Stalingrad By Vasily Grossman has been an amazing read so far. I’m only 150 pages into this 1000 page masterpiece. I’ve read a few Russian classics already, thoroughly enjoying each one of them. I must say … this is the first novel where I felt compelled to print out the character list to make notes on as I journey through the story.
One of the translators, Robert Chandler also wrote the introduction for this work. He mentions the struggles Grossman had in writing this & the many more once it was written.
There are quite a few extra characters, many will be seen only once and like real victims of a wartime world, they’ll disappear into oblivion. Already, I’ve been deeply moved by some of the character sketches we’ve seen so far. I’d like to make brief notes to keep track of how I feel about some characters, check the list to see if they’ll stay in the book for at least a couple hundred pages.
There are quite a few extra characters, many will be seen only once and like real victims of a wartime world, they’ll disappear into oblivion. Already, I’ve been deeply moved by some of the character sketches we’ve seen so far. I’d like to make brief notes to keep track of how I feel about some characters, check the list to see if they’ll stay in the book for at least a couple hundred pages.
So, I created this PDF to help fellow readers of Stalingrad. Feel free to share this page or the PDF itself to help your fellow reading peeps.
I hope the publisher, NYRB doesn’t mind me sharing this as a PDF. If they are, please let me know & I'm happy to take this down.
If you are interested in this book, please purchase a copy or borrow it from your local library. It’s amazing so far & would probably be enjoyed by hefty fans of Russian literature or those with a respect for wartime novels.
Happy reading!
I'm so glad I found this page! I know I could have done this myself but reading the book doesn't leave time for such things.
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