MEMOIRS OF THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD / DOSTOEVSKY

"In this almost documentary account of his own experiences of penal servitude in Serbia, Dostoevsky describes the physical and mental suffering of the convicts, the squalor and the degradation, in relentless detail. The inticate procedure whereby the men strip for the bath without removing their ten-pound leg-fetters is an extraordinary tour de force, compared by Turgenev to passages from Dante's Inferno. Terror and resignation - the rampages of a pyschopath, the brief serenceinterlude of Christmas Day - are evoked by Dostoevsky, writing several years after his release, with a strikingly uncharacteristic detachment. For this reason, House of the Dead is certainly the least Dostoevskian of his works, yet, paradoxically, it ranks among his great masterpieces. "

Dostoyevsky, F.; Coulson, J. S.; Hingley, R., Memoirs from the house of the dead. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2001; p xxiii, 366 p.

A HERO OF OUR TIME : CITAAT

"In my early youth after leaving my parents, I plunged into all the pleasures money could buy, and naturally these pleasures grew distasteful to me. Then I went into high society, but soon enough grew tired of it; I fell in love with beautiful society women and was loved by them, but their love only aggravated my imagination and vanity while my heart remained desolate . . . I began to read and to study, but wearied of learning too. I saw that neither fame nor happiness depended on it in the slightest, for the happiest people were the most ignorant, and fame was a matter of luck, to achieve which you only had to be clever. And I grew bored . . . " (p. 32-33)

A HERO OF OUR TIME / MIKHAIL LERMONTOV

"Lermontov’s only novel, A Hero of Our Time examines a weary and cynical man trapped in the futility of his age. Published in the early nineteenth century, it was to prove a hugely influential work for many subsequent Russian writers. Despite his obvious talents and natural abilities, Pechorin is restless and bored. Travelling from the civilised world of society drawing rooms, to the wilds of the Southern Caucasus, he embarks upon a quest for motivation and stimulation. But rather than finding the impetus he so craves, he instead becomes increasingly alienated from those around him. Sickened by the condition of his times, he chooses to reject a life of morality. This study of a man – and a society – in crisis was to become one of the most important books of its time."

HADJI MURAT / LEO TOLSTOY

"In Hadji Murat, Tolstoy recounts the extraordinary meeting of two polarized cultures—the refined, Europeanized court of the Russian tsar and the fierce Muslim chieftains of the Chechnen hills. This brilliant, culturally resonant fiction was written towards the end of Tolstoy’s life, but the conflict it describes has obvious, ironic parallels with current affairs today. It is 1852, and Hadji Murat, one of the most feared mountain chiefs, is the scourge of the Russian army. When he comes to surrender, the Russians are delighted. Or have they naively welcomed a double-agent into their midst? With its sardonic portraits—from the inscrutable Hadji Murat to the fat and bumbling tsar—Tolstoy’s story is an astute and witty commentary on the nature of political relations and states at war." (http://www.amazon.com/Hadji-Murat-Hesperus-Classics-Tolstoy/dp/1843910330)

OVERZICHT JAAR 1 (APRIL 2007 - MAART 2008)

Fictie:

• Jewgeni Onegin / Poesjkin
• We / Yevgeni Zamyatin
• The Foundation Pit / Andrei Platonov
• Envy / Yuri Olesha
• Red Cavalry / Isaac Babel
• De Speler / Dostojewski
• Herinneringen uit het Ondergrondse / Dostojewski
• Zomer in Baden-Baden / Leonid Tsypkin
• Vaders en Zonen / Toergenjev
• Poor People / Dostoevsky
• Family Happiness / Leo Tolstoy
• The Kreutzer Sonate / Leo Tolstoy

Non-Fictie:

• Natasja's Dans: een culturele geschiedenis van Rusland / Orlando Figes
• Tussen Iemand en Niemand / Joseph Brodsky
• In Anderhalve Kamer / Joseph Brodsky
• Tragedie van een volk: de Russische revolutie 1891-1924 / Orlando Figes
• Anna of all the Russians: a life of Anna Akhmatova / Elaine Feinstein
• Stalins jeugdjaren: van rebel tot Rode Tsaar / Montefiore
• Fluisteraars: Leven onder Stalin / Orlando Figes

Film:

• Offret / Tarkovsky
• Russian Ark / Alexandr Sokurov
• Alexandra / Alexandr Sokurov
• Staking / Eisenstein

Kleine brekening

• Non-fictie: 3.486 p.
• Fictie: 2.222 p.
• Dit maakt samen: 5.708 p.
• Film: 425 min.

En...

• Beste non-fictie: Stalins Jeugdjaren
• Beste fictie: Zomer in Baden-Baden
• Beste film: Russian Ark