Best Book- in your opinion, of course

[Oniw17]

I finished reading Crime and Punishment a few months ago, and I really liked it. Maybe because the main character was the perfect portrayal of someone who is somewhat crazy and incredibly sad(I know, he acted just like my dad). Maybe because poor people are exemplified. Maybe because I could relate a little bit to the plot. Maybe because many of the characters(Porfiry, Raskolnikov, Sonya, Marmelodov, Svidrigailov) were very interesting to me. Maybe just because it was a good book. So anyway, I want to know what is considered Dostoyevsky's greatest work, so that I don't read it yet. I don't want to read it because I think it must be the greatest work in all of literature, and I don't want to be like a crack addict, always looking for that same high that I got the first time when I was younger, never quite getting what I'm looking for. I want to wait to read it until I'm much older

[Gladys]

So anyway, I want to know what is considered Dostoyevsky's greatest work, so that I don't read it yet.

At least avoid, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov.

I'm almost finished The Eternal Husband, the story of cuckolded husband who seeks out one of his adulterers more than a decade later. I have no idea where this very short novel is going!

[Kyriakos]

I read most of the novels when i was in my late teens. Crime and Punishment, the Brothers Karamazov, The Possessed, the Idiot.

Of these i liked The Idiot the least. Crime and Punishment was very interesting. The Possessed is full of death. The Brothers Karamazov is massive, and i cannot say that i recall much of it, apart from the great Inquisitor, the death of father Karamazov and bits and pieces here and there.

But i must say that i prefer his shorter works. Not so much The Underground, but stories like Dream of a ridiculous man, A Pitiful tale and The stations of madness. I felt that he over-stretches things in his larger creations.

But perhaps it is my view mostly because i write short stories, and am too used to them

So to answer your question i would say that Crime and Punishment seems to me to be his most memorable work.

[Gladys]

I read most of the novels when i was in my late teens ... Of these I liked The Idiot the least.

Some years ago, ABC radio in Australia hosted a lengthy discussion on reading literature between US critic Harold Bloom and former state premier, Bob Carr. The latter observed, without dissent, that The Idiot is exceptionally difficult to understand. And would be especially so for a teenager.

For me, it's pure magic.

[blazeofglory]

Of course I have two books in mind and one is the Brothers Karamazov and Dostoevsky proved himself with this book as a time-honored and of course he has been referred a thousand and one times. Of course there are other bulkier and more intricate books that come in the way but I find Dostoevsky the most engaging among them. It never ceased fascinating and every page has something to teach and something to entertain. I have read war and peace but never to complete it, though I have read Anna Karenna, Resurrection and so many stories by him and I find Tolstoy an unmatched read yet what I like of Dostoevsky is I cannot express and his book made me cry, laugh, contemplate and finally got me transformed, and my philosophical leanings have undergone sea change since then. I was not the same person after reading his book.

Another book that inspired me is the Prophet by Khalil Gibran and I have read this book a dozen times and yet I find each reading teaching me something new. His ways of looking at things are phenomena are totally different. And it really transmuted me spiritually and I always love to keep the Prophet with me as it is a spring of inspiration. The Book that really inspires all is the Mahabharata, for this book is not rated enough in the world of literature, philosophy, social science, ethics and the like.These are some of the books that cannot be ignored.

[mouseofcards89]

I think that some of Dostoevsky's best work is encapsulated in his short stories, particularly "White Nights," "A Christmas Tree and A Wedding," "The Eternal Husband," etc. These sum up the weight of his tremendous social message, and, although not everyone has time to work their way through a novel, I always recommend them when anyone asks me for my favourite work by Dostoevsky. Any one of them can easily be read in a sitting or two. "The Idiot" is probably my favourite novel of his, simply because I read it first and it was something akin to a religious experience for me. Subsequent to that, I always expected great things from Dostoevsky, and all of his work is tremendous calibre.

[mouseofcards89]

The latter observed, without dissent, that The Idiot is exceptionally difficult to understand. And would be especially so for a teenager.

Well, given the fact that most forms of media are passive and rely on perceptions of personal ineptitude/illiteracy to get their message across, this strikes me as an egregiously candid dispensation of pretence by a form of mass communication which expects that it can have its way uncontested with moral automatons. ...seriously...Dostoevsky is far more of a readable novelist than most of the technocrats who clog the shelves today. He was celebrated in his own lifetime for his popularity with the working class. In fact, he notes this in what I will call his most 'autobiographical' novel, "Insulted and Humiliated." Nikolai Ikhmenev stated at one point that Ivan Petrovich (whose initial novel is likened to "Poor Folk") writes in such a way as to appeal to someone from a traditional working class background, like himself. This more or less summed up Dostoevsky's appeal throughout Russia during that time. Frankly, if a factory worker with perhaps the equivalent of a grade 3 education can read, understand, and celebrate Dostoevsky, then it is a truly disparaging insight into our "no child left behind" school system that an author like Dostoevsky is considered unreadable. Christ.

[Gladys]

Frankly, if a factory worker with perhaps the equivalent of a grade 3 education can read, understand, and celebrate Dostoevsky, then it is a truly disparaging insight into our "no child left behind" school system that an author like Dostoevsky is considered unreadable.

If you peruse the thread September / Russia Reading: The Idiot by Dostoevsky, you will see a myriad views on the ending of the novel, most of them miles from mine. While the Russian peasant may have understood, many today struggle.