The Portable Nineteenth-Century Russian Reader

by George Gibian (Editor)

The Portable Nineteenth-Century Russian Reader magnificently represents the great voices of this era. It includes such masterworks of world literature as Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman"; Gogol's "The Overcoat"; Turgenev's novel First Love; Chekhov's Uncle Vanya; Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych; and "The Grand Inquisitor" episode from Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov; plus poetry, plays, short stories, novel excerpts, and essays by such writers as Griboyedov, Pavlova, Herzen, Goncharov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, and Maksim Gorky. Distinguished scholar George Gibian provides an introduction, chronology, biographical essays, and a bibliography.

Genres: Russia, Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Poetry, Anthologies, Russian Literature

641 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1993

Reviews

[Mimi]

I started tucking a classic novel in with my morning reading and picked this up as one to add to that pile. Lovely collection of short stories, essays, and plays.

[Jesten]

A very nice collection, though it takes a great deal of time to read (or at least it did for me) because of the length of the pieces selected and amount of authors. I would recommend reading it in pieces or over a large period of time so as to avoid boredom or getting overwhelmed.

[Richard Bejtlich]

My favorite stories:

To... or [To K***] by Alexsandr Pushkin, tr. Walter Arndt
The Shot by Pushkin, tr. Gillon R. Aitken
The Overcoat by Nokolay Gogol, tr. Bernard Guilbert Guerney
First Love by Ivan Turgenev, tr. Ivy and Tatiana Litvinov, rev. George Gibian
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy, tr. Louise Maude & Aylmer Maude
Master and Man by Tolstoy, tr. S. Rapoport and John C. Kenworthy, rev. George Gibian
The Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekhov, tr. Ivy Litvinov

[Melissaj]

I'll definitely be reading this again. It helped me get through a very long winter isolation.

[Nyarla]

Good except for the parts by and about Tolstoy.

[Casey Lehman]

Certainly not every piece was a new favorite but the scope and value of this collection are undeniable.

[p]

Not sure how anyone could rate this any less than 5 stars. If you're looking to move beyond Dostoevsky/Tolstoy, this is a must.

From Pushkin's poetry to the short story "First Love," this book will move you and make you think. Certainly, not everything in the book will be for you - it's a survey of various writings - fiction, poetry, and essays - but it all will help provide you a better artistic understanding of Russian culture/thought at the time some of the world's greatest literature was written.

[Elizabeth]

Focuses on a handful of the most prominent authors and offers a generous selection of the work of each. The introductions to individual authors are very readable and often illuminating. Also contains a short, amusing section of Russian folk proverbs including "The joy of Russia is to drink" and "The crane says, 'Good-bye Mother Russia, I'll go where it's warm.'" Well, I think it's funny.

[RYD]

A good survey of 19th-century Russian literature. I read it for some of the lesser-known writers. Of those, my favorite pieces were Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin's "The Story of How One Russian Peasant Fed Two Generals" and Aleksandr Griboyedov's play, "The Trouble with Reason."

[Hamish]

Glorious.

[Kendra]

So far I've loved the poetry by Pushkin! There is nothing like good Russian literature.

[Laura]

This book is a great introduction to Russian literature. It provides a nice survey of all of the writers from the nineteenth century, which is really the golden age of literature for Russia.

[Nicholas]

This book contains an excellent selection of Russian poetry, short stories, and plays from the nineteenth-century.