# Quiz: Which Russian Author should you read?



## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

https://www.rbth.com/arts/331052-quiz-russian-writer-to-read
Well, is TC more inclined toward Dostoevsky or to Tolstoy? Your votes, please...


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## Guest (Sep 30, 2019)

I don't see the need to choose, although I have probably read and re-read more Dostoyevsky than Tolstoy. Probably _The Idiot_ is my favorite book by Dostoyevsky.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

They are both great, though I prefer Dostoyevski. By my favorite Russian novel is probably Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, which might in fact be my favorite novel of all time.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Read all of them. The world of Russian fiction is a whole universe unto itself. So many good authors and books. A strange and disturbing writer of novellas was Alexander Kuprin, author of _The Duel, Horse Thieves, The Circus Wrestlers_, and others. Unforgettable.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

Turgenev... Gogol... Solzhenitsyn... Chekhov...


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## Guest (Oct 1, 2019)

Any thoughts on Vasily Grossman's "Life and Fate?"


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I bought all of the Dosty novels. Gotta get reading.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Baron Scarpia said:


> Any thoughts on Vasily Grossman's "Life and Fate?"


Its a great book


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

philoctetes said:


> Turgenev... Gogol... Solzhenitsyn... Chekhov...


and Pasternak...Sholokhov....


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

+1 for _Master and Margarita_ and _Life and Fate_ - Both great books.

As for the OP question: I've read both of their major works, but have read Dostoyevsky's more than once.


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## Rangstrom (Sep 24, 2010)

Many of the Nikolai Leskov short stories have been the basis of Russian operas. They are a fun read, but I would start with Tolstoy. I'm happy to see Sholokhov mentioned here even if some of the later Don stories read like the work of a committee (to me).


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Rangstrom said:


> Many of the Nikolai Leskov short stories have been the basis of Russian operas. They are a fun read, but I would start with Tolstoy. I'm happy to see Sholokhov mentioned here even if some of the later Don stories read like the work of a committee (to me).


Sholokov was likely not the author of the Quiet Don (which I read not long ago)
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/sholokhov-and-the-riddle-of-the-quiet-don/
it is likely that some other Cossack soldier was the author, was killed in the war and Soviet propaganda made Sholokhov into the author.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I listened to this talk last year and found it fascinating.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Writing the Red Wheel in Vermont


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Many years ago I read (about 30 years ago)

Tolstoy Anna Karenina
Turgenev Fathers and Sons (For a university English class)
Solzhenitsyn The First Circle, and A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

I can't think of any others. Russian novels can be powerful and dramatic but I'm not sure I could read a Russian novel now, it seems like too much work.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

senza sordino said:


> Many years ago I read (about 30 years ago)
> 
> Tolstoy Anna Karenina
> Turgenev Fathers and Sons (For a university English class)
> ...


Then you could read Russian novellas and short stories. Maxim Gorky's short stories are good, as are Tolstoy's shorter pieces like _The Death of Ivan Ilyich_. Isaac Babel's stories. All the Russian biggies wrote shorter works.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Rangstrom said:


> Many of the Nikolai Leskov short stories have been the basis of Russian operas. They are a fun read, but I would start with Tolstoy. I'm happy to see Sholokhov mentioned here even if some of the later Don stories read like the work of a committee (to me).












My favorite Leskov story is 'At the end/edge of the world/light', which is based on the witness of a Russian Orthodox bishop, who went to Siberia to check the Christian mission in a region which is still very believing in shamans. There is a twist/turnover occurring in this story which reflects Leskov's personal problems with the administrative 'small enemies/demons' inside the Russian Orthodox Church of those days. Leskov's analysis probes as deep as Kierkegaard and Dostoyevsky in exposing the Church winning new souls in Siberia by means of baptisms with vodka.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Dostoevsky - well, he fitted in with my adolescent angst when I discovered him when I was a teenager.

Moreover, I think _Crime & Punishment_ fits the present day's questioning of accepted morality particularly well.

_War & Peace_ may suit my maturity better, but I still just can't get into _Anna Karenina_.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Sixteen answers and how many have actually read the OP? My guess would be close to none.

Anyway, I took the quiz (although many questions did not have even a single answer that came close to what I would pick) and got Fyodor Dostoyevsky.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Art Rock said:


> Sixteen answers and how many have actually read the OP? My guess would be close to none.
> 
> Anyway, I took the quiz (although many questions did not have even a single answer that came close to what I would pick) and got Fyodor Dostoyevsky.


I don't think you can conclude that nobody read the OP - maybe simply that nobody chose to do the quiz.

The only question asked in the OP is whether people on TC are more inclined towards Dostoevsky or Tolstoy. And this is what members have chosen to respond to.

The quiz is cited but we're not asked to do it.

When I read the OP the first time, I decided not to.

However, I took it, just now - and was told that the author who'd suit me best is *Pushkin*. 

I've never read a word by Pushkin, and can't say I feel greatly attracted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS - I took the quiz again - changed *one* answer (this time I didn't choose Byron, the only poet offered) and this time I was allotted Tolstoy. 

So I think the OP is right to ask the question but to leave the quiz as optional.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PPS I took the quiz yet again, with the changed answer from my PS, and only one more changed answer, and this time, it was Dostoevsky. 
The answers I've changed are trivial - not the soul-searching why do you read, what are you looking for sort.

It's really fun seeing what slight deviations will reap such big changes in the results, but I suppose I ought to give up now, and *get a life*.


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## Guest (Oct 3, 2019)

An unhelpful set of questions - none that I could answer wholly correctly, so only an approximation - leading to Pushkin. I thought it was going to be either Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky?


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

Nabokov hahahahahaha :tiphat:


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Dostoevsky is my favorite author of all time, and Tolstoy's War and Peace is my favorite fiction book of all time. I pick Dostoevsky for this question!


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

I couldn't finish the quiz, too many loaded questions, some of them I just couldn't answer, so I nixed it.

I find Dostoyevski more to my taste but that might be because I haven't given Tolstoy a fair shake. I enjoyed his Confession, though. I read 2 by Bulgakov, The Dog's Heart and Master and Margerita, which I thought were both incredible, and maybe my favourite Russian books. Nabokov writing Lolita in English, well, it's a gruesome tale, but it's like reading prose by Mozart, really...


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Art Rock said:


> Sixteen answers and how many have actually read the OP? My guess would be close to none.
> 
> Anyway, I took the quiz (although many questions did not have even a single answer that came close to what I would pick) and got Fyodor Dostoyevsky.


I did read the post and take the quiz. Few of the questions had any choices that I could go along with. But I suspected when I selected short stories as my preferred form, I would end up with Chekhov. And I did - although his plays mean more to me.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Well, that's a bit odd. The quiz recommended Pushkin, whose poetry I quite like, though my first choice would be Gogol because I like a good chuckle with my dissection of contemporary mores.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Pat Fairlea said:


> Well, that's a bit odd. The quiz recommended Pushkin, whose poetry I quite like, though my first choice would be Gogol because I like a good chuckle with my dissection of contemporary mores.


If you don't know it, I'd recommend Tommaso Landolfi's short story, "Gogol's Wife."


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

Pushkin is what the poll sorted me toward- odd because I have read very little of him. The Russian writers I have read in translation (my Russian is non-existent) are:

Tolstoy, _War and Peace_ (at the tender age of 10, I think, as a dare,for it was the largest novel in our library) and some of his shorter works like _Master and Man_. Solid, wonderful writing.

Chekhov, his short stories like _Ward No.6_ and _Misery_ and the play _The Three Sisters_. Perceptive, careful, thought provoking and fun.

Dostoyevsky, _The Brothers Karamazov_, that I found dreadfully depressing.

Oh, and _Doctor Zhivago_ by Pasternak.

Whenever I read Russian literature I feel that I should be in some subarctic apartment equipped with a samovar and copious amounts of vodka.


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