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Doctor Zhivago

by Boris Pasternak, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky

3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 · rating details · 31,105 ratings · 1,078 reviews

Boris Pasternak’s widely acclaimed novel comes gloriously to life in a magnificent new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the award-winning translators of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and to whom, The New York Review of Books declared, “the English-speaking world is indebted.”

First published in Italy in 1957 amid international controversy—the novel...more

Hardcover, 544 pages

Published October 19th 2010 by Pantheon (first published 1957)

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Feb 25, 2011 Newengland rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 the book, too, as its vi...more 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 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 you...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 prostitute bi...more
Mar 03, 2011 01:16pm

Aug 02, 2010 K.D. Oliveros rated it 4 of 5 stars · 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.

While driving from the...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Patrizia O rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporanei, premi-nobel, romanzi-storici, autori-autrici-di-lingua-russa

Credo che non ti amerei tanto se in te non ci fosse nulla da lamentare, nulla da rimpiangere. Io non amo la gente perfetta, quelli che non sono mai caduti, non hanno inciampato. La loro è una virtù spenta, di poco valore. A loro non si è svelata la bellezza della vita.

Ho conosciuto Jurij Andrèeviĉ Zivago e Larisa Fëdorovna Guichard diversi anni fa attraverso i volti affascinanti di Omar Sharif e Julie Christie, protagonisti di un film che vinse cinque Golden Globe e cinque Oscar. Non ricord...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Kinga rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: russia, classics

This is going to be a difficult review to write as I have developed a real love-hate relationship with this book. It is an epic story about a man, who is supposed to be this tragic hero separated from the women he loved by the cruel times of revolution and civil war. If you ask me, he was just a … (fill in with your favourite word for describing a man with commitment and fidelity issues). I guess we can interpret the whole storyline as a metaphor of that period of Russian history, in which case...more This is going to be a difficult review to write as I have developed a real love-hate relationship with this book. It is an epic story about a man, who is supposed to be this tragic hero separated from the women he loved by the cruel times of revolution and civil war. If you ask me, he was just a … (fill in with your favourite word for describing a man with commitment and fidelity issues). I guess we can interpret the whole storyline as a metaphor of that period of Russian history, in which case it all makes sense but still doesn't make it „one of the greatest love stories ever told” as advertised on the cover.

The first hundred pages of the book are devoted to introducing at length, dozens of characters. You struggle to remember their various names, surnames, patronymics, nicknames and connection with each other only to realise later on that they are never to reappear in the novel. I am not sure what the point of that was, especially when subsequently important events in main characters lives are summarized in a few sentences or omitted altogether.

On top of that we have multitudes of completely improbable coincidences. Let's remember that Russia is the biggest country in the world, yet people keep running into each other every other page as if they all lived in a small village. Even your average romance writer wouldn't probably try to pull it off thinking it is a bit too much.
We have dealt with the storyline, now let's move on to the style. One thing, dialogue is definitely not Pasternak's forte. His characters don't talk, they orate. The author obviously had his own agenda there so the poor characters had to randomly break into two page long speeches to say what Pasternak wanted to tell us. Actually, I will let one of the characters speak for me now. At some point Lara said:

„Instead of being natural and spontaneous as we had always been, we began to be idiotically pompous with each other. Something showy, artificial, forced, crept into our conversation - you felt you had to be clever in a certain way about certain world-important themes.”

Touche, Lara, touche. Another interesting thing she said (actually this book would be so much better if it was called Larissa Fyodorovna instead of Doctor Zhivago) was her outlook on philosophy:

"I am not fond of philosophical essays. I think a little philosophy should be added to life and art by way of spice, but to make it one's speciality seems to me as strange as feeding on nothing but pickles".

And Pasternak definitely loves his pickles.
Now that we've dealt with the bad and the ugly, let me tell what was good about this book. It has some of the most captivating descriptions I have come across in literature. This is where Pasternak's true genius comes to the light. I didn't know you can talk about snow in so many different beautiful ways and even though I know most of it was probably lost in translation what I've read was enough to pull this book out of the two-stardom. It maybe would've even pushed it into four-stardom if I had been in a better mood. (less)

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Mar 12, 2013 Elena Holmgren rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

A celebration of poiesis as a path to wisdom that takes one to a primal place, the kind of inner place that is in danger of being paved over by modernity in general and by the grand efforts at systematization that characterize the last century in particular. It is a book of massive ethical import indeed, a desperate attempt to assert the irreducibility of humanity against the countless efforts of the last century to reduce mankind to some abstract specter, whether through the agency of capitalis...more A celebration of poiesis as a path to wisdom that takes one to a primal place, the kind of inner place that is in danger of being paved over by modernity in general and by the grand efforts at systematization that characterize the last century in particular. It is a book of massive ethical import indeed, a desperate attempt to assert the irreducibility of humanity against the countless efforts of the last century to reduce mankind to some abstract specter, whether through the agency of capitalist or socialist ideologies (each with its own accompanying techniques of social and behavioural engineering used to remake man in the shape of an abstraction held aloft above life itself). It's the iced rowanberry that soars above the shiny abstract system in this universe of Pasternak's.

The work is itself a self-reflexive meditation on the nature of the work of art in particular and of poiesis as an existential stance in general. Pasternak asks us to celebrate human life and thought as a continuous, unstoppable, radical poietic act admitting no closure or tidy definition, no formal completion or systematization, and the human creature as a perpetual discharge of creative energy. The poietic act, as it manifests itself in thought or creation, is for Pasternak that which connects us to the uncontainable ground of Being, as Heidegger would've put it. This can be seen in the numerous passages that "pan" as it were from the human domain to the larger domain of Being within which the former is contained (such as the scene in which Zhivago hears the voices of the revolutionaries mingling with the sounds of the leaves, and speculates that they emerge from the same bottomless source). Trouble is, the poet can see this deeper dimension of history - the men making it and spouting slogans cannot, and hence their destructiveness. The greatest enemy to historical progress thus becomes the human being itself, which is to be sacrificed for the sake of the superior light of the Idea.

Pasternak's creative process reminds me a little of the romantics - in the West, of Wordsworth, who said "The knowledge of the poet cleaves to us as a necessary part of our existence, our natural and unalienable inheritance. The poet rejoices in the presence of truth as our visible friend and hourly companion. He is the rock of defense of human nature." Among the moderns, he is like Joyce who similarly affirmed artistic creation as the medium for a form of knowing and ethical being that resists abstract reduction (whether in thought or in politics). And yet he is unique, having at his disposal and tapping into the inexhaustible creative resources of Russian folklore and oral tradition not available to modern Western artists, being compelled as they have been to consider their practice as a perpetual struggle to start from scratch. Hence, modern creation for him is not something antithetical to tradition, but on the contrary - it seems to me he would have been hard-pressed to hold on to humanity in the inhuman world he lived in had he not -felt- within himself the accumulated residuum of so many past lives.
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Apr 22, 2012 Pavel rated it 5 of 5 stars · 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 after all these years, especially since they won't ever...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 after all these years, especially since they won't ever read this, but back then I was very surprised how they didn't see own inability to concieve their own goals 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. Here is "Doctor Zhivago" concept as I understand it:
the book is about gaining immortallity through art, how to live a life and stay immortal through your own work and creations. Epic story of Yury Zhivago's 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 in Russian). 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 to 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 4 of 5 stars

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 poetic and visua...more

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Mar 08, 2009 Catherine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 affecting the lives of the ch...more

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Stephen In my opinion, you shouldn't post this review under this translator's edition of the book as the translator makes such a big difference in the reading...more
Oct 22, 2010 05:55pm

Catherine As I said, I couldn't find the edition I had, nor one by the same translator, especially as not all the summaries clarify who did so. Also, as I'm a r...more
Oct 23, 2010 02:14am

Stephen Sorry, I didn't mean to criticise, but translations can change the book so very much. Often they don't even seem like the same book at all, and really...more
Oct 23, 2010 07:25am

Nov 07, 2009 Griffin Betz rated it 4 of 5 stars · 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 years of life, a wife and a j...more 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 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 3 of 5 stars · 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 u...more

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Mar 23, 2010 Charity rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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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Apr 06, 2013 Charles rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read the original late 1950s translation twice out of duty, but since I love the translating team of Pevear and Volokhonsky I thought I'd give this a try and I am overjoyed I did. Now I begin to understand why Pasternak received the Nobel and why the Soviets wouldn't let him accept it. Revolution from the point of view of the people caught up in the rush of war, change, hope and disappointment is brought to life by this translation. For the first time I feel I know Yuri Zhivago and I understan...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Alex rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reading-through-history, 2013

"The calamity of mediocre taste is worse than the calamity of tastelessness."
(p. 568)

I don't think I can really judge this book properly: it's a big, slow, quiet book, and I wasn't in the right place for that. I read it during a time when my life was moving very quickly. (And I didn't have as much time for reading as I've been used to, so this took way longer than I was mentally prepared for.) So your mileage may vary. The lesson is, read the book your life has room for. Lots of time on your han...more

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Jan 11, 2008 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars · 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 takes care of him.

This...more

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Sep 05, 2010 El rated it 5 of 5 stars · 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 3 of 5 stars · 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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Sep 05, 2012 Laurie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

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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Jun 01, 2010 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars · 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 4 of 5 stars · 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 rejim, celetukan itu patu...more 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 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 5 of 5 stars · 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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May 09, 2012 Anna rated it 5 of 5 stars

Most of my thoughts as I was reading this book were about Russia, not so much Doctor Zhivago. Obviously, Russia is the main protagonist here. And more specifically, Russian people (oh and I do love Russians :) On a parallel track is the experience of following Zhivago through the years. There is something to be said about Pasternak's ability to weave the personal into the epic. It made me think about how much living each one of us can do under such circumstances, where things are constantly take...more

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Oct 13, 2012 Jasmine Trinks rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everybody

Shelves: favorites, from-the-motherland

Breathtaking, emotional, and hopeful despite the wretchedness of the character's circumstances. This book made me angry, disgusted me, filled me with wonder, despair, hope, and laughter. Absolutely stunning. Pasternak's portrayal of the cognitive dissonance associated with the October Revolution and its aftermath has altered my outlook on Russia's history. Through the character of Yurii Zhivago and his writings and observations, we realize that Russia herself if a character in this story, whose...more

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Aug 22, 2011 Mike Green rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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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Jul 04, 2007 Jafar rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

just remembered that I read this book some 19 years ago. I remember I was fascinated by this book back then. The book deals a lot with the horrors of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent civil war, which made this book very relevant to my life back then. I read this book during a period when school was cancelled because bombs and missiles were falling on us...

On a side note – the book was banned in Russia. Pasternak was awarded the Noble prize in literature, but was forced by the government...more

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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 characters i...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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Sep 14, 2008 Wayne Shorey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 soon as I've finished it.

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Feb 22, 2013 Dianna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have a younger sister who was named after the most fascinating character from this book, which has only added to the special place I hold in my heart for the story. With lovers thrown together and torn apart by fate & ego, it is a timepiece that manages to be timeless. The author is able to paint lovely pictures in the readers mind regardless of the difficult, and at times almost unthinkable, circumstances. Poignant without brooding, touching without ever becoming overly sentimental, the c...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Irving Koppel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you enjoy the romance of star-crossed lovers,this is the book for
you.The author shows us,through the lives of the professional class,the
many changes which affected Russia in the first half of the 20th century.

The two main character,Lara and Yuri(Dr.Zhivago),though from different classes,find their lives intersecting at odd moments in their
youth and middle-age.They accidentally meet in their teens at a Christmas
party;in their early twenties they work together in an army field hospital.Later...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Valerie Derbyshire rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you are a fan of Russian Literature (or even if you are not, but just enjoyed the film) I would wholeheartedly recommend this book. On the surface it is the story of Yury Andreyevich Zhivago and the two women he is torn between. Simultaneously, it is the story of the Russian revolution and of how the country is torn apart during the bitter struggles between the reds and the whites. It is evocative, beautifully written, lyrical and as poetic as Yury himself. You can feel the snowflakes stingin...more If you are a fan of Russian Literature (or even if you are not, but just enjoyed the film) I would wholeheartedly recommend this book. On the surface it is the story of Yury Andreyevich Zhivago and the two women he is torn between. Simultaneously, it is the story of the Russian revolution and of how the country is torn apart during the bitter struggles between the reds and the whites. It is evocative, beautifully written, lyrical and as poetic as Yury himself. You can feel the snowflakes stinging your skin as you read - it is truly a masterpiece. The love story between Lara and Yury which is central to the story is beautifully depicted and it is the human story behind the revolution which is the real draw in this book. The paragraph which reads: "Everything established, settled, everything to do with home and order and the common round, has crumbled into dust and been swept away in the general upheaval and reorganisation of the whole of society. The whole human way of life has been destroyed and ruined. All that's left is the bare, shivering human soul, stripped to the last shred, the naked force of the human psyche for which nothing has changed because it was always cold and shivering and reaching out to its nearest neighbour, as cold and lonely as itself. You and I are like the first two people on earth who at the beginning of the world had nothing to cover themselves with - at the end of it , you and I are just as stripped and homeless. And you and I are the last remembrance of all that immeasurable greatness which has been created in all the thousands of years between their time and ours, and it is in memory of all that vanished splendour that we live and love and weep and cling to one another." and later, when Yury dies, Lara sums it up with "Your going, that's the end of me. Again something big, inescapable. The riddle of life, the riddle of death, the beauty of genius, the beauty of loving - that, yes, that we understood. As for such petty trifles as reshaping the world - these things, no thank you, they are not for us" illustrate the philosophy behind the story perfectly. Revolutions happen but man will always live, love, die through them. The book is long at nearly 600 pages, but I never once felt it was overlong. Indeed, if anything, I felt that the only flaw in the book was that the end seemed a little hurried to me. It came as something as a shock when Yury dropped down dead on a tram, never reaching the fulfilment and peace he so desperately craved. Still - a beautiful book - heartily recommended. (less)

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Jan 02, 2013 Arukiyomi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books

Being Russian, this is not an easy read and laced with political musings on the collective human condition. But it’s an extremely important book for many reasons, and for that reason worth reading.

As far as I know, it’s one of the only novels that documents both before and after the 1905 Russian revolution. Its intimate description of the impact on both sides of the political divide is very powerful. The young doctor and his family are thrown into turmoil and poverty by the events that unfold. M...more Being Russian, this is not an easy read and laced with political musings on the collective human condition. But it’s an extremely important book for many reasons, and for that reason worth reading.

As far as I know, it’s one of the only novels that documents both before and after the 1905 Russian revolution. Its intimate description of the impact on both sides of the political divide is very powerful. The young doctor and his family are thrown into turmoil and poverty by the events that unfold. Meanwhile others, such as the enigmatic Petya and self-concerned Komarovsky, thrive in very different ways. This latter character reminded me of a leech, and I was fascinated to discover that his name in fact means mosquito!

On top of that, its open criticisms of the new era make the book a fascinating first example of a genre that would make Solzhenitsyn’s name. Check out some of the quotes below to see how outspoken Pasternak was. I think he was lucky to survive personally. But such writing cost him both the reception of the Nobel prize and his own freedom within the country he loved. The novel was only published in Italian to start with after being smuggled out of the country after it was banned by the state.

The love story you might be familiar with from David Lean’s fabulous film version actually plays second fiddle to the political struggle for Zhivago to be the liberated poet he yearns to be. It’s no wonder Lean focussed more on the torturous love triangle that the romantic doctor finds himself trapped in. It certainly makes for better cinema. In fact, the film is profound for focussing on the emotional struggles we encounter while the novel is profound for the political. Both are ideologies which we all have to grapple with and allow to tame us as we mature.

On the whole, I think this book is a fantastic example of how a novel can be a profoundly influential political document. This is a very powerful art form we are encountering here and a good example of how understanding the historical background for a novel can make it a much better read.(less)

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Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Fabula: Обсуждение Доктора Живаго	8	11	May 22, 2013 03:25am
I really wanna like this book, but...	29	221	May 01, 2013 05:30pm
Cafe Libri: November & December's Book: "Dr. Zhivago " by Boris Pasternak	3	8	Nov 20, 2012 07:15pm
The History Book ...: 12. DR ZHIVAGO - BOOK AS A WHOLE, POEMS OF YURI ZHIVAGO AND FINAL THOUGHTS ~ August 20th - August 26st (SPOILER THREAD)	36	46	Sep 01, 2012 05:07am
The History Book ...: DR ZHIVAGO - HF - GLOSSARY (SPOILER THREAD)	88	56	Aug 21, 2012 11:14am
The History Book ...: 11. DR ZHIVAGO - HF - CHAPTERS 15 and 16 - pgs 465-519 ~ August 13th - August 19th -> No Spoilers, Please	32	85	Aug 19, 2012 07:39pm

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About Boris Pasternak

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 Universi...more 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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Trivia About O Doutor Jivago

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Quotes from Doctor Zhivago

“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.” — 187 people liked it

“How wonderful to be alive, he thought. But why does it always hurt?” — 141 people liked it

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