Feb 13, 2012 19:50 Moscow Time |
Photo: RIA Novosti |
Russia’s literature geniuses remain on the top of the global ‘best writers’ list, a poll conducted among contemporary British and US novelists shows.
More than a hundred English-speaking writers were asked to make their rating of the best ten literature works of the 19th and 20th centuries and the best writers of all time. Among the most frequently mentioned names are Lev Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Anton Chekhov and Vladimir Nabokov. In some nominations Russian classics left behind Shakespeare, Flaubert and Fitzgerald.
The respondents named Nabokov`s Lolita the most outstanding novel of the 20th century. But it is not only about the spicy story itself which earned Lolitathe international fame. Russian critic Igor Shaitanov thinks that Nabokov managed to foresee the future of literature: “Nabokov was one of the forerunners of postmodernism in literature, when authors made self-reflective stories. This is what determined Nabokov`s writing style.”
British and US novelists ranked Tolstoy`s Anna Kareninaas the greatest novel of the 19th century. This did not come as a big surprise since the novel had long been translated at least four times, not to mention numerous screen adaptations of the novel. War and Peace by Tolstoy was ranked third in the list of the greatest novels of the 19th century. Fyodor Dostoyevsky`s Crime and Punishmentis also on the list. “One can hardly imagine the 19th century without Dostoyevsky, - says literary critic Igor Volgin. – He was more than a writer, he marked the beginning of a brand new era when through his works people learned more about themselves.”
Writer Pavel Basinsky says that he was surprised to see Anton Chekhov`s stories among the top 19th century literary works because Chekhov has always been more popular as a playwright, given countless stage productions of his plays worldwide. Nevertheless, there is something very special about Chekhov`s stories which attracts the audiences everywhere. What unites the works by Tolstoy, Chekhov and Dostoyevsky is, probably, their authenticity, which inspires a never ending interest among the readers across the globe.