Book recs
Being the literate bunch that you all are, I'm hoping I can get some good recs. I'm looking for books that.. well, the best defining characteristic I can come up with for what I'm craving is a depiction of a culture that is not modern American. For example, 1400's to 1800's Europe would be awesome, or Russia before the revolution, or rural India, settlers in early America, so on and so forth. Anything, really; it doesn't even have to be perfectly historically accurate. Especially awesome if its about famous historical figures, but certainly doesn't have to be. No criteria for plot, I'm open to anything. Pretty wide criteria, I know, but I have a lot of interests and too many empty bookshelves :) Any help you can give would be much appreciated!

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azazello
2008-06-02 07:46 pm UTC (link)

War and Peace for a depiction of a (largely aristocratic) Russia of the years up to, and after the Napoleonic invasion of 1812. It is very long, but truly awesome.

Dostoevsky for lower aristocracy or lower still class in later 19th Century Russia:

The Possessed (AKA The Devils)

Crime and Punishment

The Brothers Karamazov

Chekhov's short stories are priceless by a master (possibly THE master) of the art of short story.

Russian novels are mostly set in the 19th Century and later because they were exceedingly late in developing secular art forms, and when they did, they tended to import French or German cultural models. Pushkin essentially started an indigenous literature from scratch.

For a brilliant non-fictional introduction to Russian Culture, read "Natasha's Dance" by Orlando Figes. For a more scholarly overview from earliest times, "The Icon and the Axe" by J H Billington is a classic.

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	re_weird 2008-06-03 12:16 am UTC (link)
	Natasha's Dance! I remember getting that for Christmas; I loved it. Thank you for the other rec. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	pishbadlarr 2008-06-03 12:37 am UTC (link)
	I have a copy of Crime and Punishment, but I've been holding off on it for fear it would be like Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, which I just couldn't get through. It was too convoluted to really hold my interest after she died. :( Are their writing style substantially different or am I just being dumb? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

arien
2008-06-03 02:59 am UTC (link)

I loathe Tolstoy, except for The Death of Ivan Illych; he was basically a rich nobleman who wished to idolize peasant life without having to go through the trouble of living like a peasant. I don't blame you in the least for not liking Anna Karenina. Dostoyevsky is much better; his novels are very urban -- very good if you're interested in depictions of the city -- and he's great at exploring the psyche of loner-type characters.

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	cmikhailovic 2008-06-03 04:03 am UTC (link)
	For more Russian stuff, Boris Akunin's Erast Fandorin mystery series is AWESOME, and set in late 19th c. St. Petersburg. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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