Beginners' guide to reading Russian literature in the original

Please be patient - I'm going to finish this article very shortly! Thanks

If you've been learning Russian for a couple of years, or have reached about A Level standard, then the perfect way to improve your level and to quickly expand your vocabulary is to start reading Russian literature. Indeed for many people, this is the main motivation for studying Russian in the first place, and it's certainly true that you will experience a joy in reading Russian books in the original language that simply isn't the same in translation.

It can be daunting deciding what to read and finding the Russian texts, so here is a guide to some of the best texts to start with, which are short and simple enough to get you going and will hopefully whet your appetite for more!

Short prose fiction
What makes Russian literature so accessible to foreign learners is the abundance of short fictional texts, which is something that isn't so widely known about in Britain. We tend to think of the great novelists Dostoevsky and Tolstoy and their epic tomes, or Chekhov and his plays. But in fact, these writers and most others are just as celebrated in Russia for their short stories and novellas, which have always played a more significant role in the literary scene there than in the UK.

How short is short?
It's worth being aware that Russians tend to refer to two distinct genres of short literature, the rasskaz and the povest'. Рассказ (rasskaz) is a short story, such as those by Anton Chekhov.
По́весть (povest') is more like a novella, somewhere in length between a short story and a novel. I've given the length of texts below, where possible. Some may think it demeaning to approach literature in such a way, but I think it's encouraging in the early days to start small and work up to longer texts as you get more confident and faster at reading.

See below for a list of recommended works, divided according to length. The links take you to summaries for each of the authors covered, who are also listed below in roughly chronological order.

Less than 10,000 words, or about 30 pages
Выстрел - Pushkin
Метель - Pushkin
Гробовщик- Pushkin
Станционный смотритель - Pushkin
Барышня-крестьянка - Pushkin

Less than 25,000 words, or about 80 pages
Герой нашего времени - Lermontov

Up to 50,000 words, or about 150 pages


The following are the authors of the texts listed above:
Pushkin
Lermontov
Gogol
Turgenev
Leskov
Tolstoy
Chekhov
Bunin
Babel
Zamyatin
Zoshenko
Bulgakov
Ilf and Petrov
Solzhenitsyn
Dovlatov





Гоголь Николай Васильевич

Нос
Translated as The Nose
http://az.lib.ru/g/gogolx_n_w/text_0100.shtml

Гоголь, “Шинель” (1839)
http://ilibrary.ru/text/980/p.1/index.html
http://az.lib.ru/g/gogolx_n_w/text_0120.shtml
Translated as The Overcoat

Невский Проспект
Translated as Nevskii Prospect
http://az.lib.ru/g/gogolx_n_w/text_0090.shtml

Turgenev
Ася
http://www.rvb.ru/turgenev/01text/vol_05/01text/0177.htm
Translated as Asya

Первая любовь
Translated as First Love
http://www.rvb.ru/turgenev/01text/vol_06/01text/0186.htm

Записки охотника (1847-1874)
http://www.rvb.ru/turgenev/tocvol_03.htm
Collection of short stories, translated as Notes of a Hunter


Leskov
Леди Макбет Мценского уезда
http://www.rvb.ru/leskov/01text/vol_01/004.htm
Translated as Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

Толстой Лев Николаевич
Крейцерова соната (1889)
http://www.rvb.ru/tolstoy/01text/vol_12/01text/0284.htm
Kreutzer Sonata

Хаджи-Мурат (1896)
Khadji Murad
http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_lew_nikolaewich/text_0250.shtml

Кавказский пленник (1872)
Prisoner of the Caucasus
http://ilibrary.ru/text/1846/p.1/index.html

Казаки (1863)
Севастополь в декабре месяце
Севастополь в мае
Смерть Ивана Ильичаhttp://www.rvb.ru/tolstoy/01text/vol_3/01text/0023.htm
The Cossacks











Бабель, Иссак Эмануилович
Конармия (1920s)
Translated as Red Cavalry

Одесские рассказы (Published individually in magazines 1923 - 1924 and collected into a book in 1931)

Try a few short stories from the collection Odessa Stories, eg:
Kак это делается в Одессе
История моей голубятни


Булгаков, Михаил Афанасьевич
Собачье сердце
Translated as Heart of a Dog


Бунин, Иван Алексеевич
Суходол (1911)

Господин из Сан Франциско (1915)
Translated as The Man from San Francisco

Довлатов, Сергей Донатович
Чемодан (1986)
Cycle of short stories.

Достоевский, Фёдор Михайлович
Крокодил (1865) [11,100 words]
Translated as The Crocodile (Constance Garnet)

Замятин, Евгений Иванович
Мы (1920)
Translated as We

Зощенко, Михаил Михайлович
Баня (1924)
http://www.litra.ru/fullwork/get/woid/00181131203327094781/
Аристократка (1923)

Collection of very short stories:
http://lib.ru/RUSSLIT/ZOSHENKO/r_raznye.txt



Платонов, Андрей Платонович
?






Солженицын, Александр

Матренин двор (1968)


Один день Ивана Денисовича (1968)

Translated as A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich




Чехов, Антон Павлович


Easier:
Смерть чиновника (1883)
Translated as The Death of a Civil Servant and The Death of a Government Clerk


Толстый и тонкий (1883)
Translated as Fat and Thin


Спать хочется (1888)

Translated as Let Me Sleep and as Sleepy
Published in dual language format in Russian Stories edited by Gleb Struve


not sure yet about difficulty rating:


Скучная история
Человек в футляре
Палата № 6
Черный монах

A bit harder:

Дама с собачкой (1889)
Translated as The Lady with a Lapdog


Анна на шее (1895)
Translated as Anna around the Neck


Случай из практики (1898)
Translated as A Case History, A Medical Case and as A Doctor's Visit


Дом с мезонином (1896)
Translated as The Artist’s Story and as The House with the Mezzanine