We will be discussing the unabridged version of Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. There are several translations. The three main ones are: Max Hayward and Manya Harari; Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, and the most recent, by Nicolas Pasternak Slater. Any of these will be suitable, as one of the things we’ll be thinking about is the impact translators have on our reading experience.

When Isaiah Berlin reviewed this novel in 1958, he wrote “[it] seems to me a work of genius, and its appearance a literary and moral event without parallel in our day.” When interviewed in 1995, he said “A book that made a most profound impression upon me, and the memory of which still does, is Doctor Zhivago…” It is probable that most of us will be more familiar with the 1965 film than the text. We’ll consider how that connects to our reading experience, too.

This is a big novel, about a big moment, with an appropriately large cast of characters. We’ll discuss it in chronological sections, tracking events and thinking about how they work.

The tutor will provide a reading schedule. Please read to the end of chapter 4, The Advent of the Inevitable, for discussion at the first session.