Talk:Doctor Zhivago (novel)/Archive 1

Sharing a Root
There's hardly a doubt the name shares a root with the word for life; there are several doubts this meant anything to the author. Citation or remove remark.

Russian literature has a bit of an obsession with name analysis, and what an artist intends a work to mean has nothing to do with what the work means to people. 65.46.168.254 (talk) 19:00, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Disambiguation?
Why does a search for "Doctor Zhivago" take you straight to the movie, rather than to a disambiguation page with links to the novel and the movie? In my opinion, were it to go directly to either article it should be the novel, as this predates the film. -- Saluton 15th April 2006


 * This has been attended to. :: Kevinalewis  :  (Talk Page) / (Desk)  11:17, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Entry contradicts entry for author re date of publication in Russia
They are different by a year, anyone know the answer? Fitzhugh 05:44, 11 December 2006 (UTC) hate is good

Originally published in Italian, then English and French, finally Russian
I believe that it was written in Russian and the Soviets rejected it, so it was smuggled to the west and published first in Italian. Cottonmather0 07:56, 04 February 2007 (UTC)

Rachmaninoff
I see that Pasternak was a friend of Sergei Rachmaninoff. I've never read the book, but in the 1965 movie there's a small scene where a pianist is playing Rachmaninoff's Prelude in G minor. One member of the audience turns to the person sitting next to them and says something like "It's genius", to which his interlocutor replies "It's not genius, it's Rachmaninoff". Or something like that. The person at the piano didn't look much like Rachmaninoff (although the camera was on him for only a few seconds) - and so I wonder whether it was supposed to be the composer at the keyboard, or some other pianist playing Rachmaninoff's music. -- JackofOz (talk) 00:18, 22 March 2008 (UTC)


 * "Boris! This is genius!
 * "Really? I thought it was Rachmaninoff.  I'm going for a smoke." 68Kustom (talk) 22:40, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

A Few Small Changes
I changed the reference to "the welfare of the individual being more important than that of the State." The more likely attack would have been that it places the welfare of the individual above that of "society"; Pasternak says the latter is an illusion. Other than that, added a few sentences. 59.178.86.15 (talk) 04:37, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Isaiah Berlin
This isn't really my area, so I'll just post this here, but I just read that Isaiah Berlin--who was the first Westerner to speak with Pasternak since the 30s purges--snuck the first few chapters of this book back to Pasternak's sister's in England in 1945. It goes on to say:

“Ten years later, when Isaiah returned to Peredelkino, Pasternak handed him a manuscript and said he would publish in the West whatever the consequences. Berlin went away, read the chapters and immediately knew that Pasternak's crisis of identity had been resolved. He had put all his equivocations behind him in a single act of defiance and genius: the writing of Zhivago.”

This is from _Isaiah Berlin: A Life_ by Michael Ignatieff, pp.147. P.s. For anyone researching the book or Peredelkino, there's a good section in this book. 142.165.102.244 (talk) 05:05, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Add link please
There's missing link on the czech version of this article (on the side): Doktor Živago Podzimator (talk) 15:45, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Opening passage
I would find it helpful to have the opening passage added to this entry —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.162.134.133 (talk) 13:12, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

"In popular culture" section full of cruft
I would recommend that this section be completely revised, and much of its content removed. At the moment it does not fulfil the aims of this kind of section in WP, to "contain facts of genuine interest to the reader that wouldn't otherwise be covered". Instead, I see this section having devolved "to indiscriminate collections of trivia or cruft". For example, the fact that the film of Dr Zhivago was referred to in a series on YouTube is not worthy of inclusion here, as "passing mentions in books, television or film dialogue or song lyrics should be included only when that mention's significance is itself demonstrated with secondary sources". See guidelines presented on this help page for more information. Jimjamjak (talk) 10:45, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

"Critical Failure"?
This passage confuses me."The most famous adaptation is the 1965 film adaptation by David Lean, featuring the Egyptian actor Omar Sharif as Zhivago and English actress Julie Christie as Lara, with Geraldine Chaplin as Tonya and Alec Guinness as Yevgraf. The film was commercially successful and won five Oscars, but was a critical failure; currently, it is widely considered to be a classic popular film." If the film "is widely considered to be a classic popular film," "was commercially successful and won five Oscars," then how is it a "critical failure?" Also, the phrase "widely considered to be a classic popular film" is unencyclopedic; a quote would be more appropriate. --Humanist Geek (talk) 03:37, 9 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Quite! Please make the necessary changes to this section. Jimjamjak (talk) 08:21, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

plot summary incorrect
"One of these takes place after Lara's mother attempts suicide and Zhivago gives medical help."

Zhivago doesn't give medical help in this case as he has not attended medical school yet and is still a youth. What actually happens is that a recital is being given at the Gromekos, the house in which Yury has grown up, and one of the musicians is (I think) the nephew of Lara's mother, and the recital is interrupted because Lara's mother (who has tried to poison herself) has demanded his presence. Alexander Alexandrovich, who is Tonya's father and Yury's sort-of adopted father, provides his own carriage as transportation for the musician, and takes Yury and his friend Misha along for the thrill of the ride and the cool night air, because they are good boys, or something like that. They try to remain in the corridor outside the room where Lara's mother is vomiting up her poison, but a servant urges them in because the room is actually some kind of service room and the corridors are busy service corridors. Lara's mother is being sick and raving in a bed. Yury has an opportunity to watch a pantomime communication between Lara and Komarovsky who are also in the room. Komarovsky has been carrying on a clandestine sexual relationship with Lara, who is at this point a schoolgirl and is dressed in a school uniform. Yury recognises this aspect of their relationship by observing their interactions, and he and Misha just stand around embarrassedly shuffling their feet. It is only in the following chapter that we hear of Yury suddenly having grown older and sitting for medical examinations. Hope this helps. Thanks, marcsmith@y7mail.com