Literature and Art of the Russian Flu: A Reading List

Last updated on 21 Apr 2026

The illness followed me through all my childhood and youth - the germ of consumption placed its blood-red banner victoriously on the white hankerchief - my loved ones died one by one. One Christmas night I lay 13 years old - the blood running out of my mouth - the fever raging in my veins - the anxiety screaming inside of me. Now in the next moment you shall stand before the judgement - and you shall be doomed eternally...

Edvard Munch (https://www.edvardmunch.org/death-in-the-sickroom.jsp)

Literary works worth mentioning that referenced the pandemic

· Anton Chekhov: Жена (The Wife) and Три года (Three Years)

· Léon Daudet: Les Morticoles

· Albert Robida: La Vie électrique

Diaries and letters

· Edvard Munch (1889–1892)

· Käthe Kollwitz (1890–1910)

· Selma Lagerlöf

· Lydia Avilova

Other literary works worth mentioning

These explored disease in general, capturing the fin de siècle mood, published 1890–1914:

· Émile Zola: La Débâcle and Le Docteur Pascal

· Colette: Claudine à l'école

· Ricarda Huch’s novels

· Thomas Mann: Buddenbrooks and Der Tod in Venedig

· Amalie Skram: Professor Hieronimus

· Anton Chekhov: Палата № 6 (Ward No. 6) and Чёрный монах (The Black Monk)

· Italo Svevo: Senilità

· Stefan Żeromski: Ludzie bezdomni

Diaries, letters and sketches

· Sibilla Aleramo (Una donna)

· Fanny zu Reventlow

Artists who captured cultural and mental state at the turn of the century

· Edvard Munch: The Sick Child and Death in the Sickroom

· Harriet Backer’s art

· Helene Schjerfbeck’s artwork

· Marie Krøyer’s art

· Arnold Böcklin: Isle of the Dead

· Félicien Rops’ graphics

· Suzanne Valadon’s art

· Gustav Klimt: Death and Life

· Käthe Kollwitz’s graphics and drawings

· Egon Schiele’s art

· Théophile Steinlen’s illustrations

· Christian Krohg: The Sick Girl