More Pivot's "Ideal library": the Russian novel

Book was published in 1988, so nothing later than that appears, ok?

Side note: interesting how much was available in France more than 20 years ago that's only getting some attention in N. America now.

Touchstones--as Allah sees fit to bestow...

Oh, and I MADE the effort to find out English translations for all the titles, but some just don't exist and a few I couldn't decide on.

1. The master and Margarita—Mikhail Bulgakov

2. Dead souls—Nikolai Gogol

3. Doctor Zhivago—Boris Pasternak

4. Cancer ward—Alexander Solzhenitsin

5. The steppe—Anton Chekov

6. Anna Karenina—Leo Tolstoy

7. Captain’s daughter –Alexander Pushkin

8. A hero of our times—Mikhail Lermontov

9. The idiot—Fyodor Dostoevsky

10. Kolyma tales—Varlam Shalamov

11. Red cavalry—Isaac Babel

12. Petersbourg—Andrey Bely

13. The gentleman from San Francisco—Ivan Bunin

14. The faculty of useless knowledge—Yuri Dombrovsky

15. Oblomov—Ivan Goncharov

16. Childhood—Maxim Gorky

17. Life and fate—Vasily Grossman

18. Twelve chairs—Ilf and Petrov

19. Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk—Nikolai Leskov

20. The Luzhin defence—Vladimir Nabokov

21. Soul—Andrei Platonov

22. First love—Ivan Turgenev

23. The death of Vazir-Mukhtar—Yuri Tynyanov

24. We—Yevgeny Zamyatin

25. The yawning heights—Aleksandr Zinovyev

26. The white ship—Chingiz Aitmatov

27. Years of childhood or maybe A Russian schoolboy—Sergei Aksakov

28. The seven who were hanged—Leonid Andreyev

29. The accompanist—Nina Berberova

30. Sotnikov—Vasily Bykov

31. Quiet Don—Mikhail Sholokhov

32. Moscow-Petushki—Venedikt Erofeyev

33. She who runs on the waves—Alexander Grin

34. Sandro of Chegem—Fazil Iskander

35. The scandalmonger—Veniamin Kaverin

36. The thief—Leonid Leonov

37. Envy—Yuri Olesha

38. Story of a life—Konstantin Paustovsky

39. Mahogany and other stories—Boris Pilnyak

40. Money for Maria—Valentin Rasputin

41. Les yeux tondus—Alexey Remizov

42. The Golovyov family—Mikhail Saltykov-Schedrin

43. Goodnight!—Andrei Sinyavsky

44. Monday begins on Saturday—Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

45. Sofia Petrovna—Lydia Chukovskaya

46. Une disparition de haute importance—Edward Topol and Friedrich Neznansky

47. The house on the embankment—Yuri Trifonov

48. Faithful Ruslan—Georgi Vladimov

49. The life and extraordinary adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin—Vladimir Voinovich

The Quiet Don is usually translated as And Quiet Flows the Don. I've read this book and enjoyed it very much. It's a great look at peasant life among the Cossacks before and during WWI. The sequel, The Don Flows Home to the Sea, which I own, but have yet to read, continues the story through the triumph of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Thanks for the correction. Won't edit my post--it brings all the touchstones to zero... I read some shorter pieces of Sholokhov's, didn't care for him, never tackled the Don novels... Interestingly, there's a sidebar in Pivot's book, "Who wrote Tikhy Don?", assigning actual authorship to a "Cossack writer", Fyodor Kryukov. Apparently this is an old literary scandal, dating from the first publication of the novel.

>2 geneg: & 3 Yes, The Quiet Don was dogged by accusations of plagiarism from its publication in 1928. Sholokov's archives from the 1920s and 1930s were destroyed in WW2, leaving him no way of actually proving that he wrote the novel. However, the publication of Sholokov's correspondence with Stalin in the 1990s has more or less proved (as much as can be proved with no manuscript) Sholokov's authorship.

#32 is usually translated as Moscow Circle. I have not read it.

What's really interesting about this list is its weighting towards 20th century novels (many of which are new to me- we need to get some translations going here). Apart from the usual 19 century suspects, where is War and Peace? Where is The Brother's Karamazov? Any list of Russian novels that leaves off those two is a bit lacking, imeo.

For Pushkin, I would not put The Captain's Daughter (actually rather boring- sorry, Alexander Sergeivich, but it's true) but Eugene Onegin, of course. And I would also put Fathers and Sons instead of First Love for Turgenev.

Lola, don't you think Tsypkin's novel about Dostoevsky should be on it?

I would love to read that Aksakov, now that is rare in English.

I agree that The Brother's Karamazov belongs on the list, as does War and Peace, though I prefer Anna Karenina. Summer in Baden Baden would definitely be a good addition.

I am not sure, but War and peace and the Bros. Karamazov are listed somewhere else in Pivot's book. The lists are restricted to 49 titles but with important writers Pivot would cheat and list them also under other headings - best 49 love stories - best 49 war stories...

Can't ever trust these frenchies...

Happy Eastern to you all

Yes, War and Peace is included in the "Historical novel" section. There are about 2400 titles compiled in 49 sections, with additional hundreds (at least) scattered in side bars, interviews and the appendices... Maybe 3000 titles in all?

A quick search doesn't seem to find any complete listing on the web, but here you can see at least the category (section) headings (don't bother clicking on them though, the title lists seem to have expired unfortunately):

http://www.planirom.qc.ca/secondemain/incontournable.htm

Lola, don't you think Tsypkin's novel about Dostoevsky should be on it?

I forget, when was it first published? It may have been after 1988... I don't think Tsypkin published (was allowed to publish) anything at all during his lifetime (except maybe scholarly papers.) Personally I liked it, but it seems a minor effort contrasted to this list... A very private thing, perhaps is a better way of putting it.

Intensely interesting for any serious readers of Dostoevsky, of course.