Some Russian books are heavy going because of the often use of several 'different' names for their characters: you get the surname alone, the first name and pat

Some Russian books are heavy going because of the often use of several 'different' names for their characters: you get the surname alone, the first name and patronym (parent's name), the first name alone, and the colloquial use of the first name all referring to the same person. As an example, using an English name: you might get "Smith", "James, son of Michael", "James", and "Jimmy", all of which can equally apply to a person called "James Smith". But the classic Russian writers are famous because of their writing, same as French, English and American authors are. Some of the most famous Russian books include 'Anna Karenina', 'War and Peace' and 'Doctor Zhivago', and these three have been made into Russian and/or Western films. Like all films, the film versions often cut out whole swathes of the original story, but can give an outline of what the books contain.