Russian authors

So I have had The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky for a while now but have never picked it up, has anyone here read it and is it worth reading? I've heard it is quite heavy. Also I am contemplating buying War & Peaceby Leo Tolstoy because that novel is supposed to be amazing, can anyone help an avid reader out? I'm currently reading Les Miserables by Hugo and I am really enjoying it. We should make a literature sub-forum

Read The Brothers Karamazov, absolutely. But maybe first you should one or two of his shorter novels like Notes From Underground. I haven't read any Tolstoy.

Length doesn't phase me.

Well, to get familiar with his style.

Crime & Punishment was really good.

Can we slip Stanislaw Lem in there (Polish)?

Haven't read anything else by Dostoevsky but Karamazov Bros is bloody amazing. Heavy as fuck, long winded to death, but absolutely fucking beautiful and incredible too. took me about 8 months to read in between a few other books. Don't be put off if you don't remember names/places/events just read and take your eyes along for the ride, it's brilliant. Theological debates in it are mind boggling, esp. the grand inquisitor chapter. Characters are kinda 'victorian', esp the ladies, in terms of falling into dead faints and whatnot because someone drank their tea the wrong way, but that's minor. Story picks up after about 400 pages or so.seriously, i understood maybe about half of each page and it was still fucking worth it. probs sounds like i'm bigging up a load of flaws with this book, but honestly they pale into insignificance with the sheer fuckin' scale of awesomeness. how something this huge can fit into the head of just one single guy i'll never know. it's almost as good as the da vinci code.

Grand Inquisitor is amazing

But don't buy the separate copy of it, make sure you read it in context with the book itself.

  On 4/7/2010 at 2:29 AM, Gary C said:

Can we slip Stanislaw Lem in there (Polish)?

While we're at it can we slip Bulgakov in too.

  On 4/7/2010 at 2:33 AM, dilbthelame said:

Haven't read anything else by Dostoevsky but Karamazov Bros is bloody amazing. Heavy as fuck, long winded to death, but absolutely fucking beautiful and incredible too. took me about 8 months to read in between a few other books. Don't be put off if you don't remember names/places/events just read and take your eyes along for the ride, it's brilliant. Theological debates in it are mind boggling, esp. the grand inquisitor chapter. Characters are kinda 'victorian', esp the ladies, in terms of falling into dead faints and whatnot because someone drank their tea the wrong way, but that's minor. Story picks up after about 400 pages or so.seriously, i understood maybe about half of each page and it was still fucking worth it. probs sounds like i'm bigging up a load of flaws with this book, but honestly they pale into insignificance with the sheer fuckin' scale of awesomeness. how something this huge can fit into the head of just one single guy i'll never know. it's almost as good as the da vinci code.

cheers, I'll be reading it soon enough.

crime & punishment is good yeh? noice... also my dad just bought great expectations by dickens, so I'll be reading that soon as well. that and the 3 musketeers by dumas (huge fan of count of monte cristo, great novel)

yes, thought the increasing guilt of raskolnikov and overall his internal struggle was very well portrayed. it's very intense. i understood very well why it's considered a classic.

when you tire of washed up old balls i suggest you check this guy : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniil_Kharms

I'm not as sad as Dostoevsky

I'm not as clever as Mark Twain

I'll only buy a book for the way it looks

and then I stick it on the shelf again

  On 4/7/2010 at 1:40 AM, halisray said:

So I have had The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky for a while now but have never picked it up, has anyone here read it and is it worth reading?

yes

Read Dostoevsky's collected short stories as well as Anton Chekov's short stories to get your feet wet. Amazing stuff without the commitment.

*edit*

I started Brothers K a long time ago but had to continually put it down to reflect in amazement. Never finished :(

I should pick it back up.

get into Solzhenitsyn and Pushkin as well, if you're going Russian.

read a Pushkin novel, forgot the title though. had to do it for some college elective

Tales of Belkin is definitely a must read if you want some Pushkin. Really short stories with some cheesy but good twists. As for Brothers K. and Crime and Punishment, both are absolutely incredible reads. There is quite a bit of carrying on in both novels, but certain scenes (the grand inquisitor in Brothers K., Luhzin confronting Sophia in C&P) are absolutely incredible and more than make up for the dull bits. Also, Tolstoy has some great short stories. I suggest "How Much Man Does a Man Need" for starters.

My neighbor (a self-confessed misanthrope) told me I need to read Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time".

Dostoevksy is my favorite author by a mile. I find him incredibly readable, even more so in the Volohnsky and Pevear (sp?) translations that were brand new about a decade ago, but seem to have become the standard now.

Brothers Karamazov is probably my favorite book, it pretty well covers any thoughts I've had about human nature/spirituality, etc.

In addition to Notes from Underground, and Crime and Punishment, I also recommend The Idiot. I've liked everything I've read of his, apart from some of his short stories which can be dull.

In terms of other Russian writers I think Tolstoy is ok, though not as insightful or intense as Dostoevsky. I recommend Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons" too, good book.

  Quote

The Idiot

that´s where it´s at...

Zamyatin's 'We' is one of the best novels I will ever read...

wow two pages and no anna karenina???

well read that one, it is absolutely marvelous. the man clearly understands how to fashion a novel. vronsky's horse scene is mind-blowing.

and lumpy is dead on about the pevear volohnsky translations. I read an old AK version and then read their new one and by golly is miles better

  On 4/7/2010 at 2:18 AM, halisray said:

Length doesn't phase me.

I'm reading The Idiot at the moment, very slowly. Its good though and not really a difficult one to read once I got used to the russian names.

Bulgakov is the guy who wrote Master & Margarita right? I didn't really like that one overall although it had some brilliant parts