Boris Pasternak’s Followers (1,657)

Boris Pasternak

Born

in Moscow, Russian Federation

February 10, 1890

Died

May 30, 1960

Genre

Poetry, Literature & Fiction, Short Stories

edit data

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was born in Moscow to talented artists: his father a painter and illustrator of Tolstoy's works, his mother a well-known concert pianist. Though his parents were both Jewish, they became Christianized, first as Russian Orthodox and later as Tolstoyan Christians. Pasternak's education began in a German Gymnasium in Moscow and was continued at the University of Moscow. Under the influence of the composer Scriabin, Pasternak took up the study of musical composition for six years from 1904 to 1910. By 1912 he had renounced music as his calling in life and went to the University of Marburg, Germany, to study philosophy. After four months there and a trip to Italy, he returned to Russia and decided to dedicate himself Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was born in Moscow to talented artists: his father a painter and illustrator of Tolstoy's works, his mother a well-known concert pianist. Though his parents were both Jewish, they became Christianized, first as Russian Orthodox and later as Tolstoyan Christians. Pasternak's education began in a German Gymnasium in Moscow and was continued at the University of Moscow. Under the influence of the composer Scriabin, Pasternak took up the study of musical composition for six years from 1904 to 1910. By 1912 he had renounced music as his calling in life and went to the University of Marburg, Germany, to study philosophy. After four months there and a trip to Italy, he returned to Russia and decided to dedicate himself to literature.

Pasternak's first books of verse went unnoticed. With My Sister Life, 1922, and Themes and Variations, 1923, the latter marked by an extreme, though sober style, Pasternak first gained a place as a leading poet among his Russian contemporaries. In 1924 he published Sublime Malady, which portrayed the 1905 revolt as he saw it, and The Childhood of Luvers, a lyrical and psychological depiction of a young girl on the threshold of womanhood. A collection of four short stories was published the following year under the title Aerial Ways. In 1927 Pasternak again returned to the revolution of 1905 as a subject for two long works: "Lieutenant Schmidt", a poem expressing threnodic sorrow for the fate of the Lieutenant, the leader of the mutiny at Sevastopol, and "The Year 1905", a powerful but diffuse poem which concentrates on the events related to the revolution of 1905. Pasternak's reticent autobiography, Safe Conduct, appeared in 1931, and was followed the next year by a collection of lyrics, Second Birth, 1932. In 1935 he published translations of some Georgian poets and subsequently translated the major dramas of Shakespeare, several of the works of Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, and Ben Jonson, and poems by Petöfi, Verlaine, Swinburne, Shelley, and others. In Early Trains, a collection of poems written since 1936, was published in 1943 and enlarged and reissued in 1945 as Wide Spaces of the Earth. In 1957 Doctor Zhivago, Pasternak's only novel - except for the earlier "novel in verse", Spektorsky (1926) - first appeared in an Italian translation and has been acclaimed by some critics as a successful attempt at combining lyrical-descriptive and epic-dramatic styles.

Pasternak lived in Peredelkino, near Moscow, until his death in 1960. ...more

Combine Editions
Boris Pasternak’s books

Average rating: 4.0 · 110,622 ratings · 5,862 reviews · 585 distinct works • Similar authors

	Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, John Bayley (Introduction), Max Hayward (Translator), Manya Harari (Translator) 4.01 avg rating — 104,178 ratings — published 1957 — 837 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Selected Poems by Boris Pasternak, Борис Пастернак, Peter France (Translator) 4.22 avg rating — 866 ratings — published 1960 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Poems of Doctor Zhivago. 3.97 avg rating — 435 ratings — published 1965 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Letters: Summer 1926 by Boris Pasternak, Marina Tsvetaeva, Rainer Maria Rilke 4.24 avg rating — 379 ratings — published 1926 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Last Summer by Boris Pasternak, George Reavey (Translator), Lydia Slater (Introduction ) 3.03 avg rating — 461 ratings — published 1934 — 41 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	My Sister - Life by Boris Pasternak, Mark Rudman (Translator), Bohdan Boychuk (Translator) 4.12 avg rating — 261 ratings — published 1922 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Adolescence of Zhenya Luvers by Boris Pasternak, Борис Пастернак 3.42 avg rating — 167 ratings — published 1961 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Onder de paardendeken by Boris Pasternak, Konstantin Paustovsky, Leo Tolstoy 3.81 avg rating — 148 ratings — published 2017 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	February: Selected Poetry by Boris Pasternak, Andrey Kneller (Goodreads Author) (Translator) 4.10 avg rating — 109 ratings — published 2008 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Safe Conduct: An Autobiography and Other Writings by Boris Pasternak, B. Deutsch 3.73 avg rating — 114 ratings — published 1958 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Boris Pasternak…

Series by Boris Pasternak

ドクトル・ジバゴ [Doctor Zhivago] (2 books)
by

Boris Pasternak

it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings

Quotes by Boris Pasternak (?)

“I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn't of much value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them. ”
― Boris Pasternak

tags: life

2860 likes

“I don't think I could love you so much if you had nothing to complain of and nothing to regret. I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and of little value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them.”
― Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago

tags: regret

649 likes

“How wonderful to be alive, he thought. But why does it always hurt?”
― Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago

490 likes

See all Boris Pasternak's quotes »

Polls

April 2016 Revisit the Shelf-Reread Poll

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, 288 pages, 1963

30 votes, 16.7%

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 324 pages, 1960

24 votes, 13.3%

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, 539 pages, 1980

19 votes, 10.6%

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, 273 pages, 1818

14 votes, 7.8%

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, 320 pages, 1984

13 votes, 7.2%

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, 251 pages, 1817

13 votes, 7.2%

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, 592 pages, 1957

12 votes, 6.7%

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, 311 pages, 1883

11 votes, 6.1%

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, 311 pages, 1985

10 votes, 5.6%

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 227 pages, 1953

7 votes, 3.9%

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, 277 pages, 1951

6 votes, 3.3%

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, 320 pages, 1719

6 votes, 3.3%

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, 256 pages, 1902

5 votes, 2.8%

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, 867 pages, 1847

4 votes, 2.2%

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, 306 pages, 1726

3 votes, 1.7%

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 502 pages, 1851

3 votes, 1.7%

180 total votes

3 comments

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Seasonal Read...: Time to study abroad	52	544	Sep 04, 2009 11:27PM
The Seasonal Read...: 10.10 (FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE)	28	336	Jan 10, 2010 07:52AM
The History Book ...: HISTORICAL FICTION POLLS	6	365	Jan 21, 2010 12:04AM
Goodreads Librari...: Fyodor Dostoevsky / Фёдор Достоевский	12	100	Feb 01, 2010 10:58AM
Glens Falls (NY) ...: Were you an avid reader as a child?	61	43	Apr 01, 2010 09:08PM
College Students! : Tackle a Thick Book in the Summer group read	22	131	Jun 15, 2010 07:07PM
The Book Challenge: Meghan's 2009 Book Challenge	84	239	Sep 28, 2010 01:39AM

More…

Boris Pasternak’s Followers (1,657)

Boris Pasternak

Combine EditionsBoris Pasternak’s books

Series by Boris Pasternak

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Boris Pasternak’s books