# Should I read Dostoevsky? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 6, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745 "2010-07-06T17:58:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/21 "2017-11-07T01:35:50Z")
Alexey Fyodorovitch Karamazov was the third son of Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov, a land owner well known in our district in his own day, and still remembered among us owing to his gloomy and tragic death, which happened thirteen years ago, and which I shall describe in its proper place. I have this on my Kindle. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/22 "2017-11-07T01:50:57Z")
I liked Crime and Punishment (except for the end) and The Idiot more than The Brothers Karamazov, which I found too melodramatically emotional for my taste. Everyone is constantly turning scarlet with rage or deathly pale or bursting out laughing or collapsing into tears. ---
**Author:** ![Tinker\_Grey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tinker_grey/32/8136_2.png) [@Tinker\_Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinker_Grey)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/23 "2017-11-07T02:47:23Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I liked Crime and Punishment (except for the end) and The Idiot more than The Brothers Karamazov, which I found too melodramatically emotional for my taste. Everyone is constantly turning scarlet with rage or deathly pale or bursting out laughing or collapsing into tears. Absolutely this. Soap Opera in print. (I still like The Grand Inquisitor.) I read it several times in college. Then many years later, I picked it up again only to not finish it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/24 "2017-11-07T04:02:21Z")
If the alternative is watching _Crime and Punishment_ with Crispin Glover as Raskolnikov? Yes, you should read Dostoevsky. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/25 "2017-11-07T18:38:24Z")
One reason for Dostoevskii being so tedious is that he was publishing in installments and no doubt ended up padding his stories a lot. If you have a chance, watch the Soviet film version of _ **Crime and Punishment** _ (it’s available with English subtitles). Innokentii Smoktunovskii, the guy who plays the detective, was a very popular actor back in the day, and delivers a great performance. He was famous for playing (among other memorable roles) Hamlet, and was considered better than Olivier in the role. There is, of course, the American film version of _ **The Brothers Karamazov** _ with Lee J Cobb, Claire Bloom, Yul Brynner, Richard Basehart, Albert Salmi, and William Shatner. While not a \*bad \*movie, I think it strays somewhat from what Dostoevskii intended. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/26 "2017-11-07T18:41:09Z")
How’s the Peter Lorre version of _Crime & Punishment_? Never seen it myself. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/27 "2017-11-07T18:48:21Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > How’s the Peter Lorre version of _Crime & Punishment_? Never seen it myself. Sure you’re not thinking of Fritz Lang’s _ **M** _? :dubious: If Peter Lorre did\*\*\* C&P\*\*\*, was it in German or English? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/28 "2017-11-07T19:00:39Z")
If it’s easier, most if not all of his works are available in audiobook form, both paid and for free. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/29 "2017-11-07T19:32:07Z")
I’ve read Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. It was years ago, but I remember I enjoyed them all. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/30 "2017-11-07T19:35:54Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Sure you’re not thinking of Fritz Lang’s _ **M** _? :dubious: > > If Peter Lorre did\*\*\* C&P\*\*\*, was it in German or English? 😕 > **[Crime and Punishment (1935) ⭐ 6.9 | Crime, Drama](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026246/?ref_=nv_sr_3)** > > 1h 28m | Approved As I recall, not one of Lorre’s or Von Sternberg’s best. Lorre clips a dude, spends rest of movie haunted by it. I don’'t even remember the ending. There is also _Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff_ (1931), which deals with part of _The Brothers Karamazov_. Slow, but with some very impressive sequences; it’s largely forgotten today. > **[Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff (1931) ⭐ 7.5 | Drama](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022185/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_14)** > > 1h 33m ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/31 "2017-11-14T08:01:37Z")
I remember liking _Crime and Punishment_ quite a lot. For a book that I had to read for school, it didn’t really feel like a book that I had to read for school, you know? On the other hand, _The Brothers Karamazov_ ground me down pretty fast. I think that I might have gotten past the first 100 pages, but I wasn’t really taken with the story and chucked it aside. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2017, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/32 "2017-11-14T17:16:45Z")
> [@Mr.Nylock](#): > > P.S. I love Dostoyevski but for some reason could never get through _Crime and Punishment_ Same here. Enjoyed _The Idiot_, and I’m reading _Brothers K_ for the second time right now. But never could get going with _C&P_. Given the discussion here, maybe I should look to see who translated the copy I was reading. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/33 "2017-11-16T13:50:11Z")
One of my teens is reading and enjoying _Crime and Punishment_ in school, and oddly, the teacher insisted that they use the Constance Garnett translation. I always liked Garnett’s Tolstoy, but found Dostoevsky a slog, even when I was young and had more patience for misogyny. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2017, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/34 "2017-11-16T14:33:56Z")
One should always read the Garnett translations. It puts hairs on one’s chest. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2017, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/35 "2017-11-16T15:34:41Z")
> [@from\_a\_to\_z](#): > > Near be it from me to opine that the translators be the husband-wife team of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky rather than Constance Garnett. > [@jaycat](#): > > One should always read the Garnett translations. It puts hairs on one’s chest. When I read (and enjoyed) _Crime and Punishment_, I’m pretty sure it was the David Magarshack translation (in a Penguin paperback). [This review](https://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/09/crime-and-punishment-by-fyodor-dostoevsky-book-review/) gives high praise to a new translation by Oliver Ready. (It calls Magarshack’s “excellent” and Garnett’s “clumsy” but insists this one is better than both.) [This Reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/eu5bk/which_is_the_best_translation_of_crime_and/) has people recommending translations by Pevear & Volokhonsky, Jessie Coulson, and David McDuff. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/36 "2017-11-17T02:46:22Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Start with _Crime and Punishment_. I came in to say this. It’s not a laugh a minute, but it really is a fascinating read about someone talking himself into a horrific act because he’s trying to prove something to himself. In our current historical moment of neo-fascists and other right-wing hate groups embracing violent aggression as a fundamental expression of their “warrior” identity and the “purification” of society, it’s particularly thought-provoking. For a bit of a palate cleanser if you get stuck, I recommend S. J. Perelman’s short parody essay “A Farewell to Omsk”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745/37 "2017-11-17T03:31:34Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Same here. Enjoyed _The Idiot_, and I’m reading _Brothers K_ for the second time right now. But never could get going with _C&P_. > > Given the discussion here, maybe I should look to see who translated the copy I was reading. 🙂 Having gotten half way through it twice, I think C&P is a fundamentally different novel than many of his other works. If seems a little simpler in a way, more intellectual, less melodrama, the characters aren’t as vibrant. It’s like Dostoyevsky light to me - a lot of the same themes and philosophical underpinnings of his other works but none of the vivid storytelling or charismatic figures to bring the ideas to life. Kind of like _Dream of a Rediculous Man_, (I was able to get through that because it was like only 25 pages). It’s been about 9 years since I last tried to read it, maybe I should try again and I would have a different opinion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-read-dostoevsky/545745.md?page=1)