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4.31 AVERAGE
4.31 AVERAGE
Brilliant! Probably the best book I've read ever. Certainly the hardest to put down.
The three brothers created and set out into the world by Dostoevsky evolve and grow towards very different paths in life. A painting comes alive before our eyes to exhibit and highlight the choices they make and what these bring back, the way it shapes them, their life and the people around them.
Doubt only leads to chaos, dissatisfaction and unhappiness. Faith and love lead to peace, forgiveness, kindness.
To read this book is to involve in an analysis of one's own religious beliefs and life philosophies.
Through his novel, the autor teaches us that we can overcome terrible tragedy and loss if we set our minds to pursue art, kindness and spiritual purity.
The three brothers created and set out into the world by Dostoevsky evolve and grow towards very different paths in life. A painting comes alive before our eyes to exhibit and highlight the choices they make and what these bring back, the way it shapes them, their life and the people around them.
Doubt only leads to chaos, dissatisfaction and unhappiness. Faith and love lead to peace, forgiveness, kindness.
To read this book is to involve in an analysis of one's own religious beliefs and life philosophies.
Through his novel, the autor teaches us that we can overcome terrible tragedy and loss if we set our minds to pursue art, kindness and spiritual purity.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have loved The Idiot and Notes from Underground, and this novel was masterful even by those standards. Reading Dostoyevsky makes me feel like a more complete human. Morality is no mere game. Now, I read other authors and wonder why they can’t take questions of morality, faith, humanity, and meaning as seriously as Dostoyevsky did. I am happy to have read this novel before dying and look forward to reading it again someday.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I had forgotten how verbose Russian literature can be.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This novel changed the way I think about God and devotion. The chapter of Dmitri and the Devil is easily the most well-written perspective of Lucifer, and the entire story is a mad dash of emotions and reflection and morality. Easily one of the most interesting books I've ever read.
I'm reading the MacAndrew translation which I prefer. Top five of forever books, perhaps number one.
But this, however, needs to be noted: if God exists and if he indeed created the earth, then, as we know perfectly well, he created it in accordance with Euclidean geometry, and he created human reason with a conception of only three dimensions of space. At the same time there were and are even now geometers and philosophers, even some of the most outstanding among them, who doubt that the whole universe, or, even more broadly, the whole of being, was created purely in accordance with Euclidean geometry; they even dare to dream that two parallel lines, which according to Euclid cannot possibly meet on earth, may perhaps meet somewhere in infinity.
Last fall I decided to reread this after 28 years, celebrating the 200th birth of Big D, alas I failed to finish the novel and in pruning my currently reading list I inadvertently deleted my previous review. Since February I have thought about Slavophilia and Putin's Imperium. I am curious but I think Dostoevsky would applaud the invasion of the Ukraine, at least publicly. His Diary of Writer is rather conservative and I fear he'd take the Denazification thesis without much objection, again at least publicly.
As I age I suspect I have drifted from being an Ivan to perhaps the local resident who's beard is pulled by Mitya. I can't recall his name presently. There's something to be said about patricide during an epistemological crisis. I think the strange bodily corruption of Father Zosima is actually more compelling than the murder and myriad angst of the titular Karamazovs. Dmitri's debt echoes in the Continental grief over Nord Stream 1 and yet while we proclaim to deny the Divine ticket- strutting like Ivan with Lenin like defiance-we quiver.
Last fall I decided to reread this after 28 years, celebrating the 200th birth of Big D, alas I failed to finish the novel and in pruning my currently reading list I inadvertently deleted my previous review. Since February I have thought about Slavophilia and Putin's Imperium. I am curious but I think Dostoevsky would applaud the invasion of the Ukraine, at least publicly. His Diary of Writer is rather conservative and I fear he'd take the Denazification thesis without much objection, again at least publicly.
As I age I suspect I have drifted from being an Ivan to perhaps the local resident who's beard is pulled by Mitya. I can't recall his name presently. There's something to be said about patricide during an epistemological crisis. I think the strange bodily corruption of Father Zosima is actually more compelling than the murder and myriad angst of the titular Karamazovs. Dmitri's debt echoes in the Continental grief over Nord Stream 1 and yet while we proclaim to deny the Divine ticket- strutting like Ivan with Lenin like defiance-we quiver.
This edition is very difficult. It may or may not be a good translation (not sure, as I don't speak or read Russian), but it is definitely intricate. I just finished a re-read, using a Kindle-fied Modern Library edition, and cannot really recommend that translation either. The language was greatly simplified and it was a much easier translation, but I a lot of subtlety was lost and the translation was frankly not very good. The book itself, however, remains fantastic.