A History of Russian Literature

I'm less than a quarter of the way into A History of Russian Literature by Andrew Kahn, Mark Lipovetsky, Irina Reyfman, and Stephanie Sandler, but it's so good I wanted to alert other fans of Russ lit right away. It's fat, expensive, and scholarly, so not for the casual reader, but anyone with a serious interest should see if their library has it yet. When I finish I'll write a review and link it here.

I’ll look forward to hearing about it. Although perhaps presumptuous to think of myself as a scholar, I do read and love masses of Russian lit so I may have to indulge.

I don't mean only scholars should/could read it, just that you have to have a tolerance for scholarly writing -- lots of footnotes, discussions of theoretical positions, etc. But it's readable and amazingly comprehensive; I've only found a few writers I would have liked to have seen mentioned who weren't in the index.

Oh, I don’t mind a scholarly book - this will probably have to go on the wish list then!

I have a copy of Reference Guide to Russian Literature by Neil Cornwell. Should I add A History of Russian Literature to my reference library.

You should, if you're interested enough. The Cornwell book is great, but it's very different in purpose and scope (and, of course, outdated).

What I'd suggest is using the "Look inside" feature at the Amazon page:
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0199663947/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20

Search for the names of a couple of authors you're particularly interested in and see if what they say intrigues you. Also, if you have a Kindle (or a Kindle app for your phone) you could have a free sample sent and read the introduction, take a look at the table of contents, etc. (That's what persuaded me to spring for the book.)

Thanks for the suggestion, I will check the book and will add to my collection. Thanks languagehat.

I wrote about the book here:
http://languagehat.com/a-history-of-russian-literature/

Well written review, I will probably add it to my collection of Russian references. I must be from the old school, I much rather use my own reference books than use the internet.