the brothers karamazov a revised translation contexts criticism fyodor dostoevsky

Reminds me too of the tiny bit of Solzhenitsyn I’ve read, though not just because it’s Russian-because it’s about human nature.

Other than the monastic stuff, I’m not sure why-maybe characters debating ideas, sometimes obscure ideas at great length, but with passion and some sharp reasoning.

Reminds me of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose.

BK reminds me a lot of Dickens novels (very quirky characters, sometimes-horrific cruelty, madness, strange illnesses, melodramatic scenes of affection, painful scenes of poverty).

FD seems to have had an unusually active and inquisitive mind.

It’s quite psychological, which I didn’t expect at all.

It’s much more Christian than I expected.

BK is kind of a murder mystery, but in many ways not.

But if you read it, these will probably make some sense. Some stream of consciousness, as it were, to avoid spoilers. Parts of the story still don’t quite add up in my mind, so I’ll probably go read some analysis shortly.

It did have enjoyable stretches though-like dressing on the raw spinach. I felt it was doing me good, and enjoyed that, but it was noticeably bitter pretty often, and I’m glad it’s over.

But it’s sort of like enjoying raw spinach. Goodreads wanted some stars from me, but how I can rate such a book? I can’t say I “enjoyed” it, though I suppose, on the whole, I did. I think I was vaguely aware that FD was 19th century but I looked that, and several other things, up while my reading of the novel was in progress. Several Christian writers over the years have alluded to portions of the novel in ways that intrigued me and helped get the title onto my “read someday” list.Brothers Karamzov ( BK) is a long (!) Russian novel nobody reads for fun.Fyodor Dostoevsky (hereafter, FD) is famous.It’s context for some of my speculations below.) Before reading The Brothers Karamazov I knew only this as background: (This is a way of saying “ignorant.” I’m not humblebragging. They’re also “fresh” in the sense of untainted by much background knowledge. These are fresh impressions from having just finished the book. What follows is pretty much thrown together. After chewing through a meal like Karamazov, I’m doing dessert reading for a while (the book equivalent of Concrete Mixers from Culvers-minimally nutritious, over too soon, but yummy and chunky). It wasn’t a joyride, so I don’t think I’ll pick up Crime and Punishment anytime soon.

The brothers karamazov a revised translation contexts criticism fyodor dostoevsky