Doctor Zhivago in Pick-a-Shelf

Jan 12, 2015 Joanie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, 1001-book-list, classics, 2015-book-club-challenge, 2015

Most of what I'm feeling right now is relief to be done, plain and simple. This is yet another book (like Wuthering Heights which I also read this month) that's described as a great romance novel but really, it's not. Zhivago is described as a man of morals and high ideals who struggles to maintain his integrity through war and famine and loving two women but he really doesn't seem to struggle that much. He just sort of does what he wants, obligations be damned. In a lot of ways he reminded me o ...more

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Mar 30, 2011 Tien rated it liked it

Shelves: russia, classic, snakes-ladders

The only reason I read this is so that I can say I’ve read it – which is mostly the case with classics. They’re classics for a reason, right? So, I’ve got to read it for myself. I didn’t really have high hopes for Doctor Zhivago as it just never attracted me to begin with. But whoever expected a romance novel, you could not be more wrong. There are romantic descriptions (example below) but for the more common understanding of romance novel, it is not.

She liked to sit in the dim light of candles, The only reason I read this is so that I can say I’ve read it – which is mostly the case with classics. They’re classics for a reason, right? So, I’ve got to read it for myself. I didn’t really have high hopes for Doctor Zhivago as it just never attracted me to begin with. But whoever expected a romance novel, you could not be more wrong. There are romantic descriptions (example below) but for the more common understanding of romance novel, it is not.

She liked to sit in the dim light of candles, and Pasha always kept a few spare ones. He replaced the stump in the candlestick with a new candle, put it on the window sill, and lit it. The flame choked and spluttered, shooting off small stars, and sharpened to an arrow. A soft light filled the room. In the sheet of ice covering the windowpane a black eyelet began to form at the level of the flame.

There is, of course, love but this book really is about Doctor Zhivago, of who he is (a bourgeois son), who he grew up to be (a doctor of low/middle class status), and the Russian politics. It’s about the life of an eccentric intellectual in early 1900s. I was soon quite lost as I just couldn’t keep up with change in nicknames and there are, at least, a handful for each character! Plus, I found the conversations to be really strange – just the way they speak to each other, I really couldn’t get the hang of it. Overall, it was an okay read for me

One of the most passionate speeches in the book:

“Don’t be upset. Don’t listen to me. I only meant that I am jealous of a dark, unconscious element, something irrational, unfathomable. I am jealous of your toilet articles, of the drops of sweat on your skin, of the germs in the air you breathe which could get into your blood and poison you. And I am jealous of Komarovsky, as if he were an infectious disease. Someday he will take you away, just as certainly as death will someday separate us. I know this must seem obscure and confused, but I can’t say it more clearly. I love you madly, irrationally, infinitely.” ...more

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Dec 05, 2010 Bea rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I vaguely remember the movie that I saw eons ago and thought that, by reading this book, move of the movie would be recalled. It was not. Either the movie was not true to the book or the book had so much more of the revolution that was not contained in the movie. I remember loving the movie but I did not have that reaction so much with the book. Yes, there is a love story but it is set so firmly in the author's need to tell of the thinking of the time and the revolation that the love story is ne ...more

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Feb 26, 2011 Arlene rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: war, russia

I remember reading this years ago and loving it. It is the ultimate romance novel with the Russian revolution thrown in. It has all of those difficult names but when it comes to Russian novels, I tend to let the names just wash over me. I loved the movie with Omar Sharif. If you haven't seen it, you should. The novel has much more than the story in the movie. ...more

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Oct 16, 2008 Lindsay rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bookcrossing, z2009, fiction, 1001, historical

Very interesting book with some real depth. The characters and their relationships to each other are fascinating. The way individuals react to the rapidly changing conditions around them, and how this alters as they are affected by these changes is also very moving.

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