Dostoyevsky Anybody?

cjs19

I know it may seem a bit weighted for some, but apart from his phlosophies the man could write a book that is extremely accessible to a modern reader. Anybody read any? Just finished House of The Dead and re-reading Crime and Punishment at the mo? Any thoughts?

finlma

Agreed. I read Crime & Punishment recently and really enjoyed it - very accessible still today.

Hip

The Devils (or The Possessed) is probably the weakest of his novels, maybe he rushed that one out a bit too quickly, but the rest are excellent.

As was said on this board recently, you can't really go too far wrong with any of the Russians.

simu

I think he's cool! I've read C&P and The Brothers Karamazov twice! And I'm looking forward to buying a nice fat copy of The Idiot I saw in Waterstone's the other day.

Give The Brothers K a go - excellent book!

Vangelis

I really want to read Dostoyevsky.
Any recommendations to a beginner?

simu

People usually start with Crime and Punishment because it's probably his most famous so you could try that.

Chad ghostal

really enjoyed C&P and notes from the underground..
building up courage to start the idiot..
i'm really a big reader, but the atmosphere and characters in his books keep me glued

excellenté

Vangelis

simu wrote:

I think he's cool! I've read C&P and The Brothers Karamazov twice! And I'm looking forward to buying a nice fat copy of The Idiot I saw in Waterstone's the other day.

Give The Brothers K a go - excellent book!

Will do! Dankeschön!

Hip

Read The Idiot before The Brothers Karamazov IMHO.

Anybody read The Double? It's a pretty good headwreck. For those, like me, who didn't think much of Catcher In The Rye, it's like a kafkaesque version of Holden Caulfield.

Dagnir Glaurung

Discovered Dostoyevsky this summer. Loved him from the first. Have read Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov so far. Have The Gambler winking at me from a shelf so I'll read that next.

tonymontana

Went through a russian phase myself there, you can't beat them especially Crime and Punishment. Read Cancer Ward and First Circle by Solzynithsin over the summer, best books I've ever read especially Cancer Ward if you've ever being a patient or worked in a hospital.

treefingers

Dagnir Glaurung wrote:

Discovered Dostoyevsky this summer. Loved him from the first. Have read Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov so far. Have The Gambler winking at me from a shelf so I'll read that next.

yeah i'm a big fan as well. loved crime and punishment, the idiot, and house of the dead. great stuff. i have been meaning to read the brothers karamazov for ages.


"Oh Fyodor you are the most attractive man I know.
Your Russian heart is strong and has been bleeding for too long!"

gaf1983

I read crime and punishment and liked it, started na braithire karamazov during the summer but found it a bit heavy and jacked it in somewhere round the 300pages mark. Found it hard to keep up with which character was which so ended up printing off a character guide from the internet. Must give it another go when I finish my exams, is it worth the effort?

simu

I think so! It's grand once you remember the different forms of everyone's name!

Richelieu

simu wrote:

I think so! It's grand once you remember the different forms of everyone's name!

too right, thats some head wrecker. Just imagine school roll calls in russia, they must go on for hours...

munkee

Loved C&P, one of my favourite books. Read half of The Brothers, and for various reasons got waylaid and didn't finish it- was really enjoying it though.

theCzar

read C&P a year ago and wasn't over the moon, not one of my favourites but I liked it enough to grab the idiot before Christmas...

What I like best about these classics is that they cost about €2.25... Value!

cailinoBAC

I found the Idiot a lot easier to read than Crime and Punishment, but as with most people I read C and P first. I also gave up on Brothers Kamarazov. I can´t remember exactly why, maybe because I was on holiday, and I just never picked it up again. Though being on holiday was part of the reason I was reading it. Seemed pretty cool to be reading Dostoevsky in St Petersburg in a cafe called Idiot.

Esmereldina

I read Notes from Underground a few years ago and really liked it :cool:
I've been meaning to read more of his books ever since. I even bought Crime and Punishment about a year ago, but shamefully it's still sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read.:( I though it would be harder to read than it sounds from this thread... am now filled with new enthusiasm to read it!

r3nu4l

Yep, I started with C&P too and loved it, really great read altogether Like other people I have so many books to read that I find it difficult to know which to read next but hope to get back to good ol' Dostoyevsky soon.

Maccattack

Why do people who read Dostoyevsky look like Dostoyevsky?














know who asked that question and you are on your way to bliss.

ionapaul

I read The Idiot during in mid-2006 and didn't quite enjoy it as much as C&P and the Brothers Karamazov - the latter being my favourite. It always thrills me that so many of the classics still have characters to enchant us, plots to engross us and messages that educate us decades and centuries after they were first read.
For those who enjoy the Russians, try 'Fathers and Sons' by Turgenev, very good read IMHO.

smcelhinney

Depends on what side of Dostoevsky you want to see..

Tortured soul & social politics (it is widely claimed that Dostoevsky was agoraphobic) - C&P or Notes
Religion - Brothers Karamazov (the whole diatribe on the Russian Orthodox Church is fantastic)
Optimism - The Idiot

IMHO the Idiot is the best book to start with. Its the classic naissance of most of those "underdog" movies that you see these days, the meek triumphing over the powerful and corrupt.

Let me know how you get on. I hope you like them, I re-read them constantly.