If I had to choose between one encyclopaedic Russian novel to read, which should it be?

And when you finish with that, you can read--

BROTHERS KARAMAZOV AGAIN!

Sorry to be annoying and shout, but some things need emphasizing.

Having read that, of course, you'll want to read other Dostoevsky too. The Possessed/Demons is not a bad place to start. Neither is The Idiot, an underrated work (my father's favorite novel of all time; both he and the book's hero, Prince Myshkin, are epileptic, like so many other unusual persons: Ian Curtis from Joy Division, for example. And I can't remember who else.)

And you will want to read Tolstoy. Trust me, War and Peace is neither impenetrable nor boring, whatever people may assume from looking at it.

Gogol wrote good short stories. So if you're pressed for time, you could stick with those and tackle the fine ol' law firm of Tolstoy and Dostoevksy. I haven't read Turgenev.

If you want to start on a smaller scale, Turgenev's Fathers and Sons may be a good starting point, less than 300 pages and a very good book.

Also consider some of the 20th century russian authors; The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov is very different very surreal and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn is both desolate and uplifting.

Fathers and Sons - Turgenev.

I find that Emily Dickinson has also been ruined for me by the person who told me that all of her poems can be sung to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas". I didn't need that.

1) you want the hard-earned literary cred that comes from reading 19c russians

or

2) you have a deep, abiding interest in czars and gulags

i'd read "a fine balance" by rohinton mistry. it's got the same panoramic scope, detailed characterization, careful plotting and philosophical wrestling as the best best best tolstoy novels. it's also a bit easier if only because you're not wrestling with 19c diction. also i think modern-day india is just more interesting than 19c russia.

anyway, you've probably already read "fine balance" but if you haven't DO IT NOW MAN.

I adored Dr. Zhivago, I know a lot of people think it's sentimental nonsense (or at least Amazon reviewers seem too...) but the book is a lot more complicated than the better known movie and more about the loss of innocence in the 20th century than a simple love story.That's just my two cents.

Gogol is fantastic, and I agree that his short stories are all worth reading. His sense of humor is priceless.

Another good Russian classic that's not too hard to swallow: Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time. It's not quite as breathtakingly phenomenal as the others, but I was surprised by how much I liked it.

Brothers K is the only encyclopedic Russian novel that I have read. I inhabited this book during a long winter in an old house and the experience was blissful. The book did lose me...when it ended, and Grushenka and Alyosha and Smerdyakov began to fade away, and I had no one with whom to talk about the book and thus revive the story. then, I was lost.

chuck, if you are still there, did you begin reading? and what did you pick?

By the way, translations are a good point. Can anyone recommend a particular translator. Pevear seems get a lot of critical kudos, but I'm quite fond of my old Constance Garnett short story translations (especially Notes from the Underground).

i just read Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, and I'm not sure. It's beautifully poetically written, but there's a tone in it that's a bit too light to be substantial. The political themes are treated in a dizzyingly ironical way, but I'm not sure what we learn.

In the end, for all the hints of larger themes, it comes across as a somewhat slight romantic novel?