By ADP Briggs. Until recently Professor of Russian at Birmingham University, ADP Briggs has written widely on Russian literature, mainly of the nineteenth century. The UK's leading specialist on Alexander Pushkin, he has written four books on him and published several volumes of translations and edited texts. His words ring true.
Russian literature is both out of the ordinary and full of compassion.
More than any others the Russian writers have expressed a deep understanding of the difficulty all of us encounter in the living of a human life, a sympathy for other people's problems and an enduring, if elusive, faith in the prospect of relief and improvement. Less than two centuries have elapsed since modern Russian literature began its truly independent course, but within a few generations it has risen to equal and surpass almost anything written before. Few nations can claim collective literary accomplishment that begins to compare with the Russians'. Dozens of major writers, scores of important works, millions of wise words - this great contribution to western civilisation, which has so often spilled its influence over into the other arts, especially music, is a thing of wonder. Penguin Classics offer at present more than fifty volumes of Russian writing, several of them containing more than one work.