Classics of Russian literature

Description

Thirty six lectures by Irwin Weil, of Northwestern University, exploring the history of Russian literature from its origins through the twentieth century. Abstract: Thirty six lectures by Irwin Weil, of Northwestern University, exploring the history of Russian literature from its origins through the twentieth century Content: Pt. 1. disc 1. Origins of Russian literature -- Church and the folk in Old Kiev -- Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin, 1799-1837 -- Exile, rustic seclusion, and Onegin -- December's uprising and two poets meet -- Poet contrasts talent versus mediocrity -- disc 2. St. Petersburg glorified and death embraced -- Nikolai Vasil'evich Gogol', 1809-1852 -- Russian grotesque, overcoats to dead souls -- Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, 1821-1881 -- Near mortality, prison, and an underground -- Second wife and a great crime novel begins Pt. 2. disc 3. Inside the troubled mind of a criminal -- Generation of the Karamazovs -- Novelistic presence of Christ and Satan -- Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, 1828-1910 -- Tale of two cities and a country home -- Family life meets military life -- disc 4. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord -- Family life makes a comeback -- Tolstoy the preacher -- Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, 1818-1883 -- Stresses between two generations -- Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, 1860-1904 Pt. 3. disc 5. M. Gorky (Aleksei M. Peshkov), 1868-1936 -- Literature and revolution -- Tribune -- Vladimir Maiakovsky, 1893-1930 -- Revolution makes a u-turn -- Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, 1905-1984 -- Revolutions and civil war -- disc 6. Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko, 1895-1958 -- Among the godless -- religion and family life -- Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, 1890-1960 -- Poet in and beyond society -- Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, born 1918 -- Many colors of Russian literature.