Doctor Zhivago
First published 1957 · English · 594 pages
- Novels
- War
- Love and romance
- Young adult
Doctor Zhivago is a novel following Yuri Zhivago, a physician and poet, across the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution, the civil war and the decades around them. Pasternak weaves together a large cast of families, friends and lovers whose paths cross and part as the old order collapses. Zhivago's bond with Lara, and his struggle to keep his inner life free amid violent upheaval, lie at the centre of the story. The book is rich in nature description and poetic reflection, and it asks what happens to ordinary people and to individual conscience when history sweeps through. Banned in the Soviet Union at first, it became one of the most famous novels of the twentieth century.
Quotes
In bourgeois terms it was a war between the Allies and Germany. In Bolshevik terms it was a war between the Allied and German upper classes - and which of them won was a matter of indifference.
They [the warring powers] were shouting for victory all over Europe—praying for victory to the same God. My task—the Party's task—was to organize defeat. From defeat would spring the Revolution...and the Revolution would be victory for us
Happy men don't volunteer. They wait their turn, and thank god if their age or work delays it.
The Party looked to the conscript peasants. Most of them were in their first good pair of boots. When the boots wore out, they'd be ready to listen. When the time came, I was able to take three battalions with me out of the front lines; the best day's work I ever did.