You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loved every moment of it, even the ramblings
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dostoyevsky going 3 for 3 with making me cry
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong...................................
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
4.5 stars
Dostoevsky does it again for me! The range of characters were so fascinating, and I had no idea where the plot was going but it somehow seemed to continuously feel like it was moving along even if not much was happening. This for me is always one of the most stand out elements of classic Russian lit. Taking the every day lives of people, but making it so intriguing with points so true to real life, yet so whimsical, that you can't put it down. The talent!
I definitely will need to re-read this again in a few years because compared to his other works I think it's especially easy in this book for some stuff to go over Westerners heads, and I look forward to my re-read in the future!
Dostoevsky does it again for me! The range of characters were so fascinating, and I had no idea where the plot was going but it somehow seemed to continuously feel like it was moving along even if not much was happening. This for me is always one of the most stand out elements of classic Russian lit. Taking the every day lives of people, but making it so intriguing with points so true to real life, yet so whimsical, that you can't put it down. The talent!
I definitely will need to re-read this again in a few years because compared to his other works I think it's especially easy in this book for some stuff to go over Westerners heads, and I look forward to my re-read in the future!
“Yes, nature is given to mockery! […] Why does she create the best things only so as to mock them afterwards? Didn’t she make it so that the single being on earth who has been acknowledged as perfect…didn’t she make it so that, having shown him to people, she destined him to say things that have caused so much blood to be shed, that if it had been shed all at once, people probably would have drowned in it!”
not quite as polished or memorable as either crime and punishment or the brothers karamazov, but there’s still plenty of squares to check off on the “what we love about dostoevsky” bingo card: long dialogue paragraphs where every other sentence ends in an exclamation point, a pervading sense of the fundamental unpredictability of human nature and all the angst and dread that comes with it, multiple characters with the same first name in one scene. myshkin is my little meow meow because i am an absolute sucker for “man who everyone thinks is crazy or foolish simply because he has a soul and a moral compass and no one else around him does” characters. ending is rather unsatisfying in a way that’s hard to describe but i honestly wouldn’t have it any other way. fun read!
not quite as polished or memorable as either crime and punishment or the brothers karamazov, but there’s still plenty of squares to check off on the “what we love about dostoevsky” bingo card: long dialogue paragraphs where every other sentence ends in an exclamation point, a pervading sense of the fundamental unpredictability of human nature and all the angst and dread that comes with it, multiple characters with the same first name in one scene. myshkin is my little meow meow because i am an absolute sucker for “man who everyone thinks is crazy or foolish simply because he has a soul and a moral compass and no one else around him does” characters. ending is rather unsatisfying in a way that’s hard to describe but i honestly wouldn’t have it any other way. fun read!