I'm around halfway done with Crime and Punishment -- I've had a lot of time to read it, since I'm stuck in China without much to do
I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction -- I need advice on 1. discussion topics/questions on the book to help me get a fuller picture of the novel and 2. the next book to read
I just found out that there's also Brothers Karamazov written by Dostoyevsky. Should I just try reading that afterwards?
You should try all of his other major works before attempting to read The Brothers Karamazov.Originally Posted by echoyjeff222
I'm around halfway done with Crime and Punishment -- I've had a lot of time to read it, since I'm stuck in China without much to do
I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction -- I need advice on 1. discussion topics/questions on the book to help me get a fuller picture of the novel and 2. the next book to read
I just found out that there's also Brothers Karamazov written by Dostoyevsky. Should I just try reading that afterwards?
Read These: Notes From Underground, The House Of The Dead, The Idiot, Demons (The Possessed).
Only thenceforth shall you read The Brothers Karamazov.
Last edited by Raven Falcon.; 08-20-2012 at 08:10 AM.
Try and read, at least, Idiot before tackling Karamazove. Idiot is dense and slow but very, very deep and philosophical, Crime and Punishment is fast and racy and Karamazov is all that, ie. slow, deep, fast, thoughtful and everything else that you could hope for in a novel.
"The farther he goes the more good it does me. I don’t want philosophies, tracts, dogmas, creeds, ways out, truths, answers, nothing from the bargain basement. He is the most courageous, remorseless writer going and the more he grinds my nose in the sh1t the more I am grateful to him..."
-- Harold Pinter on Samuel Beckett
Which Dostoyevsky novel you read next ....
doesn't matter a lot. I read Karamazov first, then Crime, The Idiot, and lastly The Possessed. I read several more including those mentioned above plus A Raw Youth and the novella, The Gambler. I also reread Karamazov and Crime a few years later.
It seems there are Dostoyevsky lovers and haters. I fall into the former group. I find Dostoyevsky an enjoyable read and not too difficult. Many of the Victorian novels are slower and will put you to sleep. Thackeray's The Newcomes, for example, is 800 pages of sheer boredom. I liked Vanity Fair, but after that one, he went downhill. He tried to capture the essence of earlier 18th century novelists since as Fielding, but failed to do so.
I second The Idiot: I much preferred it to Crime.
As far as discussion topics go - search these boards. I know there have been quite a few threads on Crime and Punishment, there is bound to be some interesting stuff. There are some people around here who have wonderful Dostoevsky insight.
I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...
I agree that you shouldn't read TBK next, but don't save it for last. It is the best (well I haven't read The Possessed yet) but I think it's way too important of a book to place it at the end of the queue in case you don't get around to it for a while. But yeah, try reading The Idiot next, it's depressing but brilliant.
Took my batteries out my mysticism and put em in my thinking cap
Me too. It's far from depressing (Crime and Punishment is that and more) and brilliant.
I also love his early The Village of Stepanchikovo. And I haven't read The Possessed, or The Raw Youth but soon will.
"Love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself"
Have you read The Crocodile?
In my opinion, the four must-read Dostoevsky books are Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. Feel free to read those in any order that you wish. If you're a save-the-best-for-last sort of person, then certainly put off Brothers until after the rest.
A lo of people would place Demons/The Possessed up there too...But, personally, I thought it was awful.
At least it's not a trifling word play marathon that is Ulysses.
What was so awful about it? (Without giving anything away, I haven't read it)
Took my batteries out my mysticism and put em in my thinking cap
The prose is sloppy (especially the various conversations among the characters), but the content is deep and interesting.
The translation I am reading is about 700 pages long; so if you want to read it, here's my advice:
1) Don't read it if you haven't read Notes From Underground, The Idiot and Crime and Punishment.
2) Read it with utmost patience for the first 150-200 pages because they are quite dull but contain a lot of important information that will be relevant later in the novel.
3) It gets more interesting as it progresses.
4) Get a translation with notes. You'll need them. (Mine is Richard Pavear and his wife's)
5) Read it for philosophical depth, not for fancy prose.
6) You're welcome
I read Crime and Punishment several years ago while in the hospital under going an amputation. I actually found it very fitting for the mood I was generally in. I don't remember a lot about it but I do remember that I loved most of it. A discussion question might (although this is a bit obvious) entail whether any one is capable of killing another human being and whether all humans have a dark side. I've tried reading The Idiot several times and have never really gotten to far into it. It just seems a bit too dense from what I'm used to reading, some day I intend to pick it up and actually finish it though. I've also read Notes From The Underground and honestly I didn't enjoy that novella much if at all. It's more of an aesthetic problem than any thing. I just couldn't relate to the character at all. In a way it was really effective just not aesthetically pleasing to my current personality. Sort of like certain music that I don't really enjoy listening to but still respect. A good example might be Merzbow I suppose. I'm completely off-topic so I'll leave it at that.
Awful might not be the right word. But, I really disliked it, especially compared to his other works, which I think are some of the best ever written.
Raven got a few of the problems down...It takes a really, really long time to get going. But, I'd add that the payoff is very slim.
Additionally, whereas I found his great works to be socially and psychologically profound, Demons was weighed down immensely by a very reactionary ideology.
It's probably the most polemical of all his works, too.
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