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This week, an underappreciated masterpiece from the great Leo Tolstoy. We're introduced to the Chechen protagonist and given a taste of the senselessness of the war being executed by the Russians.

 

This episode is part of our 19th century Russian literature cycle.

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In Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, a Russian George Costanza lays out his elaborate, neurotic philosophy, describes his awkward experience of a party, and reveals the cruelty with which he confronted a prostitute.

 

This episode is part of our 19th century Russian literature cycle.

Listen on Patreon (https://blubrry.com/paper_pilgrims/75508600/episode-12-the-queen-of-spades/patreon.com/paperpilgrims) and find links to this week's and next week's readings.

 

In part two of Asya, we learn of the forces that have shaped her into the strange, wonderful creature that she is and the narrator's innocent love affair comes to a head.

 

This episode is part of our 19th century Russian literature cycle.

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This week we move on to a gem of a short story by Ivan Turgenev. We  enjoy a vicarious summer in the German countryside and follow in the first footsteps of the narrator's lover for the enigmatic Asya.

A thanks to Lewis Wright, our reader for this week! And check out Street Orchestra Live here (https://streetorchestra.co.uk/).

This episode is part of our 19th century Russian literature cycle.

Listen on Patreon (https://blubrry.com/paper_pilgrims/75508600/episode-12-the-queen-of-spades/patreon.com/paperpilgrims) and find links to this week's and next week's readings.

We end our journey through A Hero of Our Time with its final climactic duel and a discussion of the strange way in which Lermontov predicted the end of his own life.

This episode is part of our 19th century Russian literature cycle.

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We bite into the meatiest part of A Hero of Our Time. Pechorin displays the full depth of his manipulative psychology, weaponizing it against his rival and double, Grushnitsky.

This episode is part of our 19th century Russian literature cycle.

Listen on Patreon (https://blubrry.com/paper_pilgrims/75508600/episode-12-the-queen-of-spades/patreon.com/paperpilgrims) and find links to this week's and next week's readings.

This week we cover the Maxim Maximych and Taman chapters of Mikhail Lermontov's A Hero of Our time. Get ready for your fill of Gothic ambience, Romantic smugglers, and tricky water nymphs.

This episode is part of our 19th century Russian literature cycle.

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Mikhail Lermontov's A Hero of Our time is composed of five separate short stories that exhibit the full gamut of Romantic sensibilities and fiction genres popular in contemporary Russia. We begin this week with the first chapter: Bela.

This episode is part of our 19th century Russian literature cycle.

Listen on Patreon (https://blubrry.com/paper_pilgrims/75508600/episode-12-the-queen-of-spades/patreon.com/paperpilgrims) and find links to this week's and next week's readings.

Part two of Dead Souls closes out with some more farcical haggling, a tangent so strange we lose the main character, and then a final explanation of this protagonist's background and drives.

This episode is part of our 19th century Russian literature cycle.

Episode 14 — Dead Souls — Part 2

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Dead Souls is widely considered to be the comic masterpiece of Russian literature. We dive into the first part of the novel and encounter a slick, scheming protagonist, a deluge of detail, and Russian landowners who range from the cloyingly chummy to the excitably pugilistic.

This episode is part of our 19th century Russian literature cycle.