During the 19th century, when the entire world was busy admiring the French and English literary scenes, Russia was dishing out gem after gem.
Heavily influenced by the likes of Honoré de Balzac, Stendhal, Victor Hugo, Flaubert, and Charles Dickens, the Russians wrote prose that took the best from their mentors and went deep into the psyche of human beings.
While the French concentrated on exposing the self-seeking, desperate for validation and hungry for money behaviors, the Russians spent page after page, exploring the depth of different psychological types and how they interact with each other in various situations.
If you want to see people around you transported in the 1800s, let’s get started!
- The Brothers Karamazov — Fyodor Dostoevsky
“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
“The Brothers Karamazov” is Dostoevsky’s last novel, completed shortly before his death.
After finally getting the attention of the European greatest literary figures and the appreciation of his countrymen, Dostoevsky compiled all of his internal disputes, experiences, ideas, and wisdom into, what amounted to be, his best, and longest, novel.
“The Brothers Karamazov” is the story of 4 brothers who are tormented by their family relationship and how they relate to others.
The 4 brothers are so different in attitudes, ideologies, hopes, and aspirations that it would be impossible to think they have anything in common, let alone be brothers and get along, even once.
One source of their unhappiness and hopelessness that they all try to tackle is their father.
Not paying attention to his sons’ needs, not even raising them really, he spends most of his money on his addictions and even gets into a feud with his oldest son over a prostitute’s validation.
Dostoevsky spends his efforts trying to be as psychologically astute as possible. His characters never disappoint and the conflicts between them are a clear description of what has happened and what is still happening around us.
Even though this novel is close to being 1.000 pages, it just gallops along and makes an easy read for any reader.
2. Dead Souls — Nikolai Gogol
“The current generation now sees everything clearly, it marvels at the errors, it laughs at the folly of its ancestors, not seeing that this chronicle is all overscored by divine fire, that every letter of it cries out, that from everywhere the piercing finger is pointed at it, at this current generation; but the current generation laughs and presumptuously, proudly begins a series of new errors, at which their descendants will also laugh afterwards.”
Nikolai Gogol, a close friend of Pushkin(Russia’s national poet and literary hero) was born in Ukraine and moved to Russia in his early twenties to pursue his literary ambitions.
After publishing a collection of short stories, Gogol got the attention of Pushkin, the one who suggested to him the plot of “Dead Souls” based on real events that he witnessed in a Russian county during his travels.
Gogol’s novel follows the story of Cicikov, a man who appears to be mysterious, intricate, and a man from the higher social class. He goes from county to county, asking landowners if they have dead souls for sale.
Speculations start right away. Some people claim that Cicikov is a black magician coming to prepare a ritual, while others claim that he is just an eccentric nobleman who has some peculiar habits which can be overlooked once you get to know him.
Gogol’s reveal of Cicikov’s true nature and intentions is so much more crushing for the reader than anything you’ve expected. The carefully crafted social image gets shattered by basic human needs.
If you want to see what drives a person to obtain social validation, I can’t recommend “Dead Souls” enough!
3. The Master and Margarita — Mikhail Bulgakov
“You pronounced your words as if you don’t acknowledge the shadows, or the evil either. Would you be so kind as to give a little thought to the question of what your good would be doing if evil did not exist, and how the earth would look if the shadows were to disappear from it?”
Mikhail Bulgakov had the misfortune to spend most of his adult life under the Stalinist regime of Russia.
After deciding to devote himself to literature, he abandoned his medical practice and started to write short stories and plays.
“The Master and Margarita” took Bulgakov 12 years to write and some parts of it were written while he was blinded by a hereditary disease, by dictating to his wife and having her read to him at the end of the day what was written.
The opening chapter of the book consists of two literary figures from Moscow stopping for a drink and discussing the probability and improbability of Jesus Christ’s existence. Shortly after, a black magician by the name of Woland interrupts them and offers his arguments regarding the existence of God.
When the two atheists get confused, Woland tells them he is Satan and that he witnessed the day of the Crucifixion and it is impossible for Jesus to be just a fairytale.
Bulgakov’s masterpiece was published only 30 years after his death due to the political circumstances of his time.
“The Master and Margarita” birthed some of the most well-known phrases in Russian literature such as manuscripts don’t burn or I don’t have any special talents, just an ordinary desire to live like a human being.
If you want to see Satan throw parties and black magic shows exposing the pretend social elite of the early 1920s and study one of the earliest works of magic realism, I recommend you read this Russian classic.
4. Crime and Punishment — Fyodor Dostoevsky
“I used to analyze myself down to the last thread, used to compare myself with others, recalled all the smallest glances, smiles and words of those to whom I’d tried to be frank, interpreted everything in a bad light, laughed viciously at my attempts ‘to be like the rest’ –and suddenly, in the midst of my laughing, I’d give way to sadness, fall into ludicrous despondency and once again start the whole process all over again — in short, I went round and round like a squirrel on a wheel.”
We’re back at the top!
“Crime and Punishment” was written when Dostoevsky was in desperate need of money. Rumor has it that he never revisited what he was writing and only did one draft of what came to be considered the greatest novel of all time.
Raskolnikov, the main character, is a young starving ex-student who is plagued by nihilistic ideas and doesn’t seem to be interested in anything. He spends his days walking around the summer-torched streets of Sankt Petersburg looking for something to snatch him out of his damaging routine full of self-loathing.
“Crime and Punishment” manages to paint, with absolute attention to psychological details, the motives behind people’s actions. Often times we are not aware of the reasons people act the way they do. Dostoevsky portrays the reality of an unseen world, our inner world, in hopes that we can change and notice the faults in our behavior.
By the end of the novel, tormented by police, his own family, and some strangers he got to know along the way, Raskolnikov undergoes a sever spiritual transformation. He learns not to be afraid of himself, of his thoughts, and what lies behind them.
This novel solidified Dostoevsky’s reputation within the Russian literary circles, but his determination of writing truthfully about what it means to be human never changed.
5. Anna Karenina — Leo Tolstoy
“He looked at her as a man looks at a faded flower he has gathered, with difficulty recognizing in it the beauty for which he picked and ruined it. And in spite of this he felt that then, when his love was stronger, he could, if he had greatly wished it, have torn that love out of his heart; but now when as at that moment it seemed to him he felt no love for her, he knew that what bound him to her could not be broken.”
It is common knowledge that Tolstoy hated “War and Peace” and refused to acknowledge it as his masterpiece. He spent seven years writing what came to be known as his magnum opus and one of the most beloved novels.
“Anna Karenina” is a novel that elaborates on social issues and how those issues affect our mentality. Tolstoy was amongst the first sociologists and he spent a great deal of time on the concept of domesticity and how it shapes our perspectives.
Tolstoy also debates with himself religious issues and uses the last chapters of the book as a venting aid. His futility and insignificance, when faced with the magnitude of the universe, become very clear and allows the reader to see who he really was a thinker.
Thanks for reading!
What are your favorite Russian novels?
