Back to Bunin  - - interesting response especially because like Bunin, Pasternak was possibly a greater poet than novelist - - but I say that not passing judgement on Zhivago as did Don. In fact anyone who can write Russian prose that reads so beautifully even in translation can't possibly be worthy of the ridicule heaped on Pasternak by Nabokov.

In fact a few days ago I decided to re-read Zhivago after lo these many decades (is it 3? no, 4), because I'm reading a book where the problem of Nabokov's attitude to Pasternak is discussed, and I thought I had better look at Zhivago again.

The reason I sent in those lines is because of how they impressed me, I certainly had not remembered Pasternak's prose as marvelous as it is. Also, I personally would place Pasternak as a poet on the same plane as Mandelshtam - - a very high plane indeed. I shame-facedly admit that I haven't read Bunin - neither his poe nor his proe. 

The other reason Alexey's choice is interesting is that, like Bunin , Pasternak became a pet peeve of Nabokov - - or am I wrong about Bunin? can't find anything definite in the archives. Now the question is why? If Zhivago is as execrable as Nabokov and Don think, in what way is it so?

The question about VN & Pasternak came up in the book I am reading  - - a fascinating discussion about Russian/Soviet culture/politics in each other's contexts. It begins with Tolstoy and Chekhov (things I had never read especially about the latter) and later on discusses the importance of  the Nobel prize to Russia and Russian literature, and Nabokov's disappointments in that direction.

Carolyn

p.s. almost forgot to mention - - the book is The Magical Chorus: a history of Russian culture from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn by Solomon Volkov. The title is taken from Akhmatova I believe.