Day 1 (DDRD 2,252) December 31, 2023
Read to page 970.
I had a brief moment of disappointment in Constance when I read this:
"...they were obliged to conclude that the latter had struck her roots far deeper than they had thought for." (941)
What an awkward bit of translation there! O I went in search of A different translation, and found an 1888 one by Frederick Whishaw. Fred saw it this way:
"...they were obliged to conclude that the latter had struck her roots far deeper than they had thought for."
Um...what? And then I realized that the first translation I'd read wasn't Constance's, it was FRED'S! Ah. So I went in search of The Real Constance Translation, and eventually I found this:
"...we realized that she had sent her roots far more deeply down than we had supposed."
Ahhh 🛁...isn't that so much better? Sorry, Constance. Ill never doubt you again.
And as for Fred...here's what Wikipedia says about him: "His efforts eventually resulted in many of Dostoevsky's novels being made available for English-language readers in Victorian Britain for the first time." (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Whishaw)
So no straining of the q of m for him, either.
I don't know if I've ever encountered such an intrusive narrator before. Here's the last paragraph of Chapter2:
"However, in order to clear up all these mysteries and find an answer to all these questions, we must ourselves go and see Maria Alexandrovna. Will you follow me in, kind reader? It is only ten in the morning, certainly, as you point out; but I daresay she will receive such intimate friends, all the same. Oh, yes; she’ll see us all right." (951)
"Uncle" is in bad shape: "He is half a corpse; he’s only the memory of a man; they’ve forgotten to bury him! Why, his eye is made of glass, and his leg of cork, and he goes on wires; he even talks on wires!” (958)
And speaking of wires.... This is the most whimsical paragraph I've ever read in Dostoyevsky:
"At first sight you would not take this prince for an old man at all, and it is only when you come near and take a good look at him, that you see he is merely a dead man working on wires. All the resources of science are brought to bear upon this mummy, in order to give it the appearance of life and youth. A marvellous wig, glorious whiskers, moustache and napoleon — all of the most raven black — cover half his face. He is painted and powdered with very great skill, so much so that one can hardly detect any wrinkles. What has become of them, goodness only knows." (963)
Not sure why, time having eradicated my memory of the book, but I keep being "reminded" of László Krasznahorkai's Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming. Speaking of, I saw a copy on display at the library the other day. It made me very happy. Getting known.
P.S. Read to 980. And might read A bit more after the Packers finish kicking the Vikings' asses. (He said.)
Day 2 (DDRD 2,253) 🍼👶January 1, 2024👶🍼
Read to page 1020.
I'm amused by Maria Alexandrovna Moskaleva's unrelenting hatred for that "accursed Shakespeare." (982) She seems to see him as a foreign invader who has had a corrupting influence on Russia. I'm pretty sure that wasn't how Dostoyevsky felt about him. *
Fred says that Maria Alexandrivna's enemies will say that she seeks "to marry her daughter to this old man burglariously...." (1,001) Hmmm. Although I've never heard it before now, it turns out that "burglariously" is actually a word. Not a commonly used word...and certain an awkward one here. I wonder...What Would Constance Do?
Well, turns out she would use the phrase "by stealth like a thief." Mmm-hmm. That's better, isn't it?
* I checked to be sure. Found this: "“And I proclaim that Shakespeare and Raphael are higher than the emancipation of the serfs, higher than nationality, higher than socialism, higher than the younger generation, higher than chemistry, higher than almost all mankind, for they are already the fruit, the real fruit of all mankind, and maybe the highest fruit there ever may be! A form of beauty already achieved, without the achievement of which I might not even consent to live....” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Demons
Day 3 (DDRD 2,254) January 2, 2024
Read to page 1054.
The way that Maria Alexandrovna talks to her husband Afanassy is (1) hilarious, (2) unrelenting my cruel, and (3) very true to life. I can't tell you how many times I've been witness to (in stores, in family nembers, in friends' families) The Wife (and sorry, but it's always been The Wife in my experience) just ripping into The Husband. Like She starts at 135 mph and then stomps on the gas pedal. It's definitely one of the many, many things that I do not mourn the loss of.
Here's A little exchange between them (1040) after Maria orders A fantasy not to say anything to the Prince other than what she's commanded him to say:
“Well, but if I’m asked anything?”
“Hold your tongue all the same!”
“Oh, but I can’t do that — I can’t do — — ”
“Very well, then; you can say ‘H’m,’ or something of that sort, to give them the idea that you are very wise indeed, and like to think well before answering.”
“H’m.”
“Understand me, now. I am taking you up because you are to make it appear that you have just heard of the prince’s visit, and have hastened up to town in a transport of joy to express your unbounded respect and gratitude to him, and to invite him at once to your country house! Do you understand me?”
“H’m.”
“I don’t want you to say ‘H’m’ now, you fool! You must answer me when I speak!”
Who knew that FD could be so fuckin' funny?
Day 4 (DDRD 2,255) January 3, 2024
Read to page 1102...so that's that. And it was definitely worth doing, but a rather odd duck. Almost (and maybe no almost about it) light hearted...and with some actual funny bits. Without the depths of the great works, even though it was written after mock execution and imprisonment, which I guess shows that it took awhile for all of that to dunk into Dostoyevsky soul and cause the terrible turmoil which seems to lie beneath the heart of every great work of art.
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages
(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages
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