Doctor Zhivago

Pasternak s epic novel, in which the large-scale events of the Russian Revolution and the civil war which followed it are seen through the eyes of the humane, intelligent Yury Zhivago and Lara, the great love of his life, is one of the exceptional novels of the 20th century. Zhivago, the young poet and physician finds himself trapped by competing loyalties after the Tsarist empire collapses. His own internal struggles, torn between his duties to his wife and family and the intensity of his feelings for Lara, mirror the civil discords of a world and society turned upside down. The broad sweep of Pasternak s narrative, as he tells the story of the intertwining lives of his central characters, and the rich gallery of other characters are combined with a precise attention to detail and a profound sense of the importance of individual lives caught up in the tumult of history.