some critics as a successful attempt at combining lyrical-descriptive and epic-dramatic styles.

Pasternak lived in Peredelkino, near Moscow, until his death in 1960.(less)

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Safe Conduct: An Autobiography and Other Writings

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“How wonderful to be alive, he thought. But why does it always hurt?” — 74 people liked it

“I don't think I could love you so much if you had nothing to complain of and nothing to regret. I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and of little value. Life hasn't revealed it's beauty to them.” — 57 people liked it

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