 | The Idiot (Wordsworth Classics) by F.M. Dostoevsky
Buy new: £1.99 / Used from: £0.01 A consistently under-rated book, this story focuses on Prince Myshkin, who is seen as an 'idiot' simply because he is an honest, good man who speaks from the soul.
|
 | Crime and Punishment (Wordsworth Classics) by F.M. Dostoevsky
Buy new: £1.99 / Used from: £0.01 This book is an absolute masterpiece. The exploration of Raskalnikovs psyche after committing murder is scary in the accuracy of emotion. Will leave you pondering the meaning of YOUR life.
|
 | War and Peace (Pocket Penguin Classics) by Leo Tolstoy
Buy new: £5.97 / Used from: £5.00 I have to say the reputation of this book isn't really justified as it is a relatively simple read. It chronicles the lives of 2 influential Russian aristocratic families during the Napoleonic wars.
|
 | The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Hesperus Classics) by L.N. Tolstoy
Buy used from: £6.48 This is a succint and brilliant short story detailing the last illness of the central character, who struggles with accepting his fate, only to realise that he has never really lived at all.
|
 | Anna Karenina (Penguin Classics) by Leo Tolstoy
Buy new: £6.71 / Used from: £2.99 A book one can read again and again without tiring of it at all. My favourite characters have to be Kitty and Levin (based on Tolstoy himself).
|
 | Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Buy new: £6.29 / Used from: £0.01 Depicts the inevitable differences in thought across generations with wit and insight. The issues remain as relevant today and in this society as they did when the novel was first published.
|
 | Sketches from a Hunter's Album (Classics) by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Buy new: £5.97 / Used from: £0.10 All best stories are taken from real life, and this is no exception. Although not a fan of short stories in general, this book is a brilliant read!
|
 | One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Buy used from: £0.01 A book indescribable in its sheer brilliance. Although a very short book, one feels as though one has lived the life of Ivan upon completion.
|
 | The First Circle (European Classics) by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Buy used from: £12.17 Another modern masterpeice!The emotions of the many characters are displayed with vivid detail and certain scenes lodge themselves in your memory forever. (E.g. when the prisoners receive visitors)
|
 | The Queen of Spades and Other Stories (Classics) by Alexander Pushkin
Buy new: £8.99 / Used from: £0.01 Peter the Great's Blackamoor is my favourite story in this book, although they are all witty, coruscating reflections of the circles within which Pushkin moved.
|
 | Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia by Orlando Figes
Buy new: £9.06 / Used from: £1.95 Everything you need to know about the social history of Russia is contained in this amazingly accessible book. (Wish I had written it!)
|
 | Oblomov (Penguin Classics) by Ivan Goncharov
Buy new: £7.43 / Used from: £5.78 Brilliant book in which the main character is the most lazy and apathetic man ever. Spawned the word Oblomov to describe a similar state of mind in Russia.
|
Listmania!
