I haven't finished this second-to-last Dosteovsky novel yet, so I just have a couple of random things to share from it: a look backward to Shakespeare, a look forward to F. Scott Fitzgerald, and some random thoughts on laughter. 1) A pattern of allusions to Othello - I have to think this out further, but the … Continue reading The Adolescent/A Raw Youth
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A Writer’s Diary – 1873
A wide range of themes were treated upon in 1873's "Diary." Like I've said before, this reads a lot like a blog, even this one. Sometimes it's a review of a play, sometimes a travelogue, sometimes random complaints. It would be hard to write about all of these as a unified whole, so I've picked … Continue reading A Writer’s Diary – 1873
Pushkin on Painting and Shoemaking
I'm midway through the first year (1873) of Dostoevsky's proto-blog A Writer's Diary. (2 volumes, Northwestern University Press, trans. Kenneth Lantz) Basically it's a whole bunch of short articles, which were published intermittently, and which deal in various subjects - some short stories, some replies to letters he's been sent, some rants directed at obscure … Continue reading Pushkin on Painting and Shoemaking
Demons – Final Thoughts
[This post also marks my completion of Volume 4 (of 5) of Frank’s biography. Of course, volume 5 appears longer than volumes 1 and 2 combined, so who knows when/if I’ll finish?] “Now read me another passage. . . . About the pigs,” [Stepan] said suddenly. “What?” asked Sofya Matveyevna [a villager whose hose the … Continue reading Demons – Final Thoughts
Demons – Part Three
“… I declared everything had happened to the highest degree by chance, through people who, though perhaps of a certain inclination, had very little awareness, were drunk, and had already lost the thread. I am still of that opinion.” (540) The narrator is describing a singular event and how he later testified - but this … Continue reading Demons – Part Three
Demons – Part Two
: "...this town here is like the devil took and shook it from a sack" (Fedya the Convict - p. 260) This post discussed Part Two of "Demons" - I'll follow up with Part Three when I've finished. Let me start by saying that the second reading of this book as been far, FAR more … Continue reading Demons – Part Two
Demons – Part One
This is the kind of book you need to be really, really attentive to in order not to get lost. I read it two summers ago and spent most of that time thoroughly confused, with only the barest notion of the characters or the plot. I'm thinking that as I read it again I'll be … Continue reading Demons – Part One
The Eternal Husband
As compared with The Idiot, this book was way, way easier to understand. As opposed to the 15+ randomly related cast of characters, most of the main action of this (also much shorter) novella takes place between two principal characters: Valchaninov, an almost 40 urbane Petersburg bachelor, and Pavlov Pavlovich, a provincial official and serial … Continue reading The Eternal Husband
The Idiot
The Idiot "... We feel that we must limit ourselves to the simple statement of facts, as far as possible without special explanations, and for a very simple reason: because we ourselves, in many cases, have difficulty explaining what happened" (The Idiot, trans. Peaver and Volokhonsky, 573) So writes the on-again off-again omniscient narrator towards … Continue reading The Idiot
All Things Shining, part one
So, I was looking for something to read on the beach last week (other than student papers), and I decided to go with All Things Shining, by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly. Many things were shining that day, so it seemed like a good choice. Actually, with its mix of history, philosophy and literature, … Continue reading All Things Shining, part one
