Dr Jivago tells the drama lived by the doctor and poet Yuri Andreievich Jivago during the Russian Revolution (a cruel struggle between the White and Red armies). His struggle to take a stance in the revolution, his love sufferings, and his boldness to want to live a normal life in the midst of a country divided and destroyed by war. Jivago always waged a struggle, whether it was amorous or physical. He was married to Tonya but fell in love with Lara, a relationship that brought him joys but also a lot of suffering. In a war, few can afford the luxury of dreaming of a normal life, let alone living a passionate love. Jivago also suffers when he is captured by a group of guerrillas and taken to Siberia, far from his acquaintances and family, living with bad and bloodthirsty people.

The book, although some parts are slow, is written in a poetic way. Most of the dialogues between Lara and Jivago are written wonderfully! Not to mention the descriptions of nature, the sky... It seems like poetry. In fact, Boris Pasternak (1890 – 1960), besides being a writer, was a great poet.

Considered anti-Soviet, the publication of this book was a struggle in itself. The originals of the book were smuggled to Italy and published there in 1957. Pasternak won the Nobel Prize the following year but was forced to renounce the award under pressure from the Soviet government. The book was published all over the world except in the former Soviet Union, where it was only published in 1989 and became a bestseller. Hated by some (Vladimir Nabokov) who considered it melodramatic, loved by almost everyone who considers it a masterpiece, this book, especially in the final part, made me place Pasternak very close to Russian geniuses like Tolstoy.

The time is out of joint. In the mid-90s, as I was surfing through radio channels, I chanced upon a techno music station where two Djs were engaged in a conversation. Their contention was that Pasternak somehow hindered the success of their music. They were persuading their listeners to stop paying attention to Pasternak "and everything like that" and instead start to admire something more significant, which, of course, was their techno music. I'm not about to lecture those people all these years later, especially since they'll never read this. But back then, I was truly astonished at how they failed to see their own inability to conceive of their goals without Pasternak while bashing him. If he was that unimportant, why even mention him?

Nevertheless, he was probably the last great Russian novelist after Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, despite having written only one novel. Here's the concept of "Doctor Zhivago" as I understand it. The book is about attaining immortality through art, about how to live a life and remain immortal through one's own work and creations. The epic story of Yury Zhivago's life is a journey towards the creation of "his" brilliant poems. As you read about his life, you witness all the twists and turns and the choices he made, and through that, you see how those poems came into being. The book concludes with his death, which opens the final part - the poems themselves (I have no idea if they are well translated into English, but in Russian, they are truly outstanding). I believe this is the reason why all the film adaptations of "Doctor Zhivago" have been so unsuccessful - they merely retell the plotlines and the story as it is, losing the main concept of the novel - poetry as a means to achieve immortality.

No great Russian writer had ever written in such a simple, clear style since Tolstoy. The entire first half of the 20th century Russian literature was anything but simple. There was symbolism, modernism, absurdism, acmeism, and so on. The style of this book is concealed behind a recognizable, common manner, which gives the reader the possibility to grasp all the ideas, thoughts, and concepts without even realizing them. In simple terms, the book is extremely clever and delicate yet a page-turner at the same time.

The entire Zhivago and Lara story is set within the epic context of our tragic history in the first half of the 20th century. Pasternak was obviously going to call things as they were, and he knew he would be severely criticized for that. You see everything that the communists did to our country through the eyes of an intelligent man, a doctor, a poet, and you witness that dark matter that ensnared those people. Most of them died, and those who survived suffered. And perhaps the only way for them to leave something behind was to write something that would outlive them and those cruel times. Pasternak received the Nobel Prize for this book but was humiliated in his homeland. "Pasternak is worse than a pig" - that was the motto. In the USSR, the book was only published in 1988, but yes, as he desired - it outlived the cruel times and granted its creator immortality.

And of course, I'm switching from 4 stars to 5 (and yes, I know that the majority of bookish intellectuals think "Doctor Zhivago" is trash, but I don't care).

The forest remains in its place, and we are unable to lie in wait and catch it in the act of change. Whenever we gaze upon it, it appears motionless. Similarly, the eternally growing and ceaselessly changing history, the life of society that moves invisibly in its incessant transformations, also seems immobile to our eyes.

Doctor Zhivago is a story that is deeply intertwined with change, transformation, upheaval, and survival. Set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, it is not just a love story between a man and his wife, a man and his mistress, and a man and his country. It also catalogs the atrocities and progressions of a political system that attempts to destroy the individual in the name of saving the masses. However, more importantly, it chronicles the attempt of one man to reconcile the ideals of his heart with the realities of a Marxist society.

The story of Doctor Zhivago encompasses all the possibilities of love and suffering that are open to humankind within the life of its title character. The desertion of Yuri Zhivago by his parents (one by leaving and one by death) sets him on a fated journey into a world where partings become commonplace, yet heartache never ceases to accompany them. The love story between Zhivago and Lara is so profound and poignant that it takes your breath away at times.

I was deeply moved by the beauty of the writing, the stark imagery, and the character development that extends even to the least significant characters. Pasternak is a poet, and the entire book is a poem, as lyrical as the life's blood he pumps into his protagonist's veins.

He details the effects of the political changes around him and seems to lament most of all the loss of personality, independent thought, and individuality. The root of all the evil to come was the loss of confidence in the value of one's own opinion. People imagined that it was out of date to follow their own moral sense and that they must sing in chorus and live by other people's notions, which were being forced upon everyone.

Too often, when you have loved a book and then seen the movie, or vice versa, there is some disappointment you cannot help but feel towards one medium or the other. However, David Lean did an outstanding job of bringing to life on screen a book that is truly epic in its scope and meaning. I am pleased to find that this is one instance where the movie and the book complement each other perfectly. I approved of the changes that the movie made to both the beginning and the ending of the story - it served to hold the story together in a very cohesive manner and lost nothing of the impact or importance.

If you have never seen the movie, you should definitely watch it. If you have never read the book, you are missing out on something truly unique and remarkable.

A very well-known book that was very popular but unfortunately got embroiled in the politics of the Cold War. Of course, the second was expected as it mainly refers to the crucial years of the Russian Revolution and the civil war, so it was almost impossible for the discussion about this book not to turn political. However, I think this is rather misdirected as what the author gives us is mainly a human story. Obviously, the political events are a dominant theme, but what is fundamental is the impact they had on the lives of ordinary people who mostly lived them from a distance, with no other choice but to be swept along by history.

We thus have the moving story of Doctor Zhivago and the people around him in a Russia that is burning with the political fever caused by the 1905 uprising and finally led to the great 1917 Revolution. These people experience the events, discuss them, and form opinions, but above all, they want to be able to live a simple life, work, fall in love, raise their children, and create. Of course, in all this, they encounter great difficulties and deprivations, face risks from both sides of the political spectrum, but always hope that all this turmoil will lead to something positive, although in the end, they will only encounter disappointment.

The author conveys all this to us with a writing full of lyricism and a narrative technique that recalls the great moments of Russian literature. I must admit that at first, the book seemed a bit tiring to me, with the many characters presented to us in relatively few pages and some things that have no direct relation to our story. However, around the middle, things fall into place, and there are many excellent pages that offer a lot of emotion to the reader. Of course, there is a somewhat subdued ending, but this cannot undermine the excellent impressions that the book leaves when we think about what we have actually read. So, despite any difficult moments, I can only characterize the book as a masterpiece of world literature that 100% deserves the reputation it has gained over the decades.

I watched the film several years ago and was completely enamored with it.

The story, the characters, and the overall atmosphere of the film had a profound impact on me.

Recently, I decided to pick up the book that the film was based on, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is just as good as the film.

The book delves deeper into the characters' thoughts and emotions, providing a more in-depth understanding of their motives and actions.

The author's writing style is engaging and immersive, making it difficult to put the book down once I started reading.

Despite already knowing the basic plot from the film, the book still managed to hold my attention and keep me on the edge of my seat.

It's amazing how the same story can be told in different mediums and still have the same power to captivate and move us.

Whether you prefer the film or the book, this is a story that is definitely worth experiencing.

**"The Complex World of 'Doctor Zhivago'"**

The story of "Doctor Zhivago" begins with my introduction to the characters through the captivating faces of Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in the film that won numerous awards. Although I remember little of the film's plot, it remains beautifully impressed in my memory as one of the greatest love films I've ever seen and is also my mother's favorite. Some time ago, in a bookstore expedition during a sale, I saw the book on a shelf, and it called to me, promising to revive the pleasant emotions of the film. So, I bought it.

The reading wasn't easy, especially the first hundred pages which were quite difficult to digest, and there was a strong temptation to abandon Jura and Lara to their fate. There were too many characters and parallel storylines without an apparent connection. Moreover, I find the Russian writers' habit of constantly citing street names in describing cities nerve-wracking. However, I didn't give up and continued reading.不知不觉, I started walking the streets of Moscow, recognizing the places (though the street names still meant nothing to me), following all the characters in the story of "Doctor Zhivago."

[…]erano tutti insieme, vicini, e alcuni non si riconobbero, altri non si erano mai conosciuti, e certe cose rimasero per sempre ignote, altre attesero per maturarsi una nuova ccasione, un nuovo incontro.

The lives of Jurij and Lara run parallel and touch from their adolescence. Their normal lives are disrupted by extraordinary events like war and revolution, which make them meet and fall in love again. I loved Jura and Lara for their flaws, errors, and inability to change despite the rapid changes around them. Pasternak doesn't describe them as heroic figures but as educated people whose sensitivity clashes with the empty rhetoric of the revolutionary ideology, causing all their difficulties.

Il loro era un grande amore. Ma tutti amano senza accorgersi della straordinarietà del loro sentimento. Per loro invece, e in questo erano una rarità, gli istanti in cui, come un alito d’eternità, nella loro condannata esistenza sopravveniva il fremito della passione, costituivano momenti di rivelazione e di un nuovo approfondimento di se stessi e della vita.

On the other side of Jurij and Lara are Tonja and Pavel Antipov. Tonja is pragmatic and sacrifices her comfort to ensure the survival of her family. Pavel, on the other hand, sacrifices everything for the revolution, but his lack of trust in humans and misplaced hope in revolutionary ideals lead to his downfall. As I read about the events in "Doctor Zhivago," I couldn't help but think that behind the character of Jurij Andrèeviĉ Zivago might be Pasternak himself, who refused the Nobel Prize for Literature and preferred to live away from the spotlight. I also imagined Jurij with Pasternak's face as described in the book. Now, I should write about the Revolution and Pasternak's greatness in making the historical events that led to the creation of the Soviet Union into daily facts without diminishing their magnitude. But this is beyond my capabilities as an enthusiastic reader, and I leave it to each of you to read the words of Zivago with curiosity.

Allora sulla terra russa venne la menzogna. Il male peggiore, la radice del male futuro fu la perdita della fiducia nel valore della propria opinione. Si credette che il tempo in cui si seguivano le suggestioni del senso morale fosse passato, che bisognasse cantare in coro e vivere di concetti altrui, imposti a tutti.

When you think about the classics and staples in the cannon of Russian literature, Boris Pasternak's novel "Doctor Zhivago" surely comes to mind. I have watched the masterful classic film with Omar Sharif and Julie Christie several times. I also read this novel a few years ago and have been longing for a chance to review it.

One of the difficulties in reading a novel like this is finding the right edition or translation. This particular edition by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is fairly effective. However, I did feel that perhaps there were times when some of the dialogue seemed a bit off in translation, especially when using familiar expressions. Another challenge is keeping track of the names of the characters as their spellings sometimes shift. Fortunately, this specific edition is equipped with a list of the principal characters along with their'secondary' names.

As for the plot and the book itself, "Doctor Zhivago" has a sprawling, epic, and expansive feel to the narrative. Pasternak covers a significant span of years and sets the story against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution. During this time, we explore the character of Yuri Zhivago in the midst of the turbulent period. Pasternak vividly captures this time of conflict: "Three years of changes, uncertainty, marches, war, revolution, shocks, shootings, scenes of destruction, scenes of death, blown up bridges, ruins, fires—all that suddenly turned into a vast, empty place, devoid of content." I think Yuri represents a very flawed yet sympathetic protagonist. Although he has weaknesses, there are honorable moments that engage the reader and make them invested in his journey, both physically and spiritually.

Included at the end of the book is a collection of poems by Yuri Zhivago, which add a voice and extra power to many of the subjects, themes, and moments covered within the book. These poems are very lyrical and thoughtful, and I especially enjoyed "Hamlet" and "A Wedding."

This edition also features an introduction that provides some insights into the historical background of Pasternak and offers an analysis of the novel itself.

Overall, "Doctor Zhivago" is a remarkable work of literature that continues to captivate readers with its rich narrative, complex characters, and beautiful poetry.

Writing is by no means simple. It is artificial and made me sweat. With each new character, the desire to abandon the ship was so strong. But when we reached the end, what a wonder!

It is a book that encompasses the entire sense of inadequacy of those who live with their gaze turned towards a past that no longer exists. The voice of an entire generation that, through two revolutions, sees the world change and cannot keep up.

There is the portrayal of a Russia torn apart in the name of an ideal, the decadence of a social class, the nostalgia for a not-too-distant past, the happiness that seems within reach but becomes elusive, the sudden revelation that free will is ephemeral in a society of conventions. And then, yes, there is also a heart-rending love story, but paradoxically, it is precisely that plot that serves as a backdrop to the rest.

The faces of so many characters, far from being delineated, are lost in a distracted sequence of coincidences until they assume the form of a passerby met on the street and who we seem to have already seen somewhere, even if we don't remember where.

If anything, you will decide to tackle this book by shaking off every preconception. The title is misleading: this is not the story of Doctor Zhivago, this is the story of all of Russia. It was not an immediate flash - as it was with other Russian novels - but a growing awareness of the meaning of apparently unconnected episodes.

I thought about it and thought about it again, and only at the end did I understand that the effort had been rewarded.

The lovely epoch when the living envied the dead.

With passion, people in that era seemed to have a strange longing for the state of the deceased. It was as if they believed that the dead had escaped from the troubles and hardships of the living world.

The hustle and bustle of daily life, the pressures of work and relationships, all these seemed to weigh heavily on the living. In contrast, the dead were seen as being at peace, free from all the worldly concerns.

Their tombs were regarded as sanctuaries, places where they could rest undisturbed. The living would often visit these graves, paying their respects and perhaps even envying the tranquility that the dead had found.

It was a curious time, when the living looked at death not with fear but with a certain degree of envy.

However, this envy was not without its own contradictions. For while they desired the peace of the dead, they also continued to strive for a better life in the here and now.

It was a complex and fascinating epoch, one that offers us a unique perspective on the human condition.

I was very revolutionary in my mindset before, but now I think that nothing can be achieved by force. One must move towards the good with goodness.

The intriguing fate of this book and its path to the first readers have become almost an object of research for literary scholars, and there has even been an attempt to fictionalize the entire spy intrigue regarding the smuggling of the manuscript of the book out of the USSR ("The Secrets We Didn't Reveal" by Lara Prescott).

Of course, acquaintance with this background is not decisive for whether the book will reach the heart of the reader. But it is indicative of the political situation that imposes the stamp of illegality on the book in the author's native country.

Yuri Andreevich Zhivago - or the personified drama of a man from three eras. Born in Tsarist Russia, he completed his medical studies and started practicing during the years around World War I and the October Revolution, gradually losing his social and civil status during the conflict between the "Whites" and the "Reds." As if initially predetermined for liberal views and a broad, unrestricted mind, the young Zhivago, at least in the beginning, welcomes the revolutionary changes that seem most likely to thaw this political dinosaur that has represented his homeland for centuries.

Only where the revolutionary fire is a more dangerous element than the monarchical ice. Its tongues spread everywhere, not discriminating between comrades and enemies. Everyone who stands in its way risks burning for nothing. Objectivity? Individual guilt? Don't look for them during the collective madness called revolution.

There is no point in enumerating the adventures of Doctor Zhivago during those terrible years. They contain both romantic and adventure-filled, and more everyday moments - beautifully and richly described by Pasternak. The可怕的 is elsewhere - the survivors continue to live with blurred horizons, and the wandering does not end.

I have noticed that Russian writers like to insert doctors as heroes in their works. Surely because the representatives of this profession have access to both the intelligentsia and the masses at the same time, occupy an intermediate position between them due to the nature of their profession, and are exposed to and suffer the influence of both groups. And because they are often carriers of humanity and selflessness, which is the most deficit commodity in crisis times. And from this, it seems, the richest and most vivid images are obtained.

So in this sense, I couldn't remain indifferent to Doctor Zhivago, even in his last "fallen" years of resignation (something that I otherwise hardly forgive the heroes for). Exhausted by all the fabricated pathos with which both sides justify their mutual slaughter, the doctor remains worthy of respect precisely because of his desire not to participate.

"Art, including the tragic, is a story about the happiness of having it."

"Only the fragmented, touched by the hand of genius, is memorable."

"I don't like people who are not interested in the truth."

"average taste is a greater evil than tastelessness."

"The unfree person always idealizes his prison."

Dr. Zhivago is a novel that, despite its 840 pages (in my copy), failed to impress me. It is filled with what I consider to be futile Russian vulgarity.

The novel takes its name from the protagonist, Yuri Zhivago, a physician and poet. The story is set between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and World War II.

The plot of Doctor Zhivago is long, complex, and difficult to follow for two main reasons. Firstly, Pasternak introduces a large number of characters who interact with each other in unpredictable ways throughout the book. Secondly, he often refers to a character by one of their three long Russian names initially, and then later uses another of the three names or a nickname without clearly indicating that it is the same character.

Despite receiving numerous accolades and winning the Nobel Prize, I find the plot to be flawed, inconsistent, and lacking in meaning. I believe the novel's popularity may be due in part to its anti-Soviet theme, especially considering its censorship in Communist Russia.

Lara, Zhivago's mistress, is presented as an uncorrupted and "saintly" woman, yet her vulgar behavior begins at age 17 when she has an affair with an old man. I fail to see any redeeming qualities in her, despite being introduced as a "chaste" woman. How can an affair while married be morally justifiable?

The CIA recognized the novel as an opportunity to embarrass the Soviet government. Realizing its propaganda value, the author was awarded the Nobel Prize, and the novel has been included in the 11th-grade curriculum of the Russian school system since 2003.

Pasternak seems to tear families apart in the name of "love" and, in a cold manner, attempts to purify immoral actions by justifying them with "disillusionment with revolutionary ideologies and the inevitable chaotic social situation."

However, there are some interesting aspects of this book worth mentioning. One is the significance of the characters' names and their relationships to their roles. For example, Zhivago (Живаго) has a Russian root that means "alive." Larissa is a Greek name suggesting "bright, cheerful." Komarovsky (Комаровский) has a name where Komar (комар) is the Russian word for "mosquito."

Another interesting point is the curiously similar fate of Dr. Zhivago and his father. The father was once a wealthy member of Moscow's merchant gentry but abandoned his family and squandered the family fortune in Siberia through debauchery and excessive drinking. He died after falling off the train tracks while drunk. Similarly, his son also experiences a fall from grace, lives in misery, and dies after having a heart attack and falling from a tram. Lara develops a drinking problem and disappears, presumably arrested during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge and dying in the Gulag, becoming "a nameless number on a list that was later misplaced." While not feeling sorry for their fates, I can't help but wonder if this tragedy symbolizes Russia's fate in contemporary history.

The delayed gratification was strong with this one. Yes, that is a tenuous Alec Guinness reference. Jokes are better when you have to point them out.

I dragged myself through the first half of Doctor Zhivago. I did my best to appreciate a landmark piece of literature, but I didn't quite succeed. Try as I might, Pasternak's characters simply wouldn't come to life in my mind. Their essences remained as grey and featureless as Moscow commieblocks well into the depths of this tome. I tried in increasing desperation to mentally catalogue the outsized number of names I'd been given to learn. But names were only part of the problem. In true Russian style, Pasternak waits for the reader to form their own impressions of characters over time. He doesn't help out by kicking off acquaintances with a simple, memorable, and easy to pin down description. Perhaps this stylistic choice results in a more authentically imaginative reading experience. But personally, I could have done with a bit more to work with. Maybe, before reading this book, it would be worth watching the first hour or so of the David Lean movie just to get some images planted in your head. My other grievance, which I now realise is a common one, is the bizarre number of chance encounters that populate every page of this book. Honestly, reading Doctor Zhivago, you could be forgiven for thinking that there are only a few hundred people spread across the entirety of the unimaginable vastness of Russia. This, it transpires, was an intentional artistic choice intended to reflect the chaos of life. But personally, I found the high frequency of these coincidences a bit distracting.

Yet, by about the halfway point, I'd started to become increasingly enchanted by this very strange, complex, and yet somehow sparse book. The characterisation was little by little working its charms on me. The stakes steadily began to rise, and I eventually found myself beguiled. Ultimately, the last few chapters were a reading experience of absolute pure magic. I don't think I've ever swung quite so dramatically from feelings of ambivalence to feelings of pure awe as when I read the back end of this book. Part 15: The Ending contains some of the most emotional, lyrically devastating writing in the world. I found myself adding lengthy segments of it to the Goodreads quotes library.

There's something truly strange about this novel. There's nothing quite like it, and I struggle to put my finger on why that is. It never does what you expect it to do. Every time I thought I had a handle on its movements, it would subvert itself into something quietly other. I thought it would be a love story laid out primarily as a means for Pasternak to criticize the Russian revolution. Indeed, its enthusiastic reception in the West could only have been because it was exactly that, right? But where Dostoevsky and Tolstoy are usually on a didactic mission in their books, somehow Pasternak rarely seems to strive for that same kind of deeply philosophical, moralising kind of storytelling. Mostly, Doctor Zhivago instead just expresses disenfranchisement with any dogmatic ideology. Communism, capitalism, collectivism, fascism – you name it. Where it does get philosophical or religious, it seems to do so just so that it can later show Zhivago's character losing his interest in such high-minded matters. Instead, this story serves as a reminder that most people merely want to survive through the most turbulent periods of history with some semblance of dignity left intact and then to be left alone thereafter. The deep sadness it expresses is for the many people in the world whose lives never know stability and who exist surrounded by ideological zealots who ceaselessly tear their world this way and that, all in the name of the fashionable fussing over and worshipping of man… false principles of social life, turned into politics.

The oddest part of what I've just written is that the book draws its power from this exact lack of surface-level passion. We're so conditioned to expect a strong political message in our reading that it's disorientating when a novel – especially a novel concerning one of the major crunch points of history – doesn't really want to conspicuously jump into the battle of lofty ideas. Maybe this refusal to directly engage in the ideological debate is the strangest and most alluring thing about Doctor Zhivago. Where similar books are loud and self-assured, it is the opposite. Compare it to, for instance, War & Peace: a boisterous 600,000-word middle finger directed squarely at Napoleon and the tyrants of history. Instead, Doctor Zhivago appears to be a worn-down sigh cast only vaguely in Lenin and Stalin's general direction, and yet, at times, it is every bit as Earth-shattering.

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  Musical pairing:

I've had to go with the slow movement from Shostakovich's 5th Symphony. In its entirety, this Symphony is famous for passing under the radar of Stalin's censors by cleverly musically misdirecting them and clearing the pre-existing black mark against Shostakovich's name in the process. Between the patriotic (and slightly sarcastic sounding) outer movements, lies this quiet and sad slow movement, music which expresses individualist feelings, insights, affections, out of line with Soviet values. The audience at the premiere was famously spellbound. More than historical similarities with Doctor Zhivago, I think it evokes a comparably sparse, ice-cold sharpness; a quiet terror perceptible just beneath a lyrical surface.