Dostoyevsky - enthusiasts, experts... a few questions, reading related.

[dark desire]

Hello!

I am finishing my masters in English literature. I will take a break after this. I can go for further studies but I do not really want to. I want to study on my own and Dostoyevsky is where I want to begin. I am going to read all his works, may be a biography or two, some criticism and I am allowing myself many months for this project.

I am asking for suggestions and comments here regarding how should I go about this. I will try approaching someone at the university as well but I suppose I will find someone better here for this. The reason behind my interest is nihilism and Dostoyevsky's treatment of it. I intend to follow Dostoyevsky with Nietzsche and Camus (possibly Kafka too, I am not sure) but they come later on. Any word of advice is welcomed. If nothing else, just sharing why you like dostoyevsky will be great!

Thanks!

[JCamilo]

The essential critical work reggarding Dostoievisky is Bakhtin. The essential works are The Idiot, Crime and Punishment,Undeground man and Brothers Karamazov, i would read then in this order, specially considering how BK seems to put together the ideas of the 3 previous works in one family. Nihilism - not that important, if present, but then it is not that important for Nietzche either (i mean just an element), certainly will be found on the essential doubles of Dostoievisky formula in The Idiot and Brothers K.

[mal4mac]

Dickens was a great influence on Dostoevsky. It would be interesting to read works that Dostoevsky cites as explicit influences. Dickens isn't renowned for nihilism, but there are very dark characters & moments in David Copperfielld, Our Mutual Friend, and The Old Curiosity Shop, which Dostoevsky read and re-read:

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/gredina.html

[JCamilo]

Dostoievisky is not exactly renowed for his nihilism either. But sometimes, there is this vision. Prince Myshkin's overwheliming optmism demanded a negative double that was that negative, the negative narrator of Underground man, the multiplicity of BK will bring those momments betters. But the key, is unlike Dicken's goodness (as Chesterton liked to point) that swarms over his novels, the right way to read dostoievisky is not to find good, evil, dark, light but the stress between then, granting a duel of opositing forces.

[2X2E5]

I would recommend reading a novel or short story that makes community and friendship seem like a beautiful thing such as Cannery Row by Steinbeck, and then plunge into Dostoevsky, because the radical shift to individualism and the dark psychology in him will hit you even hard in contrast. This is what happened in a course I took. We kinda jumped from individualism to community. It made each author's main idea stand out more clearly.

Side Note:
I recently read Scarlet and Black by Stendhal, which I found is very similar to Dostoevsky's writing in its psychoanalysis and role of love, individualism/society, and passion. If you enjoy Dostoevsky, you may want to give Stendhal a try, but I'm not sure reading Stendhal first would a good introduction

My Experience:
I'll gladly offer my experience reading Dostoevsky.
I was first introduced to Dostoevsky's works in my first year of underground specifically Notes from the Underground and The Grand Inquisitor (Chapter from Brothers Karamazov). I immediately fell in love with his writing because it made me feel sane during a time when I was asking philosophical questions, beginning the journey of understanding who I am, and feeling not alone for having an attitude that says 'every effort if futile if you look into its drive' etc etc. All this happened at a time where I felt I couldnt relate my ideas to anyone and felt alone in my head with thousands of questions but no answers, or even a sense that an answer of any sort existed. Seeing this inner discourse where the characters are not ashamed for being different in unusual ways (Underground man) was especially appealing to me. It helped me get over some of the prejudices I held over others, etc.
The Idiot, I read after bumping into the person who is now my significant other, and after finding out that we both liked Dostoevsky (no coincidence since we are two Slavs living in Toronto, Canada hungry to learn about slavic culture) I rushed to read one of her favorite novels by Dostoevsky - The Idiot. Loved it and felt like I had a part of me that strove to be like Prince Myshkin - the good intentions and Christ-like behaviour - and although I am far from that character it was very interesting to see the psychological depth of Dostoevsky describing the characters thoughts and their place in society.

From the four novels Ive read of his, I think Notes from the Underground seems to express nihilism more than the others.

[mal4mac]

I would recommend reading a novel or short story that makes community and friendship seem like a beautiful thing such as Cannery Row by Steinbeck, and then plunge into Dostoevsky, because the radical shift to individualism and the dark psychology in him will hit you even hard in contrast. This is what happened in a course I took. We kinda jumped from individualism tomakes community and friendship seem like a beautiful thing community. It made each author's main idea stand out more clearly.


I also think Cannery Row a wonderfully optimistic book. You also see a lot of optimism, community and friendship in Dickens. It's intriguing that one of Dostoevsky's favourite novels was Pickwick Papers. Is there a more optimistic book? is there a greater celebration of friendship? Even books with darker passages, like David Copperfield, are mostly optimistic. Maybe Dostoevsky was reacting against Dickens' optimism in most of his works!

Hardy might be another (mostly) dark writer to compare to Dostoevsky. Try "Under the Greenwood tree" and "Jude the obscure" and see his extremes of optimism and pessimism! Interesting that community and friendship are central to "Jude", but lead down very dark paths.

Another pessimist is Conrad (try "Lord Jim").

Another must read, an influence on most of these guys, is Schopenhauer.

[Gladys]

You might also read a little of Soren Kiekegaard, who influenced Dostoevsky's existentialism. An easy introduction is perhaps his short work Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing. Also heavily influenced by Kierkegaard is the savagely brilliant, if out-of-favour, play Brand. In both works we see a pattern which, a little later, manifests in Prince Myshkin of The Idiot.