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ladyeremite's review against another edition
4.0
An engrossing - often painfully so - account of the history of imperial Siberia
mactammonty's review
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
3.0
The information is good. The presentation needs some work. Using some percentages when comparing the amounts of prisoners instead of the large raw numbers would have made the information easier to digest. The constant barage of names was also overwhelming. It must be difficult to condense the material when focusing on such a large subject it would have made a larger impact to do so.
There were many times my eyes glazed over with the amount of names and numbers given in a short space of time.
There were many times my eyes glazed over with the amount of names and numbers given in a short space of time.
themadmaiden's review against another edition
4.0
I've realized I knew very little abut Siberia and its history. This book has made me want to read more. It was very interesting and I enjoyed the paintings they had in it as well.
Also I can't believe they banished a bell at one point.
Actually I can, history is weird.
Also I can't believe they banished a bell at one point.
Actually I can, history is weird.
alismcg's review against another edition
4.0
A more 'weighty' volume to digest (in content) , Beer scatters nuggets such as this one to nourish ones strength to endure in the face of oppression, suffering and insurmountable obstacles.
["Do not become angry and embittered, face down cruel fortune with a cool head. Renunciation, spiritual harmony, concentrating on scholarly work – these are the best, the only ways of ignoring the weight of your fetters, of not being marked by them, so that when they are finally removed, you will still be young.”]
— Ivan Gorbachevsky 65 year old Decembrist exiled to Siberia in The House of the Dead : Siberian Exile Under the Tsars
This : exactly why I need and ♥️ to read
["Do not become angry and embittered, face down cruel fortune with a cool head. Renunciation, spiritual harmony, concentrating on scholarly work – these are the best, the only ways of ignoring the weight of your fetters, of not being marked by them, so that when they are finally removed, you will still be young.”]
— Ivan Gorbachevsky 65 year old Decembrist exiled to Siberia in The House of the Dead : Siberian Exile Under the Tsars
This : exactly why I need and ♥️ to read
saraleacock's review
3.0
This book wasn't bad, but I found it a bit of a slog. Part of the problem was that there was no particular through-line being followed (no one person's life, or story of a single historical incident, etc.) and so it felt disjointed at times. It also wasn't particularly chronological which would have helped make it easier to follow. Again, it wasn't bad, I just had no trouble putting it down and was never particularly excited to start it again.
reader_fictions's review
4.0
It’s been an embarrassingly long time since I read any history; I’m the worst history major ever, preferring historical romances to weighty historical tomes (or am I the most fun?). Audiobook probably wasn’t the best choice here, but the review audiobook of The House of the Dead was a good excuse to indulge in some Russian history.
Russian History has always been one of my favorites to study, and The House of the Dead proved no exception. The thing is that Russian history is on such grand scale, so full of death, horrors, and comedy that it’s almost like reading an epic fantasy. (You can really tell I’m a fiction person.) Seriously, elements of this history seem like they should be out of a Catch-22-esque work of fiction.
Beer does a great job revealing the larger political history of Russia through the microcosm of the Siberian exile and penal system. Though I’d previously studied the gulags quite a bit, I’d not gotten much into Siberian exile, aside from Crime and Punishment (I may have a new sympathy and understanding for that heinous epilogue). Beer manages to place everything in a larger political context and organize chapters by subject while also keeping everything in a fairly chronological order, which helped me tremendously.
The audiobook itself wasn’t my favorite. Arthur Morey doesn’t read with great emotion. If anything, he may have made the history a bit more dry than in print, though that’s a tough call to make. His Russian pronunciations also seemed a bit suspect. Obviously it was good enough I got through it, but I probably won’t ever listen to a Morey-narrated audiobook again.
If you’re interested in Russian history, this is a good one, covering a surprisingly broad swath of the last century of Tsarist rule.
Russian History has always been one of my favorites to study, and The House of the Dead proved no exception. The thing is that Russian history is on such grand scale, so full of death, horrors, and comedy that it’s almost like reading an epic fantasy. (You can really tell I’m a fiction person.) Seriously, elements of this history seem like they should be out of a Catch-22-esque work of fiction.
Beer does a great job revealing the larger political history of Russia through the microcosm of the Siberian exile and penal system. Though I’d previously studied the gulags quite a bit, I’d not gotten much into Siberian exile, aside from Crime and Punishment (I may have a new sympathy and understanding for that heinous epilogue). Beer manages to place everything in a larger political context and organize chapters by subject while also keeping everything in a fairly chronological order, which helped me tremendously.
The audiobook itself wasn’t my favorite. Arthur Morey doesn’t read with great emotion. If anything, he may have made the history a bit more dry than in print, though that’s a tough call to make. His Russian pronunciations also seemed a bit suspect. Obviously it was good enough I got through it, but I probably won’t ever listen to a Morey-narrated audiobook again.
If you’re interested in Russian history, this is a good one, covering a surprisingly broad swath of the last century of Tsarist rule.
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