Comment by jacquesm
6 years ago
> For the life of me I don't get why non-Russian people read Russian classical literature.
> What remains is still formidable
I think you answered your own question there.
As for the rest of your comment, yes, someone without the cultural background will miss something. But the same goes for those not born in the same age, those of a different gender than the author, those of a different social standing and so on. There is always a mismatch between author and reader, the better the author the better they are able to compensate for that mismatch and the more the reader will get.
Reading an ancient and translated text is going to have those problems in spades and it can still be very much worthwhile to read them anyway, as long as you recognize the gap between you and the author.
In my own experience reading of books from different cultures and times, even in translation, is one of the most enriching things you can do short of traveling, and what with the physical limitations on time travel in some cases it is the only way in which we can experience the products of other cultures simply because they are no longer there.
It's not "ancient", really. Things are largely the same in Russia as they were 150-200 years ago, they even have something like a Tsar now: Putin. People are largely the same, too. Sure, there are cars and cell phones and internet now, but at a deeper level the people haven't really changed, and they can still imagine the life of a 19th century Russian aristocrat or commoner much better than, say, someone from the US or Western Europe, perhaps with the exception of France, owing to the cultural affinity between the two countries' aristocracies in the 19th century.
>> is one of the most enriching things you can do short of traveling
I agree with you there. I was just explaining to the OP the likely reasons why he didn't enjoy what I consider to be one of the best novels ever written.