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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 24 KB, 375x574, notesfromtheunderground.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2779992 No.2779992[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

/lit/, is this good? To what is it comparable? I've got it in my checkout list, and I'm just not sure.

>> No.2780019

It's very good, but I don't know what other book you could compare it to. It's something of an anomaly really.

I don't personally consider it Dostoevsky's best. A lot of people would point to the Brothers Karamazov for that, while my own personal favourite is The House of the Dead. The Gamblers is another fantastic one. You should basically read them all if you can, but if you'll take advice from a devotee, start with House of the Dead. It's a very gentle introduction to Dostoevsky, but is still very funny and moving.
I can upload an audiobook version of it actually.

>> No.2780028

It's really stream of consciousness and self-hating without having a very obvious resolution. You can always read his short story "The Double" first. It has a lot of that same sort of internal conflict but more of a plot going on.

>> No.2780037

>>2780019
If you don't mind going to the trouble of it, I personally would love an audiobook of any of his works.

>> No.2780051

>>2780019
As promised, this is the audiobook version of The House of the Dead. Dostoevsky was incarcerated in a Siberian prison for a number of years for associating with some liberal/left-leaning intellectual groups in Moscow in 1849. After he was released some years later he wrote this account of a "fictional" character who was incarcerated in a similar prison for murder. This pretense to fiction was Fyodor's way of publishing his story without the censors banning it.
There is no particular "plot" here - it's just a long series of connected observations of life within such a prison. The narrator mixes with criminals of every type - from child-murders to thieves, rapists, forgers and everything in between. It would be very easy for a book on this subject to descend into lurid and hysterical fixation on the crimes themselves, but Dostoevsky instead usually glosses over those, mentioning them only to give some context for his own observations on the nature of the criminals themselves. There's also a lot of musing on the nature of prison and penal servitude/punishment, its effects on the criminals, and questions about how the system could be improved.
I went into this book knowing almost nothing about prisons or convicts, but with a lot of pre-conceived ideas. The reality in this story bears no resemblance to what I had in my imagination, so it was incredibly instructive in that regard. It's basically one of the best books I've ever read.

Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?9aadrsyshtrjn5q

>> No.2780059

>>2780051
Oh, and I've found that I could play these .aa files by opening a regular mp3 in windows media player, pausing it, then dragging the .aa file into the WMP window to run. I'm sure there's a more elegant way of doing it but I dunno what it is.

I need to go get some sleep to be up for work tomorrow, but I'll bump this thread in 18-24 hours and post some more of his works. Probably The Gamblers because it'll be a nice small upload. I'll also try and do The Brothers Karamazov at some point.

>> No.2780076

>>2780059

Dude, you are amazing, thanks so much. Looking forward to any other audiobooks, too. It'll be a good way to decide whether to get physical copies.

I was a bit weary of it because it seems to be a go-to teenage book, which is usually a warning sign, but you seem to know what you're talking about, so I'll give it a go.

>> No.2780080

>>2780059
Also, for more odd file types, get the free (and much improved, from 2.0 onwards) VLC player.

>> No.2780852
File: 24 KB, 400x400, Gambler-Fyodor-Dostoyevsky.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2780852

I woke up earlier than usual, and so have time to upload The Gambler before heading out.

It's a strange and miserable little story, and I always feel something between pity, loathing and disgust for every single character in it. The subject is one Dostoevsky himself was very familiar with - an addicition to gambling. Doestoevsky had basically lost all of his family's money at one point. He wrote this story very shortly afterwards as part of a deal with a publisher - that he would finish a book in just a couple of months in order to recieve payment, or else the publisher would get full and exclusive rights to all of his works for 9 years.
He managed it, and this is the result.

http://www.mediafire.com/?85xh5w155e251j1

>> No.2780879
File: 38 KB, 304x500, 600full-notes-from-underground-cover.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2780879

Almost forgot I had an itunes copy of Notes from the Underground.

http://www.mediafire.com/?0eaarqaass9fyd2

Gotta dash off to work, but when I get home I'll start uploading The Brothers Karamazov piece by piece. It's fucking massive so it'll take a while. Hope you all enjoy these three in the meantime.

>> No.2780909

>>2780879

Oh, good. I'll put aside my NftU purchase until I listen to this. Thanks for the books!

>> No.2781091

Hey, /lit/ incline! When did this happen? Keep the quality coming.

>> No.2781115

>>2781091
All the americans are at sleep. *shhh*

>> No.2781365

>>2781115
Oy, some of us are Americans and Insomniacs.

>> No.2781433

full of beta

>> No.2781459

>>2781433
>full of beta

The book? The posters? You? What?

>> No.2781465

I was going to say how good this book is, and elaborate on its amazing prose. But if you're listening to an audiobook version then you're going to miss the majority of the story. It's written as a monologue and just comes off better when you read it.

>> No.2781480

Everyone can relate to Notes. Read it.

>> No.2781890
File: 92 KB, 260x400, The_Brothers_Karamazov.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2781890

The Brothers Karamazov in five parts:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1b4cvwrwh1yru8k
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ehr3ynxrln8zxxd
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?akyt6jk5xqtbnxc
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?973xvwfp5625765
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ha1o897p00l0h7d

Is good book.

>> No.2782169

>>2781890

OP here. You are a god. Thanks for all of these. I've got most of them in book form anyway, but one more format never hurts.

>> No.2782983

bumpincaseanybodyneedsslashwantsanyofthese

>> No.2783325

Great thread. Glad I decided to dig into the back pages of /lit/ today. Thanks.

>> No.2783386

>>2781890
We need more people like you on /lit/. I am also bumping to keep this alive. Thank you!!

>> No.2783389

Sharethread?

http://www.mediafire.com/?qr2mg9hxr0kf1#myfiles

>> No.2783393

What is the absolute best translation of the Brothers Karamazov?

Please respond.

>> No.2783396

>>2783393
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky are generally and widely regarded to be the best Russian-to-English translators, and they've done the Brothers Karamazov. They won an award for that specific translation, I believe.

>> No.2783399 [DELETED] 

>>2783393

Pevear and Volokhonsky's a great one. I haven't read any others.

>> No.2783414

OP, I see you've been recommended House, which is a good book, but fairly different from his major works. NftU is part of his most popular works, and shares that more... philosophical vein that his other major works are celebrated for. I just felt it was important for you to know that. inb4 people shit themselves because I compared Dosto to philosophy

>>2783393
Everyone will suck dicks off the Pevear & Volokhonsky translations. No idea if it's the best since I can't read Russian

>> No.2783419

I'm guessing people here don't know how the IRC works, since they are slurping up cock for these links.

>> No.2783420

>>2779992
Never understood the appeal, read like an aspie's diary. Skip it and go for Bro's Karamazov.

>> No.2783427

>>2783420
Bro's is pretty boring focuses on a bunch of shitty characters while you wait for the story to get back to the main characters.

Read C&P instead

>> No.2784447

ATB (Awesome Thread Bump.)

>> No.2784462

>>2780028

THIS. I loved the double, but was kind of lukewarm on NFTU.

>>2780019

The frame narrative of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man was obviously heavily influenced by NFTU, but I liked it 100x better than NFTU.

>> No.2784517

>>2780028
I would highly disregard reading The Double first. The Double may be longer, or perhaps the same length as NFTU, and lacks that sort of existential questioning that defines Dostoevsky's greatest works.

And in honesty, most people find The Double to be confusing and drawn out. It's one of Dostoevsky's first works, and was quite a bit too similar to Gogol's writing.

>> No.2784609

Sadly my only real foray into Russian lit has been Dostoevsky. I'm looking to broaden my horizons a little. The obvious choice seems to be Tolstoy, but I don't want to dive straight into War and Peace. Any recommendations?

>> No.2784652

You should give it a try, I think its pretty decent and if you don't really enjoy it will only take you a couple of days tops anyway.

>> No.2784684

>>2784609
Turgenev, Gogol, Chekhov, just check the wiki basically

>> No.2784694

>>2780852

What's wrong with Alexei? Or the British dude who ends up with Polina? I liked both of them...

I guess you feel weird for Alexei at the end with Blanche and all of his winnings, that was really bizarre.

I've read all of his works and The Gambler is definitely one of the best, but no mention in this thread of The Possessed? That's a dayum shame.

>> No.2784699

>>2784609

No man, you DO want to dive straight into War and Peace. It's very readable and it lives up to its reputation.

But read some of his short stories if you want "The Cossacks" is awesome.

>> No.2784734

General Dostoevsky question since this is a Dostoevsky thread (and also a thread that deserves to be bumped), hope no one minds.

I have two copies of Crime and Punishment, one that my gran leant me and one I had previously bought second hand. They are the 1991 Penguin Classics version translated by David McDuff, and the 1997 Penguin Popular Classics version that doesn't seem to have a translator's name, but it's obviously different.

Two questions:

1) Which of these is likely to be better? The '97 one is obviously more recent so I'd expect it to be better, but Popular Classics seem to have a bad rep and also the pages are small and the font is weird.

2) Do you think the Pevear and Volokhonsky version is enough better than either of these to be worth buying? (second hand, of course) I have their version of Notes from Underground and I have to say their notes in it were very helpful, although in some ways Notes seems like a book where annotations are more necessary.

>> No.2785733

a bump for this awesome thread