An Outline of Russian Literature

by Maurice Baring

An Outline of Russian Literature By Maurice Baring

Genres: Russia, Nonfiction

72 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1971

About the author

Maurice Baring OBE (27 April 1874 – 14 December 1945) was an English man of letters, known as a dramatist, poet, novelist, translator and essayist, and also as a travel writer and war correspondent, with particular knowledge of Russia. During World War I, Baring served in the Intelligence Corps and Royal Air Force.

Reviews

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent review of Russian literature up to 1905, with an unforgettable chapter comparing Tolstoi and Dostoievski, those two giants of Russian and World Literature.
As a result of reading this book, I have added to my library of classical Russian books eight novels by five authors I did not have: Lermontov, Ostrovsky, Goncharov, Saltykov and Merezhkovsky.

[Tom Walsh]

on Kindle...forgot the talented Lermontov. The book was very relaxed, but it stopped with 1905. I had hoped the author would cover Mayakovsky and Pasternak and Bulgakov. Well, maybe there's a Vol II?

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This vindicating my novice feelings around Russian lit: Dostoevsky’s Demons is confusing, but brilliant; Tolstoy is humble yet a bit of a hypocrite; Turgenev is beautiful but a little banal.

Really good overview of pre-Revolution Russian lit. Biggest takeaway: I’m starting a Solovyov anthology.

[Ant · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the content here, but the writing was not to my taste. I have never in my life seen the word ‘epoch’ used so frequently, it was jarring.