How many people here have read Fyodor Dostoevsky ?

[Bretrick]

House of the dead
Crime and punishment
The Brothers Karamazov
The Gambler

To name a few of his works.

 

[Twostep]

And I never figured out what he was smoking.

 

[chic]

Honestly I find the Russian authors brilliant but ponderous. I was trying to read Crime and Punishment in college, just for pleasure. It wasn't required, but company came to my house so I played board games with them instead and gave up on Dostoevsky. I'm sort of ashamed about this.

 

[Pepper]

I believe I've read everything he's ever written. Once I found an author, and really liked the author, that is what I've always done. Dostoevsky is one of those authors.

 

[Pepper]

@chic
The Russian (authors) are ponderous because they are (usually) drunk.

 

[RadishRose]

I read The Idiot a very, very long time ago. I don't remember a lot.

 

[HermitHogan]

I read Crime and punishment last year... most of it, anyway. I skimmed through some parts. If I was locked away in some Siberian prison and had absolutely nothing else to do but read, I might have enjoyed it. But I'm not, and I don't, so I didn't.

 

[Pepper]

Liked Brothers Karamazov the best.

 

[jujube]

I had a semester of Russian Literature in college. It was the longest three years of my life. The one book we really concentrated on was Crime and Punishment. It was interesting, but hard going.

One of the problems with reading Russian authors is that everybody keeps changing names. Say you have a guy named Nikolas Ivanovich Toyotasky. His mother calls him Nikita, his sisters call him Kolya and his old nurse calls him Nishki. His father calls him Nikolai. His fellow cadets in the army called him Totsky, for some reason. Periodically, he gets referred to as Count Toyotasky-Borschsky because his father is a minor prince. His best friend calls him Schastlivets because of some old joke.

You have to keep going back a hundred pages to find out who they're talking about.

 

[CooCooforCoCoPuffs]

I never got through Crime and Punishment, then I tried Brothers Karamazov. Neither held my interest; kept trying to figure out who is who and it was too much work.

 

[Warrigal]

Honestly I find the Russian authors brilliant but ponderous. I was trying to read Crime and Punishment in college, just for pleasure. It wasn't required, but company came to my house so I played board games with them instead and gave up on Dostoevsky. I'm sort of ashamed about this.

Don't be. Life is too short to wade through ponderous novels.

 

[CooCooforCoCoPuffs]

I had a semester of Russian Literature in college. It was the longest three years of my life. The one book we really concentrated on was Crime and Punishment. It was interesting, but hard going.

One of the problems with reading Russian authors is that everybody keeps changing names. Say you have a guy named Nikolas Ivanovich Toyotasky. His mother calls him Nikita, his sisters call him Kolya and his old nurse calls him Nishki. His father calls him Nikolai. His fellow cadets in the army called him Totsky, for some reason. Periodically, he gets referred to as Count Toyotasky-Borschsky because his father is a minor prince. His best friend calls him Schastlivets because of some old joke.

You have to keep going back a hundred pages to find out who they're talking about.

You said it better than me. Why in the world would you pick Russian lit?

 

[CooCooforCoCoPuffs]

Don't be. Life is too short to wade through ponderous novels.

Totally AGREE. Reading should be fun, not arduous.

 

[Warrigal]

I never got through Crime and Punishment, then I tried Brothers Karamazov. Neither held my interest; kept trying to figure out who is who and it was too much work.

Exactly. I had the same problem in High School when the set text was Wuthering Heights.

 

[KSav]

Honestly I find the Russian authors brilliant but ponderous. I was trying to read Crime and Punishment in college, just for pleasure. It wasn't required, but company came to my house so I played board games with them instead and gave up on Dostoevsky. I'm sort of ashamed about this.

I had to smile at this, @chic, because I can identify. I tried to read Milton's Paradise Lost in graduate school and was completely lost. It was a confidence-dinger for sure. I would have made the same choice you did: board games!

I've never read anything by Dostoevsky—yet.

 

[jujube]

You said it better than me. Why in the world would you pick Russian lit?

I was a journalism major and I thought I would learn how to write better by studying the masters. OK, you're going to laugh at me, but I also thought there would be some interesting guys taking the course....y'know, the dark, brooding type. What can I say, I was 17.

 

[Lewkat]

Read Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. Keeping up with all those Russian names was quite challenging.

 

[chic]

I had to smile at this, @chic, because I can identify. I tried to read Milton's Paradise Lost in graduate school and was completely lost. It was a confidence-dinger for sure. I would have made the same choice you did: board games!

I've never read anything by Dostoevsky—yet.

If you're ever inclined Paradise regained was better.

 

[astralcat]

No, I have never read anything by Dostoevsky. I barely got through War and Peace.

 

[ChiroDoc]

I think he's one of those authors who people just like pronouncing his name...

 

[Twostep]

Totally AGREE. Reading should be fun, not arduous.

Sometimes you just have to move to a different turf and check it out.

 

[Flarbalard]

I read Crime and Punishment when I was 19, absolutely loved it.

 

[oslooskar]

When I read Crime and Punishment, I couldn’t help but be reminded of my own mother by the character Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladov and her flair for exaggeration.

 

[Eupher]

No, I've never read anything by Dostoevsky. As a kid, I just couldn't tear myself away from the Hardy Boys mystery novels. And today, I can only get in about 3 paragraphs of anything before nodding off.

 

[LoveTulips]

Crime and Punishment eons ago.