Eddie will be here this evening to start December's discussion of Doctor Zhivago. In the meantime, I've gathered some background information on Boris Pasternak as an introduction.

Wikipedia: "Doctor Zhivago (novel)"

Although Wikipedia is notoriously bad at qualitative content, it's generally the first place you're led when doing an Internet search for information. The article contains very little regarding Pasternak and the novel itself, but it makes up for it in coverage of film, television, and theatrical adaptations.

Regarding article info about the novel, I zeroed in on the following sentence: "Yuri must witness cannibalism, dismemberment, and other horrors suffered by the innocent civilian population during the turmoil." There were horrors, yes, but I'm pretty sure cannibalism was mentioned in only one sentence and the dismemberment took place in one scene of one chapter. And Dr. Z didn't actually witness either; he saw the aftermath.

Coincidentally, Doctor Zhivago was Wikipedia's novel project for November-December 2006. It received only five edits, mainly improving punctuation and sentence construction. If you're a Wikipedia contributor and have read this book, you might want to help the article out.

TIME magazine: "Blood Relatives"

From 1982, this is a review of The Correspondence of Boris Pasternak and Olga Freidenberg 1910-1954. Although not wholly about Doctor Zhivago, the review mentions some revealing quotes from Pasternak about the novel. "It is my first real work. In it I want to convey the historical image of Russia over the past 45 years, and at the same time I want to express in every aspect of the story—a sad, dismal story, worked out in fine detail, ideally, as in a Dickens or Dostoyevsky novel—my own views on art, the Gospels, the life of man in history, and much more."

NPR: "Pasternak's Funeral: A Poetic Protest"

Weekend Edition aired this story about Pasternak on November 5, 2006. Hundreds of mourners attended his funeral in 1960 despite objections of the Soviet government. The broadcast includes reactions from Russians to Pasternak's work and a recording of his voice from a poetry reading. "He became a symbol of one man's defense of freedom of expression."

Academy of American Poets: "Boris Pasternak"

Although the Academy's mission is to support American poets, their web presence, poets.org, contains excellent biographical information on poets from everywhere. This concise but comprehensive retelling of Pasternak's life story reveals many of the autobiographical events that inspired Doctor Zhivago. If you're interested in reading some of Pasternak's poems, a bilingual collection can be found at Friends & Partners.