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Fyodor Dostoevsky

LawnTamer said:
The beauty of Dostoevsky's writing is that his characters are so real. The first Dostoevsky I read was the Brothers Karamazov. I loved it, read all night. He paints his characters such that we see who they are, we see what they do, but we are left to piece together why. For me reading Dostoevsky is like taking a long look into a mirror, and finding things in me that I hadn't realized were there.
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I completely agree. A great writer makes fantastic, realistic characters. Dostoevsky is a genius at this.
 
ecks said:
The reason is I tried to read "The Idiot" with Constance Garret's translation, but it sucked and I couldn't understand much.
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Garnett's Edwardian translations probably did a great job in her time. But I also find them confusing. I read Crime and Punishment in a new translation, and the language just flew like it had originally been written in English.
 
LawnTamer said:
He paints his characters such that we see who they are, we see what they do, but we are left to piece together why. For me reading Dostoevsky is like taking a long look into a mirror, and finding things in me that I hadn't realized were there.
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An excellent point. Dostoyevsky did a a great job of using characters in a subtle way to bring out a very important point. In The Brothers Karamazov, Aloysha is the silent one and doesn't stand out from his more "out there" brothers, but he has a silent strength that the others, and his father, doesn't possess. The very end of the book highlights the importance of hope and not just surrendering to an "everyone is bad" type of belief, or rough nihilism if you will. To do things right now, though you may do wrong later on. To struggle against the unkown and to just keep slogging away, even if *meaning* is unkown or has yet to show itself.

Ah, children, ah, dear friends, don't be afraid of life! How god life is when one does something god and just!"
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A simple scene in the book, but one that brings out a greater point, can't think of too many authors who can repeat the same task.
 
savvyambrose said:
Almost. A little over a hundred pages to go.
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Good, I didn't want to spoil anything.... One thing that hit me when I read Brothers K, was that Alyosha could have been Dmitri or Ivan. He really could have, any of us could. There is a scene where Dmitri is trying to describe how he is overcome by passion, jealousy or anger, and he tells Alyosha, "you couldn't understand." But Alyosha does understand! He can empathize with Dmitri because he has those same temptations. When Ivan and Alyosha are talking, and Ivan gives the example of the young abused girl freezing, and alone in the outhouse, not only is Alyosha unable to reconcile such suffering with the existence of a just and loving God, I realized that Alyosha had already come up with these questions and failed to address them intellectually. Where his intellect fails, unlike Ivan, Alyosha proceeds allowing hope and faith to guide. Ivan collapses on himself like a supernova of intellectual skepticism and hopelessness.

I guess one of the things that stands out for me about Dostoevsky, when comparing him to other Russian authors, is his use of hope. There is a lot of fatalism found in the writing of his Russian contemporaries, but to me at least, his writing does not partake of it.

Have ya'll read Crime and Punishment?
 
I finished up The Brothers Karamazov a month or so ago. It was my first book by Dostoyevsky and I loved it. It took some time to get through it, but it made reference to all kinds of heavy points. If you don't read the book you should at least read the chapter "The Grand Inquisitor" and maybe the chapter where Ivan talks to the devil. Great book, Crime and Punishment is next on my list.
 
Hello-

I couldn't resist a hello when I saw the Icelandic-which is so rare-I teach basic Icelandic and learned it as a child listening in to my parents conversations.

I read Crime&P with my book club and enjoyed it-Bros. K is on my TBR.
 
As a Russian major, I read Crime and Punishment while I was in college. It was quite difficult to read (& discuss!) in Russian, but I was amazed and impressed by the story. I even named one of my dogs after the main character. :)
 
I'm from Belarus and have a lucky chance to read his novels in the original. I've already read Crime and Punishment & now enjoying his "Idiot" . People, who read these and other his books, can you share your impressions??
 
Ulchik said:
I'm from Belarus and have a lucky chance to read his novels in the original. I've already read Crime and Punishment & now enjoying his "Idiot" . People, who read these and other his books, can you share your impressions??
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Belarus? I am planning a trip to Minsk in the near future.
 
beer good said:
Am I the only one who finds some of Dostoevsky's novels - Demons especially - occasionally absolutely hilarious?
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Can't say. Demons must be a different kind of Dostoevsky novel, then, from what I have heard. I don't remember any fun in Crime and Punishment. But it sounds like Demons, therefore, might be worth a look.
 
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