Beginning Monday, June 21, 2010, we’ll be celebrating White Nights on the Neva as Imperial Russian Literature goes on a virtual tour of the blogosphere. Check out these participating blogs where you’ll find reviews.

The button for this tour is a picture of St. Petersburg and the Neva River on a “white  night.” It was taken by Incandenzafied of Flickr and used under a Creative Common License. The caption for this image on Flickr? “Yep, real pretty there.” Feel free to use the button to promote your participation in the blog tour. Please download it to your computer first.

Monday, June 21        Only Words To Play With Thoughts on Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, and/or Tolstoy
Monday, June 21        So Many Books Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov

Tuesday, June 22       Sasha & The Silverfish The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
Tuesday, June 22       The Researcher’s Tale A Hero of Our Time Tale by Mikhail Lermontov

Wednesday, June 23 Time Enough At Last Dead Souls by Gogol
Wednesday, June 23 Notes from the North Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Thursday, June 24     A Literary Odyssey Fathers and Sons by Turgenev
Thursday, June 24     Pining for the West Virgin Soil or Liza by Turgenev

Friday, June 25           Inside Books undecided
Friday, June 25           A Few of My Favourite Books First Love by Ivan Turgenev

Saturday, June 26      Books and Chocolate The Shooting Party or short story collection by Anton Chekhov

Sunday, June 27         The Reading Life Diary of A Superflous Man by Turgenev
Sunday, June 27         November’s Autumn Rudin by Turgenev

Monday, June 28        Shelf Love The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov

Tuesday, June 29        Becky’s Book Reviews War and Peace or Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
Tuesday, June 29        Tell Me A Story The Steppe and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov

Wednesday, June 30 Wuthering Expectations A Russian Gentleman and A Russian Childhood by Sergei Aksakov
Wednesday, June 30 Reading Through Life Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky

Thursday, July 1         Readthisbook.us Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Dostoevsky
Thursday, July 1         Life is a Patchwork Quilt The Russian poets of the Imperial Age (i.e. Pushkin, Lermertov

Friday, July 2               Rundpinne The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy and Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
Friday, July 2               Radiant Light The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Saturday, July 3          Stiletto Storytime The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Sunday, July 4             things mean a lot Short stories by Anton Chekhov

Monday, July 5           BookNAround Eugene Onegin by Pushkin
Monday, July 5           Lizzy’s Literary Life The Eternal Husband by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Tuesday, July 6           The Blog Jar Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevksy
Tuesday, July 6           A Common Reader Hadji Murad by Leo Tolstoy

Wednesday, July 7    Fleur Fisher Reads Fathers and Sons by Turgenev

Thursday, July 8        First Impressions: A Tale of Less Pride and Prejudice Ward No. 6 and Other Stories by Anton Checkhov
Thursday, July 8        Sparks’ Notes Anna Karenina by Tolstoy

Friday, July 9              eclectic / eccentric House of the Dead by Dostoyevsky
Friday, July 9              Review, Rewrite, and Rewind Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Saturday, July 10      my books. my life. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

Sunday, July 11          Ardent Reader Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Sunday, July 11          Rob Around Books Chekhov’s characters

Monday, July 12        Bibliolatry Eugene Onegin by Pushkin
Monday, July 12        Reading, Writing, Working, Playing Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Tuesday, July 13        Bookie Mee Short story or stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky or LeoTolstoy
Tuesday, July 13        In Spring it is the Dawn Short stories from The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol

Wednesday, July 14        Sophisticated Dorkiness Short stories by Anton Chekhov
Wednesday, July 14        Paperback Reader A Russian Affair by Anton Chekhov

Thursday, July 15  Adventures of an Intrepid Reader War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Thursday, July 15  Bluestalking Diary of a Superfluous Man by Ivan Turgenev

Friday, July 16        Rebecca Reads Selections from the Portable Nineteenth-Century Russian Reader
Friday, July 16        The Zen Leaf Dead Souls by Gogol
Friday, July 16        A Book Lover The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky

Please note: If you are participating in this tour and the information above is incorrect or you need to make a change to your tour day, please let us know by leaving a comment or emailing classicscircuit [at] googlegroups [dot] com. Someone from the Committee will update the schedule.

If you missed sign up and you would like to be added to the schedule at this late point, we still have a few free slots and we can fit you in. Just e-mail us at classicscircuit [at] googlegroups [dot] com.

On June 21, we will begin a new Classics Circuit, the White Nights on the Neva: Russian Imperial Literature. Depending on the number of people who sign up, it will run for three or four weeks, that is, until July 11 or July 17.

The nineteenth century is generally known as the “golden era” of Russian literature, and this tour is our opportunity to embrace it. Romanticism flourished with Alexander Pushkin’s poetry, followed by many other poets, such as Mikhail Lermontov. For those outside of Russia, the prose writers are possibly more well known: Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Anton Chekhov, as well as Goncharov.

While on this information page we highlight some of the most well known novels and stories by these authors, any author or writing from the golden age of Russian literature (19th century) is suitable for the tour.  This list is just to give you ideas and get you started if you are a newbie. Some of these works are quite long, but most authors also wrote short stories. Choose something you have time to read for the Circuit and enjoy! For more information and other authors you may want to consider, see Wikipedia.

Sign up is now closed.

If you missed sign up and would still like to participate in the tour, please send an email to the committee at classicscircuit@googlegroups.com and we will see if we can add you to the schedule.

Read the rest of this entry »