You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
jadeyen 's review for:
The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
I retain that “older” classics are always harder to read in the more flowery language they often employ— and these short stories in translation are no exception.
Dostoyevsky has a vivid ability to key into very particular senses of loneliness/being your own worst enemy/not belonging/the inertia and snowball of negative conditions in these mostly semi incel seeming loner men cast off by society or just not finding their way. Not to say there aren’t moments of warmth and humor and love nestled in or central to these vignettes. Some stories seem to shine over others as always with collections like these.
Criticisms (if I can do that to THE Russian author) are angled more towards some of the difficulties of reading (probably due to time period and translation and his use of loooong stream of consciousness from character POV sentences) and some of the repetitiveness of dour themes.
Dostoyevsky has a vivid ability to key into very particular senses of loneliness/being your own worst enemy/not belonging/the inertia and snowball of negative conditions in these mostly semi incel seeming loner men cast off by society or just not finding their way. Not to say there aren’t moments of warmth and humor and love nestled in or central to these vignettes. Some stories seem to shine over others as always with collections like these.
Criticisms (if I can do that to THE Russian author) are angled more towards some of the difficulties of reading (probably due to time period and translation and his use of loooong stream of consciousness from character POV sentences) and some of the repetitiveness of dour themes.