Dead Souls

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, translated by Richard Pevear

Dead Souls pokes fun of Russian culture and bureaucracy. The protagonist goes about the country attempting to purchase "dead souls" from landowners. These are people that have died, yet are still on the tax roles. He believes that owing a great number can help him to get loans and be rich. He also has a scheme to create a fake will to inherit the lands of a rich lady. Alas, that scheme falls apart because he forgot to cancel previous wills. This second part is a bit fragmentary, with sections missing and the end cutting off in mid-sentence. The tone is much less serious than other historic Russian novels.

Doctor Zhivago

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak translated by Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear

Doctor Zhivago was a doctor that lived in Russia around the time of great change. There is a lot of talk of the Russian revolution and the onset of war. The Doctor seemed to attend to people and write poetry and concern himself with religion. There were allusions to religious teachings as part of his thinking about things. I wasn't quite sure what the point of everything was. It did seem like he had some wealth and was stuck in some internal conflicts. The novel was first published in Italy because the communist leadership did not want it published.