Invitation to a nervous breakdown
Today we embark on a quest. It is a quest that will test our endurance, challenge our concentration, and very possibly strain our sanity. It will exercise not only our intellectual acuity but also our arms. By the end of this quest, if we get there, what do we hope to gain?
Nothing. Our quest is pure and untainted by the thought of gain. We do not seek reward or admiration; these mean nothing coming from those who have not been on the quest. All we shall have is the satisfaction of knowing we have done it.
The starter set, incomplete.
We are going to read the major works of Russian literature: Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Lermontov, Chekhov, and at the end, when we are gibbering uncontrollably, Pushkin in the Nabokov translation.
The plan is to devote a week or two to each book, to keep a reading journal, discuss the work, and submit a progress report every week. Join us. (If you are too shy to share your impressions with us it’s alright; just let us know we are not alone, and maybe invite us for vodka and blinis.)
I hear what many of you are saying: We don’t have the time, we are busy. Well Nobody Has Time, Everyone Is Busy. In the time it took you to read this post, your life just got a minute shorter. That is precisely why we read (and why some of us write): because life is short and finite, we want more, and literature is the distillation of all those lives we will not lead.
I will prepare a longer piece on the quest; for now let us get to the reading list. After long discussion we agreed that the first book would be Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky. When first published in English it was entitled The Possessed. We will read the translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky. If you’d like to join us but do not have the P/V version, don’t let that bother you too much. You can download the Constance Garnett translation from Project Gutenberg.
Begin.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
February 1st, 2010 at 05:01
Hmmm… Demons. I don’t know. Dostoevsky’s least accessible major novel, mainly because he assumes you already know so much about 19th century Russian politics. Personally, I’d start with the short ones: his Notes from Underground or Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich. This may be some sort of reading cliche but it works best with these misanthropists. There may be a lot of confusion with the military hierarchy, but just do some Wiki and everything will be fine. And please, please do a little analysis on this military stuff beforehand; some familiarity will go a long way in understanding these cute and cuddly characters.
By the way, I find Demons to be his darkest, which, for a Dostoevsky novel, says quite a lot. I actually felt good after reading The Idiot, so I hope that helps.
February 1st, 2010 at 11:44
Why would we read the Russians if we wanted easy and light.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:06
I’ll join this ride, but I hope there’s always an option for free versions of books. My physical copy of The Possessed was translated by Andrew MacAndrew (the Signet Classics Paperback) and not by Miss Garnett.
February 1st, 2010 at 13:16
Have started reading Chapter I through the link you provided.
February 1st, 2010 at 14:30
The Possessed….right away it became a personal favorite. Indeed the darkest of all his works. It took me two months to finish this classic last year…….. I like this quest of yours, Jessica.
February 1st, 2010 at 15:10
I think I just might join. I’ll reinstall my MobiReader to have this e-book with me even when I’m away from my laptop.
February 1st, 2010 at 20:04
I’m in!
This’ll be a great opportunity to venture into what is uncharted waters for me (I’m geeky in literature but my combination of youth, laziness and distractions has prevented me from reading the bulk I should’ve).
By the way, I hope we do German Lit after Russian. That’ll be fun!
February 1st, 2010 at 21:27
Ang winner naman ng quest na ito. Hihi.
February 1st, 2010 at 22:58
Project Guttenberg again huh? I always download ebooks on that site. . . i think i’ll be joining your Russian quest.
http://wyguu.blogspot.com
February 1st, 2010 at 23:18
Pressure! I’ll join the reading, though. The first & last time I read Dostoevsky was in highschool with Crime & Punishment and I was just thinking of reading that again-so instead I’ll read Demons with you. Let’s see where we’ll be in 2 weeks!
February 2nd, 2010 at 02:58
I’ll join you when it’s Tolstoy time. I have not opened my copy of War and Peace yet, and I will reread Anna Karenina with you, because misery loves company (I stopped when Anna went with Vronsky to live somewhere and be poor).
As for Dostoevsky, I’ll read the ones that I haven’t read yet (starting with Demons).
February 2nd, 2010 at 09:08
can we include Crime and Punishment? ive been aiming to read that for a long, long time, ever since finishing brothers karamazov, during freshman year, college. perhaps this quest will finally make me do it.
(i’ll send you a copy, translation by p/v, if you still dont have one).
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:58
i’ll accept the invitation. i’ll be in between the sheets of dickens and murakami as well. i hope something good comes out of this.
February 2nd, 2010 at 13:45
Had read an abridge version of war and peace when i was in my teens, many years ago. I always thought I don’t remember anything about the book, not characters or names, but the misery and the utter cold the soldiers endured during the french invasion.
About two years ago, I saw a complete version of it at the NBS. I thought i would buy it. But when I picked up the book, I remembered the nauseatingly difficult time I had reading the book. So I put the book down.
Maybe it is time to read the complete version. Here is hoping it is available in NBS when I get the chance to visit the city.
February 2nd, 2010 at 19:06
I’m in. Thanks for the motivation, Ms. Zafra. :)
February 2nd, 2010 at 21:19
You’re on, Jessica! :)
February 3rd, 2010 at 02:32
Pass, pero good luck sa mga jo-join force!
February 3rd, 2010 at 04:07
Count me in. This is the first time I’m devouring a Dostoevsky selection.
February 3rd, 2010 at 11:12
Nervous breakdown is right. By the end of this, I will probably be in a state of catatonia. I’m up for the challenge however. Just picked up my copy of Demons from Borders and I’ll be joining this journey.