I was wondering what do you folks feel about Russian literature. Which author would be your favorite?
For example, I just love Mikhail Bulgakov, especially “Master and Margarita”, and Aleksandr Pushkin. Also Sergei Lukjanenko is great (that’s probably because of my love to sf).

I confess I have really only read the classics,eg, War and Peace, Anna Karenina, The Brothers Karamazov etc and those only in translation. I do not enjoy Sci Fi, so what would you advise me to read if I wanted to go to modern Russian writers ?

Another vote here for The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky which I loved. I am currently in the middle of Tolstoy's War and Peace.

For memorable imagery, And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov cannot be beaten. Fabulous stuff.

Ren33, I myself am not so into modern russian literature. If just to mention some XX century writers, I would name Bulgakov (it's not sci-fi, but still quite mystical), Nabokov, Solzhenitsyn (especially Gulag Archipelago).
It depends what kind of books you like.

I am just learning to love the poet Marina Tsvetaeva. I can't read Russian, but there are some good Czech translations. The really classic novels I haven't read many of - which is something I am a little ashamed of - but I did read War and Peace and Anna Kareninova and they were great.

Russian satirist Eugene Zamyatin, back in the early days of Communism, wrote the first of the "dystopian" novels, "We", in 1924. It paved the way for Huxley's "Brave New World" and Orwell's "1984". (Orwell acknowledged Zamyatin's influence) tjoeb};>

[ May 22, 2002, 03:57 PM: Message edited by: tjoebigham ]

I CAN join in here, but only because I read, and enjoyed "Cancer Ward", by Solzhenitsyn, when I was 17...33 years ago! I felt so accomplished...I enjoyed it. Well, maybe not "enjoyed"...but it was very moving and made me feel emotionally "grown" or something, because I "got" it. Perhaps, as 50 approaches, I should read it again. I also read "The Chosen" by Haim(sp?) Potek (sp?)...and though, as usual, I forget the details, I remember I LOVED it...but I digress, don't think that's Russian...

Joseph Brodsky!

Good Russian writers... there are too many of them...
My favourite is Bulgakov - not only the famous "The Master and Margarita", but also "The Heart of the Dog" and many other books...

I recently read "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok, and loved it. I don't think he's Russian; maybe a Jew of Russian descent?