You’ve Never Heard of Russia’s Strangest Literary Genius | Oliver Ready on Dostoevsky and Sharov

Oliver Ready is one of the world's greatest translators of Russian literature, most famous for his translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. In this conversation with Jack and Milo, he speaks about what makes Dostoevsky's prose so distinctive, direct, and contemporary, and why Vladimir Sharov may be the greatest Russian novelist you've never read.

The discussion covers Dostoevsky's literary reputation, Nabokov's famous criticism of his work, the art of literary translation, Russian history, and, in the latter part, Sharov's astonishing novels, which blend theology, politics, history, and surreal imagination into something unlike anything else in modern literature.

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Topics discussed:

Oliver Ready's translation of Crime and Punishment

What makes Dostoevsky's writing unique

Nabokov vs. Dostoevsky

Vladimir Sharov's extraordinary novels

Before and During

The Rehearsals

Russian literature and literary translation

Soviet history, theology, and magical realism

How translators recreate style across languages

Books Mentioned

Crime and Punishment — Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov — Fyodor Dostoevsky

Notes from Underground — Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Double — Fyodor Dostoevsky

Before and During — Vladimir Sharov

The Rehearsals — Vladimir Sharov

Be as Children — Vladimir Sharov

The Master and Margarita — Mikhail Bulgakov

If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe, and leave a comment telling us your favourite Russian novel—or whether you're planning to read Vladimir Sharov after watching.

00:00:00 General Introduction

00:04:00 Vladimir Sharov Synopsis and Discussion

00:13:10 Oliver Ready Arrives, Discussion of Insomnia

00:17:44 Poetic Epigraph

00:20:14 Dostoevsky's Reputation, Nabokov's Slander

00:24:40 Translating Crime and Punishment, prose style etc.

00:39:05 Do certain authors suit English better than others?

00:42:37 Translating Sharov vs. Dostoevsky

00:45:55 Post Soviet Literary Culture, Sharov's place in it

00:50:12 Sharov's uncompromising style and voice

00:54:20 Does Sharov make sense to a non-Russian?

01:00:43 Before and During, and the Religiosity of Communism

01:06:00 Innocence, Experience, and the Gulags

01:10:47 Master and Margarita, Russian History as Commentary to the Bible

01:18:38 Sharov, Magic Realism, and originality

01:24:20 What was Sharov like?

01:31:44 The Russian Tradition of the Fantastical

01:36:38 Sharov's fairytales, Sharov's crowds, Sharov's walks

01:41:28 Ready's first exposure to Sharov

01:45:00 White Moss, Reductive 'Problematic' criticism of other cultures

01:48:25 Sharov 'Not Obvious Enough'