Fyodor Dostoevsky

[Lola82]

I just started Crime and Punishment. I'm few chapters in and so far, amazing!!

[J.Alfred Prufrock]

Recently, along with the other books that I'm reading, I decided to pick up Crime and Punishment (by Dostoevsky, of course). I just finished Part I, and it is an amazing read thus far. Has anyone else read this?

Here's a quote from C&P which caught my attention:

In a morbid condition of the brain, dreams often have a singular actuality, vividness, and extraordinary semblance of reality. At times monstrous images are created, but the setting and the whole picture are so truthlike and filled with details so delicate, so unexpectedly, but so artistically consistent, that the dreamer, were he an artist like Pushkin or Turgenev even, could never have invented them in the waking state. Such sick dreams always remain long in the memory and make a powerful impression on the overwrought and deranged nervous system.

This excerpt is, from what I've seen, just a taste of the brilliance of Dostoevsky and only proves Friedrich Nietzsche's claim that "[Dostoevsky] is the only psychologist I have anything to learn from." What do you guys think?

I also recently bought a few more of his works, including Poor Folk, Notes from Underground, The Double, and The House of the Dead. Has anyone read any of these works? Or perhaps The Brothers Karamazov or the The Idiot (which I also own)? If so, what did you think about them?

While Nietzsche credits Dostoevsky with inspiration, it's truly the other way around. The idea of the Ubermensch (that one man is above law) plagues the protagonist of C&P (I can't for the life of me remember his name anymore, it's been a couple of years since I read it) throughout the book and is ultimately his downfall. I've read and written a lot about C&P, and I can honestly say it's changed my life.

While, or even after, you read it I suggest reading "Thus Spoke Zarathurstra" by Nietzsche to completely understand the psyche of the protagonist

[Evapohler]

I read Crime and Punishment about ten years ago while in grad school, and I remember at one point I couldn't sleep until I finished it. So I felt like Raskalnikov(sp?)--crazed, tired, undernourished, and fanatical. I finally found peace at the end.

I will never forget his characters. They were so well drawn and sympathetic.

One poster said that much is lost in translation. I wish I could read Russian, then, because in English the book is already amazing.

[Eric Tolevsky]

Dostoevsky is one of the best writers that i have read. I credit him for getting me back into books.

Sweetos - I too really enjoyed the Idiot. So good.

Belenus - I might have to give the gambler a read. I have always skipped it b/c of the critics. I should never listen to the critics.


I would like to add that House of the Dead is very underrated as well.

First post and loving the Forum so far!

[Fran]

Dostoevsky is one of the best writers that i have read. I credit him for getting me back into books.

Sweetos - I too really enjoyed the Idiot. So good.

Belenus - I might have to give the gambler a read. I have always skipped it b/c of the critics. I should never listen to the critics.


I would like to add that House of the Dead is very underrated as well.

First post and loving the Forum so far!

I once heard a critic compared to a eunuch in a harem .... he know how it's done, he sees it done every night but he still can't do it himself.



Forgot to say welcome to the forum, so glad you joined us.

[Hanka]

Oh, Crime and Punishment is very depressive book. I like Russian literature, but Dostoevsky is exception.

[Fran]

Oh, Crime and Punishment is very depressive book. I like Russian literature, but Dostoevsky is exception.

I don't think it was intended to be a laugh in fairness.

[Hanka]

I don't think it was intended to be a laugh in fairness.

Agree. It's a serious book. And depressive. By the way, Dostoevsky was mentally ill (epilepsy). This is why his books are that depressive. Still interesting though.

[Mel Carriere]

Read Crime and Punishment as a young man, didn't get it. I love Tolstoy. Tolstoy gets into people's heads. He is the original psychoanalyst.

[anu_]

Begun reading Crime and Punishment two weeks ago, but the narrative seemed very slow and abandoned it after three days. Not sure whether I would ever be able to complete.

[Mel Carriere]

Begun reading Crime and Punishment two weeks ago, but the narrative seemed very slow and abandoned it after three days. Not sure whether I would ever be able to complete.

Try Tolstoy, my friend. Tolstoy will move your soul, but you have to give him a chance.

[anu_]

Yes Mel, I have already read War and Peace by Tolstoy and he impressed me with his stunning rendition of boring history lessons as enjoyable fiction. Planning to read Anna Karanina soon.

[Mel Carriere]

Anna Karenina is equally entertaining. Tolstoy's ability to get inside his character's heads is uncanny. He is the master psychoanalyst of fiction.

[mouseofcards89]

I've read everything that Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote, many times over. "Crime and Punishment" and "The Brothers Karamazov" are his most widely acclaimed works, and both are singular works of fiction. But, I can't call BK his 'best' work, because it was never finished. He meant to write a work of far greater scope in which Alyosha went on to become a Utopian Socialist seditionist who murdered the Tsar and was tried/executed for the crime. This never happened, because he died in poverty.
His best long work is "Demons." I do not understand why it is not more generally known today. Some of the political themes are outmoded, yes...but, if that much deters readers, then Tolstoy would be unknown. It's a keen, penetrating psychological study. His best short work is "Notes From Underground," though it was heavily edited by the Russian censors.

[sin]

I've read everything that Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote, many times over.

How did you do that? Where do you find the time?

Things don't move....it's all dialogue in Brothers Karamazov...he sounds like he's trying to address 500 things in one novel...church vs state, existence of god, morality/good and evil....

Notes from Underground is enjoyable -- I agree.

I just bought *all* his short works.

I tried reading 'The Idiot' many years back; gave up halfway.