I must go back to the great Russians

I’m just listening to an item on the radio about a woman in her fifties who is learning Russian in order to be able to read some of the greats of Russian literature in Russian. She took us to her first language class where the students are given pictures of typical Russian items such as balalaika, food and a furry hat with ear-flaps.

I did try and learn Russian once from a teach-yourself book; it wasn’t a great success but I did learn the Cyrillic alphabet and the sounds of the language, and it did give me a glimpse into how it works. Unlike the lady on the radio I wasn’t doing it to read Russian literature but I have read a lot of Russian literature, including many of the classics.

This programme is reminding me how much I enjoyed them… that sounds strange when the subject matter of so many are gloomy and tragic. War and Peace by Tolstoy, I loved it, the character of Pierre Bezukhof still entrances me, but Anna Karenina, I didn’t like her very much when I read it as a young woman of a similar age… Dostoevsky, yes I read most of the famous ones, and some of the less well-known… Nikolai Gogol – I found him very amusing, but would I still? Anton Chekov – I read the plays but do you know, I’ve never actually watched any, not even ‘The Cherry Orchard’. I was a voracious reader, Turgenev, Pasternak, Solzhenystyn, Pushkin… and my absolute favourite Mikhail Bulgakov.

Perhaps I should reread some, or maybe I should read some of the ones I’ve missed!