Doctor Zhivago

De: Boris Pasternak, Richard Pevear - translator, Larissa Volokhonsky - translator

Narrado por: John Lee

Boris Pasternak’s widely acclaimed novel comes gloriously to life in a magnificent new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the award-winning translators of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and to whom, The New York Review of Books declared, “the English-speaking world is indebted.”

First published in Italy in 1957 amid international controversy—the novel was banned in the Soviet Union until 1988, and Pasternak declined the Nobel Prize a year later under intense pressure from Soviet authorities—Doctor Zhivago is the story of the life and loves of a poet-physician during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. Taking his family from Moscow to what he hopes will be shelter in the Ural Mountains, Zhivago finds himself instead embroiled in the battle between the Whites and the Reds. Set against this backdrop of cruelty and strife is Zhivago’s love for the tender and beautiful Lara: pursued, found, and lost again, Lara is the very embodiment of the pain and chaos of those cataclysmic times.

Stunningly rendered in the spirit of Pasternak’s original—resurrecting his style, rhythms, voicings, and tone—and including an introduction, textual annotations, and a translators’ note, this edition of Doctor Zhivago is destined to become the definitive English translation of our time.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“The best way to understand Pasternak’s achievement in Doctor Zhivago is to see it in terms of this great Russian literary tradition, as a fairy tale, not so much of good and evil as of opposing forces and needs in human destiny and history that can never be reconciled . . . [Zhivago is] a figure who embodies the principle of life itself, the principle that contradicts every abstraction of revolutionary politics.”—from the Introduction by John Bayley

A Satisfying Performance

I so enjoyed the many hours I spent wythis audiobook. It goes without saying that Pasternak was an artist. I think John Lee deserves every plaudit. His reading is always eloquent. I like the pace and the occasional dramatic readings. But his poise well represents the omniscient voice of this epic.

John Lee makes this come alive, a classic

narrator amazing, a classic story with historical references a must read for Russian history buffs

Well, it’s all there

A quite tedious, yet yet yet important book. Not much to say say say except good luck! Bwahahaha

Epic

Great narration, lovely, tragic story. Long but captivating. Feelings of love and sadness and confusion of what is going on around the main characters just as it must have been

Not My Cup Of Tea

I really struggled to get through this one. I read The Secrets We Kept, which is basically premised on the life of Boris and Laura and the underground distribution of Dr. Zhivago, against Russian authorities. So, after reading that, of course I had to read Dr. Zhivago to see what the big scandal was. Honestly, no scandal here. It just didn't interest me, even though historical fiction is my jam. I kept listening, struggling to stay focused on the storyline. I don't know if it would have been the same if I'd physically read the book or not. I found Anna Karenina more interesting than this, so it's not the writing style that's necessarily the issue. It was descriptive of the hardships of that time, but I found myself rolling my eyes when he was justifying his affair. Pasternak must have been extremely full of himself in real life to justify his personal choices. Overall, it just wasn't a page turner for me but something I can say that I read.