Jassy Melson
01-14-2013, 07:08 PM
For one thing, one is already familiar with the novel, and it is almost the same feeling one
gets when visiting a long-lost friend. One will forgive the little misslips and quirks the author or
friend has committed, and just enjoy the pleasure of visiting the novelist or friend again, albeit in a
more objective way.
Since one is already familiar with the novel, one can home in on the way the novelist worked, and
his or her technique. It is a rich and rewarding thing to reread a great novel decades after first
reading it. One gains an even greater appreciation of the novelist, and the way he or she put the
novel together.
The key thing is objectivity. When rereading a great novel years after first reading it, the reader has
grown in his or her ability to be objective; and being familiar with the novel in hand, the reader can
be as objective as it is possible to be. The result will be (if the novel is truly great) an exhilarating
feeling.
I first read Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov about thirty-five years ago. I knew as I first read
the novel that I was in the presence of one of the greatest novelists and one of the greatest novels of
all time.
Even after having read the novel and reading other works by Dostoevsky, I stayed in a state of awe
in regard to him. I put off rereading The Brothers Karamazov for thirty-five years. To say I was
intimidated by both the novel and the novelist would be an understatement.
I finally gained the nerve to reread The Brothers Karamazov. The result was that I had a spiritual
experience unlike any other in my life. I won't go into what that experience consisted; suffice it to
say that no novel has ever affected me the way that rereading The Brothers Karamazov did.
I think that spiritual experience was made possible by my being familiar with Dostoevsky and his
work (by the time I reread The Brothers Karamazov I had read all of Dostoevsky's work), and
particularly by the fact of my having read the novel before.
But I think it sometimes takes three readings of a great novel to gain a truly objective appreciation
of the book in question; so a few years from now may find me rereading The Brothers Karamazov
once again.
gets when visiting a long-lost friend. One will forgive the little misslips and quirks the author or
friend has committed, and just enjoy the pleasure of visiting the novelist or friend again, albeit in a
more objective way.
Since one is already familiar with the novel, one can home in on the way the novelist worked, and
his or her technique. It is a rich and rewarding thing to reread a great novel decades after first
reading it. One gains an even greater appreciation of the novelist, and the way he or she put the
novel together.
The key thing is objectivity. When rereading a great novel years after first reading it, the reader has
grown in his or her ability to be objective; and being familiar with the novel in hand, the reader can
be as objective as it is possible to be. The result will be (if the novel is truly great) an exhilarating
feeling.
I first read Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov about thirty-five years ago. I knew as I first read
the novel that I was in the presence of one of the greatest novelists and one of the greatest novels of
all time.
Even after having read the novel and reading other works by Dostoevsky, I stayed in a state of awe
in regard to him. I put off rereading The Brothers Karamazov for thirty-five years. To say I was
intimidated by both the novel and the novelist would be an understatement.
I finally gained the nerve to reread The Brothers Karamazov. The result was that I had a spiritual
experience unlike any other in my life. I won't go into what that experience consisted; suffice it to
say that no novel has ever affected me the way that rereading The Brothers Karamazov did.
I think that spiritual experience was made possible by my being familiar with Dostoevsky and his
work (by the time I reread The Brothers Karamazov I had read all of Dostoevsky's work), and
particularly by the fact of my having read the novel before.
But I think it sometimes takes three readings of a great novel to gain a truly objective appreciation
of the book in question; so a few years from now may find me rereading The Brothers Karamazov
once again.