Been binge reading Dostoevsky's work in the past two weeks, I've finished Poor Folk, White Night, Gambler, House of the Dead, Crime and Punishment. Gotta say there are a LOT to take in. The thing, the charm of his works, is that when I read it I could enjoy it like a beach read, watching all the characters pursue romance, money or survival in the most dramatical way yet afterwards I'd find myself thinking of it all the time.
I've finished The Idiot yesterday and this is so far one of the most enteratining novel I've ever read. How the protagonist's fate would work out? I got absorbed after a few pages. Dostoevsky really knows how to get the reader hooked: a mysterious Count who had lived abroad for years, got into an engagement announcement party (well it's disastrous but still a party) and everything unfolds there. He did such a great job portraying the characters, it's so hard to not to care for them and read until the end.
The plot is simple, someone can't decide whether to marry and who to marry. Just like what he did in Gambler, the theme seemed so simple. Yet the revealing of the characters' thoughts, values, and philosophies, and the conflicts they create is so intriguing and sastifying. I will put my favorite passage down below: it's so powerful, profound and deep.
"I die, not in the least because I am unable to support these next three weeks. Oh no, I should find strength enough, and if I wished it I could obtain consolation from the thought of the injury that is done me. But I am not a French poet, and I do not desire such consolation. And finally, nature has so limited my capacity for work or activity of any kind, in allotting me but three weeks of time, that suicide is about the only thing left that I can begin and end in the time of my own free will.
“Perhaps then I am anxious to take advantage of my last chance of doing something for myself. A protest is sometimes no small thing.”
by dongludi
1 Comment
You make me want to read Dostoyevsky now, you influencer you