Russian Literature: Where to Start
Russian literature has a reputation for being long, difficult, and full of characters with names you can't pronounce. This reputation is both earned and unfair. The rewards of Russian fiction are unlike anything else in world literature — and you don't have to start with War and Peace.
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Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866
The ideal entry point. Shorter than Brothers Karamazov, more focused than War and Peace, and immediately gripping. A student commits murder and what follows is one of the greatest psychological novels ever written. You will not want to put it down.
Get this book →THEN READ
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy, 1878
All great literature is about how to live. Anna Karenina is the most comprehensive answer. At 800+ pages it seems intimidating, but Tolstoy's prose is so vivid that the pages disappear.
Get this book →The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1880
Dostoevsky's masterpiece. Every significant question about human existence is in this book: God, freedom, morality, love, family. Freud called it “the most magnificent novel ever written.”
Get this book →War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy, 1869 — The Summit
Save this for last. At 1,300 pages it's a commitment, but readers who finish it consistently describe it as a life-changing experience. Tolstoy contains multitudes — this book contains everything.
Get this book →Get the Russian Literature Collection
All six Russian masterworks in one beautifully formatted bundle.
Russian Literature Giants →