Jane Austen and the War of Ideas

I read Jane Austen and the War of Ideas, by Marliyn Butler (1975), on the recommendation of an old friend, and also because it was footnoted in each of the introductions to each of Jane Austen’s six major novels, all of which I re-read over the last several months. I’m sure it’s not state-of-the-art Austen scholarship at … Continue reading Jane Austen and the War of Ideas →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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. 1) A pattern of allusions to Othello - I have to think this out further, but the … Continue reading The Adolescent/A Raw Youth →

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 →