Josh’s multi-year project of reading everything Dostoevsky wrote, chronologically and in conjunction with Joseph Frank’s five-volume biography of the author. Here are the posts he wrote for this project, in order.
- Speaking of Gambling and Prostitution… - I've begun my Joseph Frank/Fyodor Dostoevsky summer reading project - this is the first installment.
- Dostoevsky’s Early Years and Poor Folk – or – “The Dickensian Aspect” - The rule I’ve set for myself is to read up until the point where Frank treats of a particular text at length, then to stop, read that text, then read what Frank has to say about it, and then respond, both to Frank, but also, more importantly, to Dostoevsky’s work itself. The first 136 pages … Continue reading Dostoevsky’s Early Years and Poor Folk – or – “The Dickensian Aspect”
- The Petersburg Feuilletons - All over, people changing their votes, along with their overcoats, If Adolph Hitler were here today, they’d send a limousine anyway. -The Clash, “White Man in Hammersmith Palais” What, you may ask, is a “feuilleton”? Apparently it comes from French, but, what was surprising to me was it also passed muster with Word’s Spell Checker, which means … Continue reading The Petersburg Feuilletons
- The Double - “With insomnia, nothing is real. Everything is far away. Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy” (Fight Club, script here). Frank reports that Dostoevsky’s second novel, The Double, was more or less universally panned. I find this strange, considering it’s clearly a work of much more sophistication and certainly much more experimental … Continue reading The Double
- Petersburg “Grotesques” - Apparently in an attempt to salvage his now-ruined reputation, and also to maintain his spendthrift lifestyle, Dostoevsky wrote several shorter stories in this time period. I have nothing too exciting to say about them. They are at times funny, at times moralizing – mostly not boring. They feel much more like set-pieces designed to elicit … Continue reading Petersburg “Grotesques”
- “The Landlady” and “White Nights” – Dreamers’ Romances - In one of the Feuilletons, Dostoevsky outlines a character-type – “the dreamer.” The dreamer is heavily influenced by Romantic literature, to the point where he (and it’s definitely a he) expects his life to operate in its categories. Not necessarily to the extent of madness and insanity – more just the sort of cultivated melancholy … Continue reading “The Landlady” and “White Nights” – Dreamers’ Romances
- Netochka Nezvanova – the Last of the Pre-Exile Writing - Just before being arrested in 1849 and subsequently shipped off the Siberia, Dostoevsky had begun work on what was to be an enormous novel – Netochka Nezvanova, literally “A Nameless Nobody” (I read a translation by Jane Kentish, from Penguin Classics). There is a lot of interesting stuff going on here – for one, it … Continue reading Netochka Nezvanova – the Last of the Pre-Exile Writing
- “A Little Hero” and the Peter-and-Paul Fortress - After Dostoevsky was convicted of treason and conspiracy for, among other things, reading an ironic letter about Gogol aloud to his literary circle, he was sentenced to death, but that sentence was then commuted by the emperor into four years of labor in a Siberian prison camp, and then enlistment in the Russian army for … Continue reading “A Little Hero” and the Peter-and-Paul Fortress
- Uncle’s Dream (and the Kant issue resolved!) - [Resuming the Dostoevsky-Frank reading project after a 14 day hiatus] After Dostoevsky finished his Siberian prison term, he was transferred into the military, and lived a life that was at least nominally more free than that while in actual captivity. He was to serve for as long as the Czar desired. He tried to get himself … Continue reading Uncle’s Dream (and the Kant issue resolved!)
- The Village of Stepanchikovo - The Village of Stepanchikovo is the last novel Dostoevsky wrote before completing his military service and returning to St. Petersburg. It’s also the first novel that was, to me at least, recognizable Dostoevkyian in the expected sense that the later novels are – it’s got a vast array of characters, perhaps even too many, and … Continue reading The Village of Stepanchikovo
- Mr. -Bov and the Question of Art - [Since I’ve decided Frank’s book would be perhaps four volumes instead of five if Russian names weren’t so long, from now on, Dostoevsky is going to be D. Nonetheless this entry of mine is quite long – I hope you’ll indulge me. I just had one of those experiences where a book speaks to you … Continue reading Mr. -Bov and the Question of Art
- The Insulted and Injured - This is the first major novel D wrote after returning from exile. I read a rather strange translation – it’s by Ignat Avsey, and he’s titled it Humiliated and Insulted. I’ve gone with Frank’s translation to title this blog. As far as the translation goes, this was the only one I could find in English … Continue reading The Insulted and Injured
- A Nasty Anecdote - One of the most memorable episodes from Don Quixote, one which in fact I blogged about in this space a few years ago, involves Quixote’s visit to a farm. He and Sancho happen upon a peasant being abused by his overseer. The peasant describes a tale of woe to Quixote; Quixote in exchange offers to … Continue reading A Nasty Anecdote
- Prison Ethics - I’m currently reading Dostoevsky’s prison memoir, The House of the Dead. I’ll have more to say about it when I finish (though my progress has slowed substantially since restarting gainful employment for the fall). So for now I’m just asking a question, one posed in the opening section of D’s 1861 work. … it seems … Continue reading Prison Ethics
- The House of the Dead - My thoughts about D’s prison/exile memoir, The House of the Dead, are somewhat vague and disjointed. This is mostly because while I’m working I just never seem to get around to reading anything. I started this book more than a month ago, and whenever things are spread over that wide a timeframe, I just lose … Continue reading The House of the Dead
- Winter Notes on Summer Impressions - In 1862, D. took his first trip to Europe. He had, however, dreamed of this day for many years, apparently since childhood, when he was enthralled with British and French novels, especially the Gothic tales of Anne Radcliffe. He had apparently planned and planned for this opportunity, probably to such an extent than his actual … Continue reading Winter Notes on Summer Impressions
- Notes from Underground - “… my apartment was my mansion, my shell, my case, in which I hid from all mankind…” (Notes from Underground, trans. Pevear and Volokhonsky, 113) That is just one of the many expostulations I felt compelled to underline while re-reading Notes from Underground. And while I know this is one of those “great works of … Continue reading Notes from Underground
- The Crocodile - It struck me as strange that the author of Notes from Underground would next write “The Crocodile,” an allegorical, theater-of-the-absurd type story to have been published in D’s dying periodical Epoch. After all, Notes from Underground was an innovative exercise in narrative technique, with all sorts of interestingly problematic aspects. “The Crocodile”, by contrast, is … Continue reading The Crocodile
- A totally absurd generalization I’d like to discuss - I was listening to the two guys from Sound Opinions talking about their new book, which is apparently a book-length conversation between the two of them about the relative merits of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. While listening to them talk about this for a little bit (it was during the recent WBEZ pledge … Continue reading A totally absurd generalization I’d like to discuss
- Crime and Punishment - [After a bit of a hiatus, I’ll post a few more Dostoevsky Reading Project thoughts – this is hopefully 1/3 on Crime and Punishment, but I also have to start work again tomorrow…] I read Crime and Punishment once before, when I was a senior in college. I don’t remember why I decided to read … Continue reading Crime and Punishment
- Roskolnikov’s Final Dream - Throughout Crime and Punishment, dream-sequences intermingle with reality. Roskolnikov especially has a handful fo dreams. Something in the quality of Dostoevsky’s prose makes one miss the transitions, so you can read for several pages of what feels like reality before being pulled back by a character waking up. These dreams are used not just to … Continue reading Roskolnikov’s Final Dream
- The Freak Book - Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them leave. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. When the herdsmen saw … Continue reading The Freak Book
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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 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 – 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
- 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
- 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
- The Adolescent/A Raw Youth - 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.
- The Adolescent - This is Dostoevsky’s penultimate novel. I had read in a couple of different places that this was the weakest of his major works, and it turns out (at least to me) they were right. In fact I have very little to say about it. Let’s see. A brief summary: The first-person narrator, Dolgoruky, is the illegitimate son … Continue reading The Adolescent
- A Writer’s Diary – 1876-1877 - For Christmas, Brooke got me a record player. Since then I’ve probably bought 20-25 records at Reckless Records in Chicago, almost all classical. You can buy just about anything you want there for between $1 and $4. It’s really fun to listen to all that music on record, for reasons that are obviously as nostalgic … Continue reading A Writer’s Diary – 1876-1877
- A Writer’s Diary – 1880-1881 - This entry is basically for completeness. Because of ailing health and an increasingly busy social schedule, D. stopped the Writer’s Diary until 1880, when he published a single issue. I’m a little confused about 1881, because it’s not even acknowledged in the otherwise thorough Frank biography, but then it’s there in the translation that I … Continue reading A Writer’s Diary – 1880-1881
- The Brothers Karamazov – The Beginning of the End of the Reading Project - After all the other novels, short stories and non-fiction pieces, I’ve finally gotten to the end of my Dostoevsky reading project (which started in June 2010 I believe). All that’s left now is the longest and most critically acclaimed Dostoevsky novel of them all – The Brothers Karamazov.I’m not sure how many people read this … Continue reading The Brothers Karamazov – The Beginning of the End of the Reading Project
- The Brothers Karamazov – Book I - Point of joy #1 (actually, hysterical laughter while reading): “They thought I was gone, and here I am!” he shouted for all to hear (87). “He” is Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov. I’ll try to explain what’s so funny about this moment, as a way of summarizing what happens in the first two books of TBK. I’ll … Continue reading The Brothers Karamazov – Book I
- The Brothers Karamazov – Book II - First a summary then some observations – the events of Book 2 (“An Inappropriate Gathering”) are probably easier to relate, but they mostly take place against a backdrop of almost a dozen characters, many of whom are briefly, it at all, introduced by the narrator.
- The Brothers Karamazov – Book III – The Sensualists - The Brothers Karamazov – Book 3 – “Sensualists” The next two books are still, by and large, introductory. The cast of characters is broadened, mostly by our following Alyosha around as he’s sent to manage everybody’s affairs. It reminds me a little bit of a computer roleplaying game, where the main character brings items from … Continue reading The Brothers Karamazov – Book III – The Sensualists
- The Brothers Karamazov – Book IV – Strains - Book 4 contains one of the sequences that really stood out in my memory of the first time I read this book: Alyosha’s strange confrontation with the schoolchildren. More shades of Wes Anderson – these super-serious little children speaking in dreadful terms about honor, revenge, etc. I guess I’m thinking of that scene in Rushmore … Continue reading The Brothers Karamazov – Book IV – Strains
- The Brothers Karamazov – Book V – Pro and Contra - This is really long. I thought a lot about it. I hope you will read 🙂 Book V is the ideological heart of TBK. In a series of chapters set at a local inn, Ivan and Alexei discourse about belief in God and moral responsibility. The centerpiece of this is the “Grand Inquisitor” chapter, a … Continue reading The Brothers Karamazov – Book V – Pro and Contra
- The Brothers Karamazov – Book VI – The Russian Monk - Seen from a certain angle, book VI and (its testament to faith) is the ideological counterweight to Book V’s atheism. There is a problem here though, which is two-fold. First, the views expressed in Book VI are very closely connected with Dostoevsky’s own views; second, to be blunt, Book VI is a little bit boring. … Continue reading The Brothers Karamazov – Book VI – The Russian Monk
- The Brothers Karamazov – Book VII – Alyosha - Something that’s amazed me about this book so far is its ability to maintain a really unique form of emotional intensity, even though (a) it’s hundreds of pages long, (b) it’s translated from 19th century Russian, and (c) its characters themselves are often discussing very abstract philosophical-religious issues. I mean when I read a George … Continue reading The Brothers Karamazov – Book VII – Alyosha
- The Brothers Karamazov – Books 8-9 -Mitya and The Preliminary Investigation - I won’t say too much because I’m currently computer-less and iPad typing is frustrating. This part of the book was great in terms of plot action… Dmitri goes on a manic and dreamlike search for 3000 rubles, comes quite close to, but does *not* murder his father (honestly, I missed that detail the first time … Continue reading The Brothers Karamazov – Books 8-9 -Mitya and The Preliminary Investigation
- Books 10-11 – Boys and Brother Ivan Karamazov - I’m still without my computer so I’ll keep it brief again. If this novel were a Shakespeare play (and George Steiner’s Tolstoy or Dostoevsky argues that Shakespearean drama is a good analogue to most of D’s works) , Book 10 starts after where the intermission would have fallen: it’s Act 4. Fyodor has been murdered, Dmitri … Continue reading Books 10-11 – Boys and Brother Ivan Karamazov
- The Brothers Karamazov – Book XII (“A Judicial Error”) and Epilogue - At the start of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom (to be written about later in this same space) the children listen to Benjamin Britten’s “A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” and the voiceover narrator describes the different instruments as they enter the piece. At the end of the movie, the same voiceover describes all the … Continue reading The Brothers Karamazov – Book XII (“A Judicial Error”) and Epilogue
- The Dostoevsky Project Wrap-Up #1: Everything I Wrote - I know this is spread out over more than two years, and you might not have read everything I wrote, or might not want to. But just in case you do – below are links to everything I’ve written about Dostoevsky over this time, in chronological order. It’s 43 entries I think. I have to … Continue reading The Dostoevsky Project Wrap-Up #1: Everything I Wrote
- The Dostoevsky Project Wrap-Up #2: Superlatives - Here’s just a little snapshot of my reading. Best Opening Line: Notes from Underground – “I AM A SICK MAN… I am a wicked man. An unattractive man. I think my liver hurts.” D. seems not to have thought to much about the effect of opening lines (unlike, say, Tolstoy, Dickens, or Jane Austen). Still, … Continue reading The Dostoevsky Project Wrap-Up #2: Superlatives
- Dostoevsky Project Wrap-Up #3: Final Thoughts (part A) – The Experience of All This Reading - (It turns out I’ll make this final post multi-parted. Just too much to say…) By my estimation, Dostoevsky’s published works run somewhere between 7500 and 8000 pages. That means I’ve read more words written by him (at least published words) than by any other human being. I might have come close with George Eliot when … Continue reading Dostoevsky Project Wrap-Up #3: Final Thoughts (part A) – The Experience of All This Reading
- Dostoevsky Wrap-Up #3 (B) – Joseph Frank’s Dostoevsky (From the Top Down) - Dostoevsky from the Top Down or the Bottom Up? While reading all these books, I had the help of two significant secondary sources – all along the way, Joseph Frank’s five-volume Dostoevsky, and at the end, after having finished all the original Dostoevsky writing, Mikhail Bakhtin’s Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. These two works represent two … Continue reading Dostoevsky Wrap-Up #3 (B) – Joseph Frank’s Dostoevsky (From the Top Down)
- Dostoevsky Wrap-Up #3 (C) Bakhtin’s _Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics_ (from the bottom up) - Everything in Dostoevsky’s novels tends toward dialogue, toward a dialogic opposition, as if tending toward its center. All else is the means; dialogue is the end. A single voice ends nothing and resolves nothing. Two voices is the minimum for life, the minimum for existence (Bakhtin, Mikhail, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, 252).
- The Dostoevsky Project – My Final Thoughts - The library was deserted during the break. I entered with a keycard and took a novel by Dostoevsky down from the shelves. I placed the book on a table and opened it and then leaned down into the splayed pages, reading and breathing. We seemed to assimilate each other, the characters and I, and when … Continue reading The Dostoevsky Project – My Final Thoughts
- One Way to Read Infinite Jest - I’m fresh off a reading of David Foster Wallace’s awesome “David Lynch Keeps His Head” (in A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again) and also a re-reading of his “Frank’s Dostoevsky” (in Consider the Lobster) and I feel like taking a stab at saying something reasonably holistic about Infinite Jest. [By the way – if you haven’t … Continue reading One Way to Read Infinite Jest
Original Positions 