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GAF Book Club (Sept 2012) - "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Faith. Reason. Patricide.


The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

In 1880 Dostoevsky completed The Brothers Karamazov, the literary effort for which he had been preparing all his life. Compelling, profound, complex, it is the story of a patricide and of the four sons who each had a motive for murder: Dmitry, the sensualist, Ivan, the intellectual; Alyosha, the mystic; and twisted, cunning Smerdyakov, the bastard child. Frequently lurid, nightmarish, always brilliant, the novel plunges the reader into a sordid love triangle, a pathological obsession, and a gripping courtroom drama. But throughout the whole, Dostoevsky searhes for the truth--about man, about life, about the existence of God. A terrifying answer to man's eternal questions, this monumental work remains the crowning achievement of perhaps the finest novelist of all time.

"Everything there was to know about life was in The Brothers Karamazov."
-Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

"Against our wills we are drawn in, whirled round, blinded, suffocated, and at the same time filled with a giddy rapture. Out of Shakespeare there is no more exciting reading."
-Virginia Woolf

"Madness you may call it, but therein may be the secret of his genius... I prefer the word exaltation, exaltation which can merge into madness, perhaps. In fact all great men have had that vein in them; it was the source of their greatness; the reasonable man achieves nothing."
-James Joyce


There are a number of translations of The Brothers Karamazov. Each has its supporters and detractors, but Pevear/Volokhnosky is most often cited as the best version out there, and so that's the version I'll be recommending for this read-through.

Find it here:
Amazon paperback
Kindle edition

Or free on Project Gutenberg, though note that this is the unpopular Garnett translation.

Let's read!


Guidelines:
-Discussion of anything and everything is encouraged. It's a book club, let's chat!
-Please use spoiler tags sensibly, and mark spoilers with chapters where possible.
-The milestones are there to help keep you on the path. If you get ahead or behind, don't worry--it will have no impact on your final grade.


Reading Milestones:
Sept 9 - Part I
Sept 16 - Part II
Sept 23 - Part III
Sept 30 - Part IV


This is quite a long book, so I'm giving us a week for each section. And feel free to keep discussing after the month is over!


Previous Book Club Threads:
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller (January 2012)
The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (December 2011)
Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West, by Cormac McCarthy (Oct 2011)
The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov (Sep 2011)
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas (Aug 2011)
Master and Commander, by Patrick O'Brian (July 2011)
The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin (June 2011)
A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan (May 2011)
The Afghan Campaign, by Steven Pressfield (Apr 2011)
Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert A. Heinlein (Mar 2011)
Flashman, by George MacDonald Fraser (Feb 2011)
 
Russian fucking literature, y'all! Let's do this.

You've got a few days to get your hands on the book. Prepare yourselves!
 
I'll give this a go. Never read any Russian literature. Luckily my local library seems to have the Pevear/Volokhnosky translation. I'll try get it on Monday.
 
I've been meaning to read this from all what has been said about it. This comes up at a good time as I'm almost done with Norwegian Wood and I'd be indecisive of what I want to read next but this time I won't be. I Haven't read any Russian literature but why not start now.

Thread Subscribed!
 
:O

Cyan, is this my birthday present? What am I talking about; my birthday is in September so it must be. Now I have an excuse to buy it!
 
I already read it and right now i'm busy with another book but this is really a great choice, hope you guys enjoy it as much as i did.
 
Yup, my book arrived yesterday. I got the P&V translation and was interested to find it has 'award-winning translation' stamped on the cover and P&V's names on the spine (I've not noticed this with other translated classic fiction).

Now I just need to finish the book I'm currently reading.
 
Griegite said:
I've been meaning to read this from all what has been said about it. This comes up at a good time as I'm almost done with Norwegian Wood and I'd be indecisive of what I want to read next but this time I won't be. I Haven't read any Russian literature but why not start now.

Thread Subscribed!
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You shouldn't start reading Dostoevskiy with the Brothers, it's the book where - at least to some extent - all different threads of Dostoevskiy's thinking come together. Perhaps better to begin with "Crime and Punishment".
 
Kola said:
You shouldn't start reading Dostoevskiy with the Brothers, it's the book where - at least to some extent - all different threads of Dostoevskiy's thinking come together. Perhaps better to begin with "Crime and Punishment".
Click to expand...

I started with Notes from Underground, which was probably a bad choice for someone completely new to Dostoevsky in retrospect. I enjoyed it on a surface level, but the subtext went completely over my head. I had to go back later and read about it in order to see what I had missed. Crime and Punishment is the only other Dostoevsky I have read, but it does seem like a good place to start.
 
Mumei said:
I started with Notes from Underground, which was probably a bad choice for someone completely new to Dostoevsky in retrospect. I enjoyed it on a surface level, but the subtext went completely over my head. I had to go back later and read about it in order to see what I had missed. Crime and Punishment is the only other Dostoevsky I have read, but it does seem like a good place to start.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the suggestions. You and Kola are probably right. I'll save the thread for whenever I get around to Brothers Karamazov and start with Crime and Punishment. I assume the Pevear/Volokhnosky translation is the one to get?
 
just out of curiosity, what is considered worse about the translation available on PG? If the other version really is much better, I'll pick it up.
 
Griegite said:
Thanks for the suggestions. You and Kola are probably right. I'll save the thread for whenever I get around to Brothers Karamazov and start with Crime and Punishment. I assume the Pevear/Volokhnosky translation is the one to get?
Click to expand...



Having just recently read Crime and Punishment, I don't think it really matters much where you start. Especially if you participate in the thread and join in on the discussion. I say jump in!
 
Like the hat? said:
just out of curiosity, what is considered worse about the translation available on PG? If the other version really is much better, I'll pick it up.
Click to expand...

The reason Garnett's translation is free is that it's in the public domain, i.e. it's quite old. She translated loads of Russian novels, and the most common criticism of her is that she put everything into a sort of English Victorian style, squeezing out the voices of the authors and making them all sound the same. Her translations are still frequently used today in schools and such, which some speculate might be part of why schoolkids dislike Russian novelists. ;)

Honestly, I haven't read Garnett's work so I can't really criticize from personal experience. But I will say--from personal experience--that a good translation of a foreign language novel can make a huge difference in how it reads. Count of Monte Cristo is a prime example. In one of the two translations I've read, it's flat, lifeless, slow. In the other, everything just... flows. It's fun, it's exciting, and while there are slow parts, it's not due to the prose.

Anyway, these days I generally do some quick research on the internet before choosing which translation to read for a foreign novel. In this case, most people seemed to like Pevear/Volokhnosky.
 
Trent Strong said:
I just recently got the kindle version because I noticed it was free and it had page numbers (the gutenberg edition doesn't have page numbers), and I think the kindle and gutenberg editions are the same translation.
Click to expand...

The Kindle version linked to in the OP should be the Pevear/Volokhnosky.
 
This is perfect. Been sitting on a copy for a year and a half now and never got around to starting. Looking forward to it.
 
Mumei said:
I started with Notes from Underground, which was probably a bad choice for someone completely new to Dostoevsky in retrospect. I enjoyed it on a surface level, but the subtext went completely over my head. I had to go back later and read about it in order to see what I had missed. Crime and Punishment is the only other Dostoevsky I have read, but it does seem like a good place to start.
Click to expand...

Never read of Dostoevsky besides a few pages of Notes from Underground. Is this book going to be a good place to start reading his stuff? I don't have the luxury of taking a long time reading this book because of classes beginning up.

Though, I'm quite interested in participating in this book club.
 
On another note, is there a reason there haven't been more of these book clubs this year? Looks like there were quite a few last year.
 
Necrovex said:
Never read of Dostoevsky besides a few pages of Notes from Underground. Is this book going to be a good place to start reading his stuff? I don't have the luxury of taking a long time reading this book because of classes beginning up.

Though, I'm quite interested in participating in this book club.
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This is my first Dostoevsky, so you'll be in good company! I say go for it. :)

Necrovex said:
I believe it was the lack of interest, and Cyan being too busy to keep up the book club.
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More or less. I think a book a month was maybe a bit much. Also, people weren't too excited about some of the selections.

In future, I'll likely do a book club once in a while, when folks seem like they might be interested in a book. Probably won't be another one (from me, at least) until December at the earliest. We've got NaNo coming up!
 
+1 for the Pevear & Volokhonsky version. Their translation of Crime & Punishment is also well worth checking out if you haven't already.
 
Well, I have just placed my order for it (along with a collection of Dusty Springfield's Complete A & B Side Singles from 1963 - 70 and I, Claudius!). Looking forward to it.
 
Monocle said:
+1 for the Pevear & Volokhonsky version. Their translation of Crime & Punishment is also well worth checking out if you haven't already.
Click to expand...

Yeah it is the definitive version.

I have already starting reading it and finished part 2 (or close to finishing it). I may pick it up again to join you guys on your schedule...hopefully college isn't insanely busy (right...-_-).
 
Well I finished Book I (not Part I, our milestone). Enjoying it, got the impression that section was a lot of backstory and that the story is about to get going more.
 
You guys are reading this in one month? Damn, it took me like a year. It's dense. I liked it a lot, but my favorite of his is still Crime and Punishment (which is also an easier read).
 
Ledsen said:
You guys are reading this in one month? Damn, it took me like a year. It's dense. I liked it a lot, but my favorite of his is still Crime and Punishment (which is also an easier read).
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm worried I won't be able to keep up with this pace with school starting up, but definitely willing to try.
 
It really is not hard to read a book like this in a month; it is really more about consistency than needing to read particularly fast. If you think about it by milestones and the page numbers in the P&V translation, through each milestone date you need to average about:

~18 pages / day for Part I
~23 pages / day for Part II
~21 pages / day for Part III
~37 pages / day for Part IV

So it really is quite doable, even with a busy schedule. And you can always read "ahead" of schedule a bit when you have more time so make up for days when you don't read.
 
I won't be joining in, but I just wanted to say that this is, hands down, my favorite novel of all time. I really hope that all of you that said you've been unable to finish the book to this point will see it through.
 
Mumei said:
It really is not hard to read a book like this in a month; it is really more about consistency than needing to read particularly fast. If you think about it by milestones and the page numbers in the P&V translation, through each milestone date you need to average about:

~18 pages / day for Part I
~23 pages / day for Part II
~21 pages / day for Part III
~37 pages / day for Part IV

So it really is quite doable, even with a busy schedule. And you can always read "ahead" of schedule a bit when you have more time so make up for days when you don't read.
Click to expand...

Going to follow this. I should have enough downtime during the day to get through the necessary number of pages. Thanks, Mumei!

Edit: Also, I am trying to decide whether to go with Kindle or paperback. What is the font size for the paperback?
 
Oh man, Id love to discuss TBK, but man, GW2 came out and is going to seriously suck up all my free time. So addicting.

If i need a break from it though, and that is definitely possible, I will definitely read this again
 
Finished Book II. Still hasn't quite hooked me yet but I feel like it's getting close. Looking forward to other people getting the book and more discussion though.
 
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