Why is Russian Literature such a pain in the ass?
 

I have been trying to read most of the well know classics. I have found this to be a very rewarding experience on the whole. However, I tried to read War and Peace and for the first time in my life I got so bored I stopped reading. I felt bad so I picked it up again a few months later and soldiered on but after about 200 pages I found it so utterly boring that I gave it up. I recently read Crime and Punishment and once again I found it to be a boring drawn out waste of time. I would have stopped reading it too if it hadn't been so short.

I mean come on am I missing something? They teach university courses on russian lit. but my first 2 russian books have sucked. Any suggestions or will The Brothers Karamazoff be more of the same?

Many years ago I tried working through Crime and Punishment and it just wore me down with boredom. I couldn't finish it.

Nothing to see here SU.......

;)

My favorite novels are War and Peace and The Brothers Karamazov. Russion literaterure is the best. It influenced even so many great American and British writers. It does take a frame of mind I suppose.

Believe me I want to get there. I'm Russian after all. It just seems like Tolstoy and expecially Dostoevsky are way more concerned with the characters than the story.

Can you give me your top two reasons for loving War and Peace? perhaps I will give it a third try.

The characters are the most vividly realized of any I've ever read. I also liked the battle scenes. I even like the essays they often take out or put in an appendix. I ate it up. It's not a tough read, just very long. Anna Karenina was great too, maybe more sophisticated in a way, but still I like War and Peace better. Since I read War and Peace I've re-read passages for years. You may want to start with some of Tolstoy's shorter novels like Hadji Muhrad, The Cossacks, or The Kreutzer Sonata.

I think the Russian novelists get religion about right (more so Tolstoy than Dostoyevsky).

Thanks much appreciated.

The description of the murders and the emotions right after in Crime and Punishment creeped me out. I thought that only a man who had commited a murder could have described it so vividly. It was the 300 pages after that ruined it for me.

Tolstoy's greatest short novels and stories are collected in this volume:

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Short-To...7932490&sr=1-1

I really enjoyed War and Peace. I suppose that's some common ground that SU and I have have which in itself is a very uncommon thing.

I started The Brothers Karamazov about a month ago but I never could get into it. It didn't help that I was trying to read it on a business trip when I only had a spare 20 minutes here and there. I'll have to give another try when I have more time to focus on it.

I didn't know you're Russian, Taq Man. Are you originally from Russia? Or do you just have Russian heritage? I served my mission in Russia.

I never read War and Peace. Too long.