I was reading lord of the rings a while ago , infact i finished the first book and was some pages into the second book when a long distance travel necessitated a smaller book for my journey (i bought the full volume of lotr so it was bulky for the trip).
So i picked up The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky cause i loved crime & punishment and The karamzov brothers both of which were the best books i ever read.
Unsurprisingly i was hooked into the book and finished it in a few days then came to the conclusion this is as good as the other two. (got sad too cause i was running out of Dostoevsky.)
For me Dostoevsky is the best because , more than the events in the story he focuses on the individual psyche , what they are going through internally and its all more fascinating.
I know the characters' personality more than my own lol. I can understand why they chose what they chose. To the extent when a horrendous event occurs ill be surprised for a few seconds , yes , but then ill be like , yea that was bound to happen given their personality. And thats the beauty of it. The story progresses because of the characters and their decisions which never seemed out of step.
So after a few days i came back to lord of the rings and damn , I couldnt enjoy the read . Tolkien was going on and on about colour of the sunset , smell of the grass , trees doing this and that in every single page ughhhh. None of the characters had inner monologues and everyone sounded the same .I didnt know how it didnt bother me that much before but now its too much pronounced that i shelved the book.
I dont want to read other Dostoevsky any time soon because the idea of no more of his books will depress me for sure .
by Second2breakfast
35 Comments
Dostoevsky ruined Russian literature for me. I avoid all of it after having to slog through Crime and Punishment.
I read crime and punishment and absolutely fucking adored it. Read online that brother’s Karamazov is apparently better and I already have it on my shelf but I’ll read it after reading some goofy ahh slice of life stuff
I love Dostoevsky, too – you should check out Demons if you haven’t already! There’s so much great Russian lit – The Master and Margarita, And Quiet Flows the Don, The Golovylov Family, Petersburg…
It’s always hard reading anything after you’ve read something really good, but there are still definitely other writers worth your time – especially if you like the Russians.
i’ve never read Dostoevsky but based on what you’re saying i’d say you probably would like Camus’s fiction. My personal recommendations; The stranger and The fall.
These books are basically all about internal monologues and are pretty short, so you should give them a try!
LOTR and Fyodor are going to 2 completely different things. Dostoevksy writes what basically amounts to treatises on moral philosophy around the framework of a narrative, borrowing heavily from the dialogues of classic greek authors. Tolkein is writing a “modern mythology”.
You have to meet what you’re reading where its at, and reckon with what its going for.
To your last point, luckily for you there are a lot of books similar in scope and quality to Dostoevsky, you’ll be just fine.
I like Dostoevsky, but both times I’ve read him (The Brothers Karamazov and The Idiot) I had to follow up with something much less dense. He is so challenging to read, which is nice for me here and there.
Dostoyevsky is probably my favourite author. And he is definitely the best writer of character of any author I have ever read. His insight into the human mind is astounding. But I wouldn’t want every book to be a Dostoyevsky book. I don’t think every book should focus on exploring the inner depths of its characters minds. The lotr is not about characters. It is about the world and the adventure. It is influenced by European mythology and ancient epics such as Beowulf. I’m not sure I would want to read 100 pages of Frodo being curled in the foetal position having a nervous breakdown. Well if it’s was written by Dostoyevsky maybe I would haha, but I am glad lotr exists as it does.
please read Notes from the Underground. it was my first dostoevsky read and even better than crime and punishment and brothers karamazov imo. dostoevsky changed my life. i try to emulate him in my own writing. ive never identified so much with a writer, and he has helped me understand myself more than anything
“The Idiot” is my favorite Dostoevsky book but you’re not running out of his books yet… you still have “The Demons”, the first book he wrote after he was released from prison, notes from the underground, etc.
But if you want another book with a lot of inner monologue that I read this year and loved, check out “American Psycho” by Bret Easton Ellis.
Check out Kundera. Heir to Dost in a way.
Read notes from underground
if you like absurdist and existentialist literature then you might like Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre. very short read <100pgs it’s great 🙂 i like dostoevsky as well, camus is pretty good, but kafka is my favorite of all!
Try Melnitz fromCharles Lewinsky.
I don’t know any works by Dostoevsky so Its possible by frame of reference doesn’t match but this is the exact reason I enjoy reading Philip K Dick. He is known for his science fiction but I really enjoy the way he builds characters and the way we read their inner thoughts.
I am Russian, I’ve read Dostoyevsky… soo much Dostoyevsky, and I hate Dostoyevsky with burning passion. The monologues that could not conceivably be uttered by any human, the characters that are less realistic that Doby from Harry Potter, the preachy tone… As a historical snapshot, his books are interesting – they are somewhat of a political manifesto that reflects the intelligencia mindset of the late 19th century Russian Empire. However, as a piece of literature, it’s mediocre at best. Also, I am yet to meet a Russian that actually LIKES Dostoyevsky. Tolstoy, Bulgakov, Gogol – they all have amazing and unique writing styles, can tell a story and are a joy to read. Dostoyevsky is none of that. Someone please explain the fascination with Dostoyevsky in the US 🙂
what is it about him that you like? Is it the characters? the plot? The philosophy?
One of my friends loves him. I love the philosophy, but just can’t get into the actual works.
Is there a specific translation? Am just wondering if I’m missing something.
Go read the double and you won’t have to worry about putting him on a pedestal anymore
Okay, I didn’t like Notes From the Underground. Would his other work be better?
This makes no sense to me.
I love filet mignon. But imagine if I tried filet mignon and now I could no longer enjoy cheesecake, fresh tomatoes, pasta, or biriyani?
Tolkien is doing something entirely different thank Dostoevsky.
Yup. For me, no one, including most psychologists, have nearly as much understanding of the internal state of people.
And it’s for similar reasons to your own that o save Dostoevsky novels until I really want one.
Congratulations on discovering the classics and why they are heralded as such. A life of literary pleasure awaits you.
>finished it in a few days
Holy crap, you finished in a **few days!**!!! That’s unreal. It would give me a serious mental hernia trying to read any of Dostoevsky in less than a few weeks.
Be upvoted.
You would probably love the [German Modernists.](https://www.britannica.com/art/German-literature/The-20th-century)
I’m a huge fan of Hesse, Mann, and Zweig in particular, but Doblin, Broch, and Werfel as well. DH Lawrence might work for you too.
Seriously after going through the entire russian library of classics my pace has slowed down and the speed and finish rate of the books i read is so much lower. You just know its all that good.
On that note; if you havent yet, theres à lot of good russian literature. Gogol’s Dead Souls has à similar but unique feeling, but is (almost?) just as good as Fjodor.
I too thought *The Idiot* was pretty good
That’s similar to my dad’s view. He first read Dostoevsky at 27 (at school, let’s say, he didn’t like Literature classes much), and ever since then, he holds other books to a VERY high standard. He does read many English-language books to practice the language, and also some classics, but after Dostoevsky, it’s VERY hard to really impress him.
(The only piece of fiction that has so far measured up to his Dostoevsky standard is C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters :))
You need to read some Coetzee. Start with The Master of Petersburg.
Yes, reading LOTR after Dostoyevsky is like drinking coffee after you just had crystal meth. It won’t do much for you. And The Idiot is brilliant. I like it better than Crime and Punishment.
It sounds like you enjoy character driven narrative and don’t care as much about how the environment plays a part. Tolkien may just spend too much time on the environment for you, which is fine. Their styles are incredibly different.
As someone who grew up spending a lot of time outdoors, Tolkien’s world building helps immerse me in the story more, where just reading about people talking at each other does not. It’s just up to personal preference.
You also have a lot more Dostoevsky to read, and you’ll glean even more from re-reading then after finishing his most popular books like Notes, C&P, Idiot, Adolescent, Demons, and Brothers K and you don’t have to stop there.
So stop reading other authors and only read Dostoevsky.
It’ll fade. Try something a little sillier. Catch 22 or something by Kurt Vonnegut.
If you need a palette cleanser try Ascendance of a Bookworm. It’s cute and simple, but intriguing. Having read LOTR, I think it might be a nice bridge back into Tolkiens world building.
> color of the sunset
Which sunset?
> smell of the grass
What scene is this?
> trees doing this or that
Yea, doing incredibly plot-important things.
> no one had inner monologues
There absolutely are. Not 18 pages of it, but characters have internal thoughts.
> everyone sounded the same
The novel where you can tell the class differences between the hobbits based on dialogue? Where certain characters use archaic English, deliberately addressing those they contempt using thou?
The dude agonized over details like that. Like maybe you hate descriptions of landscapes and I can abide that but this accusation just means you didn’t actually read the book.
Authors and pieces you’d love as a Dostoevsky reader: Tolstoy(war and peace), Ponson(rocambole), Kafka(America)
I had a great time reading these as someone who reads exclusively classical literature
Maybe try some Camus