/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.17824310]

Picked up a copy of this at a book sale. Do I need to read anything as a prerequisite? Or can I just raw dog it? I've never read any other Dosto or Russian lit at all

[Anonymous No.17824319]

>P&V

[Anonymous No.17824321]

you should be fine

[Anonymous No.17824330]

>>17824310
>Or can I just raw dog it? I've never read any other Dosto or Russian lit at all
19th century russia is like a whole other planet. you might wanna do some wiki diving while reading

[Anonymous No.17824348]

>>17824310
Start with Crime and Punishment

[Anonymous No.17824352]

>>17824330
>you might wanna do some wiki diving while reading
Interesting point. Is there anything in particular I should be sure to read up on? I know next to nothing about pre-soviet Russia

[Anonymous No.17824363]

>>17824352
serfdom you'll wanna know about for sure, but it is abolished by the time guys like dosto and tolstoy write

[Anonymous No.17824367]

just read it, no prerequisites aside from some general knowledge about 19th century Russia - why those people are the way they are, Russia used to be a European country

[Anonymous No.17824393]

>>17824352
some reading on russian orthodoxy and related cultural influences on the country might help when getting into pre soviet russian lit. there's plenty of little cultural idiosyncrasies, like I never heard of a samovar before reading russian stuff but it will come up constantly

honestly i just looked up stuff I didnt know or understand as I went and still enjoyed dosto and tolstoys stuff

[Anonymous No.17824405]

>>17824348
I second this. Read C&P and Notes from Underground first, and do some basic research on Dosto’s biography and the political climate of the time (1860s).

[Anonymous No.17824464]

also: all these russian books have tons of endnotes, so even if you're a russian /his/ virgin, the books will teach you.