New Russian Classics Series: TBR & Favorites // Carolyn(Marya)Reads // 2021

[Music] hello everyone welcome or welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is carolyn and i am going to be talking about russian literature so i am going to be starting a whole series on my channel where i bring you guys along on my russian literature journey i over the past year especially have fallen head over heels in love with russian literature and specific leo tolstoy's russian literature but because of my great love for the russian literature that i have read so far i want to keep going on this wonderful journey and bring you guys along with me so i'm so excited to talk to you guys about the russian books that i have read and the books that i'm really eager to read the ones that i have on my physical tbr the ones that i have on my non-physical tbr so that's usually good reads and i'm just so excited so i am just recently graduated from university so i have much more time to dedicate to reading and i'm so excited to do more with this channel and to really perfect the videos that i make and upload more consistently and do the things that i wasn't able to do because i didn't have a lot of time while i went to school now i have so much time to dedicate to my reading journey my reading life as well as preparing for my career as an artist and an illustrator and this is one of the things that i'm most excited about is russian literature i am american and just in case you didn't know you were wondering and so reading russian literature i've learned so much about russian culture and in a weird way i've never been to russia but i feel like i have been there through the literature that i have read so i'm going to share with you the books the first russian literature book that i read as well as the others that i have fallen in love with i'm going to talk about the books that i've read so far and then my physical tbr as well as the plans for this series so this series i was trying to come up with a clever name my channel name is carolyn marie reads because that is my first and middle name and then reads just at the end because that's what i do on this channel i read so i was thinking the russian version of marie is maria which is a wonderful character from war and peace is maria bokonskaya andre bokonski's sister and i thought what if i named this series carolyn maria reads so it will be my russian twin reading russian literature so carolyn mario reads the russians or reads russian literature i was just trying to think of a clever name if you have any ideas for a clever name for this series then please share them with me i would love to know i am not planning on making this a book club or anything just because i am already doing the dickens versus tolstoy book club with my amazing friend emma which is dedicated to reading leo tolstoy's works and charles dickens works as well as debating which one is the greater 19th century novelist as well as just getting through the whole chronology of their books which is just really exciting so if you don't know about dickens versus toaster i will leave all the information down below in case you want to join us it's never too late to join we just had our war and peace debate the other day which was more like a war and peace gush session but if you want to watch that it is on my channel as well as a bunch of other reading vlogs for war and peace and a bunch of other books as well so i am a great lover of classics and what i want to do not only while reading russian classics but also reading russian classics that not a lot of people talk about i've been doing a lot a lot of research and i have found quite a few of them that i don't hear too much about or i've never heard of before so i can't wait to share that with you as well which is also going to kind of be another series on my channel but that will be a whole separate video so mainly kind of giving light to a very specific genre of classics classics is such a huge genre and i am really interested in russian classics and also the russian classics that not as many people know about without further ado i'm going to share with you the books that i've read so far and my tbr so the first russian book that i ever read was how much land does a man need and what men live by by leo tolstoy this is a penguin little black classics this is number 57 and this is made up of two of leo tolstoy's short stories how much land does a man need and what men live by i absolutely fell head over heels in love with both of these short stories it was a great introduction to tolstoy i have a lot of these books which are great introductions to classics i really wanted to read anna karenina by leo tostoy but i was really nervous because it is so big so i thought you know what this would be a great way to introduce myself to leo tolstoy and to get me comfortable dip my toe into what his writing is like because also it is in translation obviously so the translator of this book or these two short stories is by ronald wilkes if you're nervous about russian literature as well i really recommend reading short stories or reading plays something that's not as scary as one of the epics which speaking of epics we have my favorite book of all time this is my favorite book on the face of the earth if you have been following my channel for any amount of time you will know this already and that is an academia by leo tolstoy this was my second russian classic which is quite the beast but it is a beauty and a beast it is the greatest book of all time the best book i've ever read and we are going to be rereading it in july and august for dickens vs tolstoy and i'm so excited to be rereading my favorite book so if you guys want to join us definitely do if you're nervous about anika nina if you're nervous about russian literature then i think doing it with a group of people is really nice and exciting and it makes it a bit less daunting so this was my second russian classic and i fell absolutely head over heels in love with this book uh it is honestly part of my personality now this book was life-changing it was incredible it was just everything that i wanted in a book i'm not going to be talking too much about synopsis just because that would make this video very very long but i will just say that it is so fast paced a wonderful first read for a tolstoy book if you want to start off with one of his big books either war and peace or anna karenina i would recommend starting with anna because it's much more fast-paced it's gripping and even though there are slower parts of the book i they were some of my favorite parts uh specifically about the agricultural parts uh following levin i just loven's my all-time favorite fictional character and this book is a wonderful place to start with leo tolstoy and it's just the best book ever so that was my second book that i read and then i read gooseberries by anton chekhov which is number 34 in the little black classics from penguin and the oh the um i didn't say the translator i actually read it from this edition about nika nina my first read of it this is the mod translation by louise and elmer mod which is my favorite translation of it i've heard mixed things about different translators some people like the anthony briggs translation some people like like the richard paver and larissa volkovsky translation um some people like constance garnet so it really depends on your personal preference for me i love the mod translation this translation richard peever and larissa velikonski which is um the penguin clothbound this one is translated by ronald wilks again so this is gooseberries a collection of his short stories check off short stories and this is my first and only checkup that i've read but i have some more chekhov which i'm so excited to read in the future and i really really enjoyed these so i can't wait to read more from him and then the next book i it disappeared i had it the other day and now i cannot find it and that is the little black classics version or edition of the meek one by fedor dostrevski that is the first dostoyevsky that i ever read which again i wanted to read a small book of his before i went into crime and punishment so the first book that i read from dostoyevsky is the meek one i really liked it again it was a great introduction to dostoevsky and then i read crime and punishment by fiona dostowski i'm not sure who the translator is of the meek one because again i don't have it with me this one is translated by richard peever and theresa velakonski they are amazing i've watched quite a few of their interviews and i just love hearing them speak about russian literature it's amazing and crime and punishment i honestly didn't love it when i first read it but i feel like i read it when i wasn't in the mood for it and i'm definitely a really a really big mood reader so i want to reread this book eventually when i'm really in the mood for it i enjoyed it but i didn't love it as much as i was expecting to and i know so many people are die hard dostoevsky fans he's actually back there peeking out um and tell stories over here but i'm really excited to read more dostoevsky i have quite a few of his books as well on my tbr and i'm really excited to just read more so this is also the every man's library uh edition which these are so nice and they have quite a few russian books in those editions then the next russian classic i read was childhood boyhood youth by leo tolstoy this was the first book for dickens versus toe story that emma and i did in january and i loved it every single telstra book i've read i've given five stars to it has become a favorite they are just all amazing till story just blows me away um so this book is also another really good introduction to tolstoy because it isn't quite long i mean it's a good number of pages it's almost 400 but i think that it's more accessible um if you're intimidated by his bigger books and you want to get into toastery love this book amazing and if you want to watch emma and i debate it then that will be i believe it's on my channel i will link everything down below um in terms of dickens and tolstoy then the next book that i read and the next russian classic it's a war and peace by leo tolstoy look at the amount of annotations in this book i just did a how i annotate video but specifically how i annotated war and peace so if you are interested in that i'm not sure if it's going to go up before or after this video this has become such a close second to my favorite book of all time anna karanina has a really special place in my heart because it was the first big classic russian classic that got me into my love of russian literature so but this one is just like in a league of its own it is just in its own genre in its own category of my heart this book is just everything it's literally everything this is the book that is indescribable i try to describe this book and i can i try to describe my love for this book i can't i try to describe how profound this book is how life changing this book is and i can't so if you want to hear me talk all about war and peace i have so many videos on my channel about war and peace so that's that um and now that is it for the russian books that i have read i have read only one two three four five six seven russian books but i have loved all of them so much and it has created such a love for russian literature that i can't wait to share the books that i'm going to be reading so the series that i'm planning to do on my channel is really going to be mainly reading vlogs book discussions book reviews and different things surrounding russian literature i love doing research about russian literature russian culture and just everything to do with russian literature pretty much so that's what the videos are going to be and i'm really excited to share with you guys the books that i'll be reading so my plan is to hopefully read one russian classic a month as well as my telstra book for whenever it's a toaster month for dickinson tolstoy so i don't really have a set schedule just because i'm already in two book clubs that i co-host so i wanted this to be more lenient i wanted to not feel super pressured with this i didn't want to have it to be super structured i just wanted it to be i'm going to talk to you guys about specific russian classics and film different things for you guys so that's my plan speaking of tolstoy i thought i would just share with you guys the toastery books that i will be reading these are the ones that i already have physically there are a lot that i don't own that i will be reading for dickinson tolstoy but for now these are the ones that i do own this is leotosus master and man and other stories this is the vintage version of the penguin black spines this one is translated by paul foote so if you want to know the actual schedule of the dickinson tolstoy that is in my announcement video for dickinson tolstoy as well as on my instagram under the story highlight dvt so if you want to know the books that we will be reading i'm not sure the order of the short stories from tolstoy that we'll be reading but this one has a few of his short stories it has hajimeret it has and father sergey so it just has those three then we have the kurzir sonata and other stories by lyoto street this is translated by roger cockrell and this is the alma classics new translation edition it has the courtier sonata after the ball master and man the prisoner of the caucuses and as well as an afterward of the kritzer sonata notes on the text notes extra material leo tolstoy's life leo tostoi's works and selected bibliography so that has quite a few of his short stories in them as well the next one i have is leo tolstoy's resurrection this is just the resurrection this is translated by rosemary edmonds i'm really excited to see the different translations and if i prefer one over the other or i'm just interested to see how different people translate tolstoy or more specifically how they translate russian literature in general so really excited to read more tolstoy the next and last one that i have is the death of ivan ilyich by leo tolstoy of course this one i believe is translated by anthony briggs which i've heard mixed things about the briggs translation i was watching an interview of larissa valkonsky and richard paver and they were talking about they were just they weren't saying anything bad about the briggs translation but they were saying that the certain vocabulary that he uses is very modern to the point where it's just unrealistic to think that toaster would speak that way it's just not as authentic so i don't know if i'm going to be reading from this translation i might i might not i probably will because i own it then i would have to get another edition of it but i don't know we're gonna see what what happens with that then talking more about dostoyevsky the other dostoevsky books that i want to read is white nights this one is number 118 this one is not number 87 for um the death of you on ivic that then we have white nice is translated by ronald mayer all these different translators some of them i haven't heard of so i'm excited to read white nights i've heard quite a few things about it and it sounds amazing and i just have a feeling that i'm going to love it and it's a shorter dostoevsky so that makes me a bit more excited to read it um then we have notes from underground and the double by justice key i've heard absolutely incredible things about notes from underground so can't wait to read this one this one is translated by jesse coulson so many different translators my dream in life would be to be able to read russian i was tempted to try and learn russian through the duolingo app because that's how i'm slowly learning french and my greatest language dream in life is to be able to read russian so that i could read these amazing books in their original language but i don't know i feel like i need some encouragement but maybe i should try it maybe that would be fun to be part of the part of the series i'm just coming up with ideas as i film this right now maybe i can try and learn russian and film a little bit of it maybe would that be fun maybe i'll do like a russian vocab word of the day i think that would be fun all i know for now is stress fizzy and process which is hello and goodbye i believe um excuse my pronunciation and then the next cfc book that i have is the brothers karamazov and this is so many people's favorite dostoevsky and i cannot wait to read it it is an absolute beast it is how many pages pretty much a thousand pages which is just a lot says the girl that just read war and peace this one is translated by david mcduff i've never heard of him before either so i'm very excited to read this one and i feel like this one is going to be quite a few reading vlogs because it's going to be a long one and i'm probably going to have a lot to say about it now we are going into just other authors not just to get dostoevsky or tostoy so the next book that i have on my pile not going really in any order it is in this modern library edition this is dr zhivago by boris pasternak i have been so greatly anticipating reading this book for years and years and years i just my mom um watched i forgot what version of them she watched a movie version and whenever i talk about russian literature she's like you have to read um dr zhivaga you have to read dr zhivago she's never read it before but she loves this movie so much that she wants me to read the book i watched akira nightly version of i believe it's a mini series adaptation and i really loved it that was a while ago so i remember the main plot but i don't remember the details as well as that's just an adaptation i'm sure there is the book is just always so much better and leaves out quite a lot in the adaptation so i can't wait to read um dr zhivago i don't know if i'm going to be reading it from this edition because there are the vintage russian classics that have like the red textiles that are just gorgeous i have been staring at those for so long and i haven't bought the collection for myself and i think one of these days i'm just going to bite the bullet and order all of them because i love that edition of dr zhivago so much this one is translated by max hayward and mania harari oh and then this also has the poems of yuri zhivago yes that is dr zhivago can't wait to read it i am so anticipating that one the next one that i have is the steel flea by nikolai leskov i have heard amazing things about nikolai leskov and i am so glad that i have so many of the little black classics because again it's a great way to introduce yourself to an author so this one is number 40 and i haven't i don't know what this is about but i like not knowing too much with the shorter ones just because you know again they're short so i don't want to go in knowing too much about them the next one i have i found at my local libraries bookshop which this was i believe like 50 cents and i'm so excited that my friend actually found it and pointed it out to me and that is yvonne boone's the gentleman from san francisco and other stories i've heard again amazing things about bunin so i can't wait to read the gentleman from san francisco and other stories this one is translated by david richards and sophie lund and it says on the back boonen represents the last flowering of the great tradition of trigonometh and tolstoy love it love it love it love it can't wait to read this one speaking of ivan turganev i do have first love by ivan targanev and i can't wait to read this one my friend emma from her youtube channel emmy recently read this and gave it five stars and she said that she loved it and she thinks that all of it so i can't wait to read this one as well it sounds absolutely amazing it is basically a story of first love and those are some of my favorites and it's very very short so i'm hopefully going to be reading this one very soon the next trigger i have is kasian from beautiful lands i don't know if i'm pronouncing that name correctly cassion this one is number 75 and again it's a great short version of stepping into the author's works as well as first loves is very short so i don't feel too nervous about going into turganov but i really want to read father and son fathers and sons father and sons i really want to read that one but i don't have that one on my physical tbr so i will have to get that one uh in my hands very soon the next one that i have i also found secondhand and that is spring turrants and this one i forgot to share the translators this one is translated by leonard shapiro um spring turns i recently someone recommended me a a movie version of spring turns i think from the 80s and it's available on youtube so i think i'm going to read it first and then watch the movie which i'm very excited about first love is translated by isaiah berlin and then this one the um kisan from bead from the beautiful lands is translated by richard freeborn so those are the translators for turganev and there are so many turgnav books that i want to read but i don't have all of them so i will have to get my hands on them the next two the next one i'm so excited about i think every time i look up anything about russian literature this book pops up and that is a hero of our time by miguel lermantov and i can't wait to read this book again i got it second hand this is one of the older penguin classics this one is translated by paul foote just like the other one um so yes can't wait to read this book do i know what it's about not really but am i extremely excited to read it yes very much so and it's quite short i feel like when you think of russian literature it's a it's a bit daunting because you think of anakin born peace crime and punishment the brothers karamazov you think of these huge books but there are some quite accessible russian classics that are less known that i can't wait to read so then we have another one that i'm so excited about and i might butcher this pronunciation but that is eugenio nagin by alexander pushkin or eugene as we would americanize it and this is the epic poem by pushkin i have yet to read any pushkin this one is going to be my first because i just want to start with the classic of all classic russians and this was given to me by a wonderful viewer and friend heather so thank you heather so so much and i can't wait to read this this one is translated by stanley mitchell very very excited to read this one i have heard again amazing things so can't wait can't wait there are so many that i'm so excited for the next ones we have more chekhov so anton chekhov's plays this is just a penguin classics collection of his plays i don't think it's all of them this one is translated with notes by peter carson and it has an introduction by richard gilman let's see what plays are in here it has ivanov the seagull uncle vanya three sisters and the cherry orchard which are i think some of his most well-known plays and i can't wait to read them i am so very excited i last semester my last semester of university i was taking a writing course because i got my minor in writing and my professor my writing professor recommended me because i wrote a short story set in russia and he recommended me some of chekov's short stories and plays so then i got this edition this is selected stories of anton chekhov this one is translated by richard paver and larissa velakonski this edition is from modern library and this has a selection of anton chekhov's short stories so let's see which ones are in here quite quite a few um oh gosh the death of a clerk small fry the huntsman the male factor panic panichida nikita i'm sorry for my pronunciation anjuda anjuta easter night ivanka sleepy a boring story gusev peasant woman the fidget in exile ward number six the black monk rothschilds fiddle the student anna on the neck or ana on the neck the house with the mezzanine the man in a case gooseberries a medical case the darling an official business the lady with the little dog at christmas time in the ravine the bishop and the fiancee the next books that i have are nikolai the nose this one is number 90 96 46 of the penguin little black classics and this one is translated by ronald wilks so i have yet to read any global but i am so so so excited to read some nikolai gogo the next one i have is goggles play the inspector this is a comedy in five acts translated from the russian by richard nelson richard peever and larissa velakonski so this one was gifted to me by my wonderful friend lucy from crescentpages so lucy thank you so so so much i cannot wait to read it this edition is also gorgeous from the theater communications group that's really cool um forthcoming titles is a month in in the country by ivan triganev and the cherry orchard by anton chekhov this um edition or publisher publishes a lot of these which i have had my eye on for a while so i can't wait to get my hands on a few more of those editions then the second to last one is one of my most beautiful russian classics and that is the master and margarita by miguel bogakov i have yet to read bocakoff and i thought the perfect place to start would be master and margarita because i think it's his most well-known and well-loved books and it just sounds like a wild ride it sounds so crazy and fun and exciting and i can't wait to read it so this is the penguin deluxe edition these are gorgeously illustrated this is like the book design job of my dreams i am just so in love with these this is translated by translated by richard paver and larissa valkonsky with a forward by boris fishman the next and last fiction book that i have and then the very last book is actually a non-fiction about russian literature this one is lolita by vladimir nabakov this is not set in russia but nabakov obviously is a russian writer so i thought that i would include his books in this series as well i have been greatly anticipating lolita i have heard many different things about this book i know that i'm not going to love i'm i'm definitely going to be horrified by the subject matter but the writing is what i'm most excited about i've read the first few lines of this book and it is just gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous so i can't wait to read lolita and i think it would be really interesting to follow along with my reading of it and see how i feel about it because i don't know how i'm going to feel about it honestly and i'm really excited but also a little nervous about reading this book so that is lolita the last book that i have is a nonfiction about russian literature and it is a book that i'm so excited to read and that is george saunders a swim in a pond in the rain in which four russians give a master class on writing reading and life this is a somewhat new release and this is george saunders writing about different russian writers and it's basically a non-fiction about russian literature it specifically talks about four authors in particular it talks about chekhov turganev tolstoy and google so that's why i want to read especially more russian literature specifically from those four authors so that i want to read those first and then read this book because i'll be learning more about russian literature and specific some of these some of these stories and plays some of the works that he talks about i will share with you he talks about um in the cart by anton chekhov the singers by ivan turganev the darling by anton chekhov master and man by leo tolstoy the nose by uh nikolai gogo gooseberries by anton chekhov alocia the pot by leo tolstoy and it has different um appendix so a cutting exercise an escalation exercise a translation exercise so it has different things all about russian literature and i'm just so incredibly excited to read this book after i read more amazing russian classics so those are the books on my physical tbr if you go on my goodreads and you go to my tags which have like my all-time favorite books my favorite books the tbr i own different tags there's one russian literature where you can find all of the books that i am hoping to read that i don't have on my physical tbr so with that being said thank you so much for watching let me know if you love russian literature what you love about russian literature i really want this series to be a conversation between all of us i want us to all talk about russian literature and if you want to join me this isn't going to be structured like i said but if you want to buddy read or join me maybe send me a message and i can let you know when i'm going to be reading it and if you are able to read it you can join me um but i'm not too sure i want it to sort of be something that just like hits me whenever i'm in the mood i'll just pick up one of these books hopefully one a month i'm not too sure if i'm going to be able to do that but that's kind of my plan anyway so let me know what your favorite russian book is talk to me about russian literature i am so interested in it if you are russian do you recommend a specific translation have you read any of it in the translation um do you have any suggestions do you have any anything you want to share with me i would be so interested being an american i do feel like there is this great barrier between me and these books but i'm excited to try and knock that barrier down and to just fall in love with more russian literature so thank you guys so much for watching this video let me know if you are excited about this let me know if there are specific books that you would definitely want me to read and to talk about and i will definitely read and talk about them so thank you so much for watching this video and for being so lovely and supportive and i will see you soon with more classics and specifically more russian classics so i hope you're having a wonderful day and i will see you in another video happy reading [Music] you

Channel: CarolynMarieReads

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Rating: 4.9845262 out of 5

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Id: t-7pJsMVvD8

Length: 33min 4sec (1984 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 08 2021