So 🤞.
xxvii + 580 = 607 pages. And I guarandamntee ya that I won't be reading 100 pages per day, so this is going to take some time...probably 20 days. Maybe even more.
Day 1 (DDRD 2,618) December 30, 2024
Read to page 10. (So 37 pages including the preferatory material.) Seems ok...but not very compelling. Then again, what would be after 9 Slough House books in 27 days?
Might read a bit more later today. (Though I'm more interested in Seth's Clyde Fans.)
Day 2 (DDRD 2,619) December 31, 2024
Read to page 41. The story is starting to tug at me, I'm glad to say. Mostly because the narrator, Arkady Dolgoruky, is such a motherfucker. He is definitely in the same camp as the Underground man, as RP noted in his introduction.
There are two things that I like about this translation: (1) when there is a note, there's a number. End bigoted are used rather than footnotes (which I think are superior), but at least you aren't expected o intuitive when here's a note, as has often been true in other texts. (2) When a foreign phrase us used, there's a footnote for it.
And I'm happy to say that thus far there have not been any of the irritating translation slip-ups that I've noted in previous books books translated by RP and LV. 🤞
Now for more Clyde Fans!
ADDENDUM: Which ↑ I finished. Amazing book.
Day 3 (DDRD 2,620) 👶January 1, 2025 👶
Read to page 70.
"The present time is a time of the golden mean and insensibility, a passion for ignorance, idleness, and an inability to act, and a need to have everything ready-made. No one ponders; rarely does anyone live his way into an idea." (63)
Well, I guess the times they aren't a-changin' as much as we thought.
Day 4 (DDRD 2,621) January 2, 2025
Read to page 101.
This Arkady fellow is DEFinitely a future Underground Man. He practically (but not literally) boils with anger and hatred.
Day 5 (DDRD 2,622) January 3, 2025
Read to page 112. Yeah, busy day. And it's already 8:40, which us dangerously close to this old man's 🛌 ⏰️ . But I might try to put away a few more pages. (To be honest, though, I'd rather read some more Castenada. 🙊)
Later....
"If the matter of marriage depended on women alone, no marriage would stay together." (125)
As an unwillingly twice-divorced man, I have to say I see some truth in that one. 😞
And...9:33...FINally got to page 130. Actually, this section was pretty gripping: mostly ab argument between Arkady and Versilov (his mostly absent) daddy.
Day 6 (DDRD 2,623) January 4, 2025
Read to page 160.
Reference in an endnote to Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman" made me go looking for it. So:
Oh...I was hoing to paste it here, but it's quite long. Here's a picture instead:
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| Public Domain |
Day 7 (DDRD 2,624) January 5, 2025
Read to page 190.
Day 8 (DDRD 2,625) January 6, 2025
Read to page 220.
Day 9 (DDRD 2,626) January 7, 2025
Read to page 250. What a fool Arkady is. Sitting with a woman, he goes on and on about her beauty, including her "high bosom." For fuck's sake!
Lots of snow (10 inches or so) so, you'd think I'd have plenty of reading time, but I have Joe with me, and Joe ❤️s to talk, so...not so much. Got up at 5 to have some reading time, but Joe got up at 5:01. 😃
Day 10 (DDRD 2,627) January 8, 2025
Read to page 280.
Arkady to Katerina: "You are now imprinted on my soul forever." (255)
Arkady says this to the "high bosom" lady, but even so, this seems to me to be one of the most romantic things one human being can say to another. (Constance Garnett translates it as "Your image is imprinted on my heart for ever now." I don't think that's as good, actually...even though it's pretty close to being the same thing.)
The first person I thought of when I read this line was Clare. Isn't that odd...and sad? There have been other women in my life...dear, kind women... and yet my mind immediately goes to the one who nearly crushed the life out of me. I guess it goes to show that the heart (or soul) goes it's own way, is not bound my reason or any form of utilitarianism. 🤔 But nothing is truer than truth: Clare is imprinted on my soul (and heart), and neither pain nor time nor my decline into old age will cause that imprint to fade one jot. 😒😔
Day 11 (DDRD 2,628) January 9, 2025
Read to page 311.
Day 12 (DDRD 2,629) January 10, 2025
Read to page 341. So many parallels to Karamazov in this novel....
Day 13 (DDRD 2,630 January 11, 2025
Read to page 370.
Chapter One of Part Three begins, "Now about something completely different." (347) Say what??? Let's see how Constance did this one. Hmm...ah. "Now for something quite different." Yep, there you have it. Irrefutable proof that Dostoyevsky invented Monty Python. I rest my case.
I'm thinking that it might be time to get back to non-fiction for my DDR project. Maybe "religious" non-fiction. Like, say, Summa Theologica. The full version. There is a beautiful hardcover set available, but it runs around $250, and I don't think I'm THAT committed. Sure is purty, though.
Day 14 (DDRD 2,631 January 12, 2025
Read to page 400.
"It's impossible for a man to exist without bowing down.... If he rejects God, he'll bow down to an idol--a wooden one, or a golden one, or a mental one. They are all idolators, not godless, that's how they ought to be called." (373)
"...before you go to sleep, pray for the sinner tenderly; at least sigh for him to God: even if you didn't know him at all--your prayer for him will get through the better.
"So when you stand and pray before you go to sleep, add at the end: 'And have mercy, Lord Jesus, on all those who have nobody to pray for them.' ...'Lord, who knowest all destinies, save all the unrepentant'--that's also a good prayer." (384)
Thus is an idea that has come up a lot on my readings about Our Lady of Fatima. In fact, the Fatima orater in The Rosary specifically asks for the same thing: "...lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy."
It's a concept foreign to (and baffling to) my ears. How could praying for someone else--someone who is not even aware that you are praying for them--be of any help at all?
Day 15 (DDRD 2,632 January 13, 2025
Read to page 430.
Day 16 (DDRD 2,633 January 14, 2025
Read to page 462.
"No, you know if I could, I'd have done something! Only I can't do anything now, but only keep dreaming. I keep dreaming and dreaming; my whole life has turned into a dream, I even dream at night." (438)
And I was dreaming when I wrote this. (So forgive me if it goes astray.)
"...women love despotism." (448)
Well...that would be scanned. But (I'm sorry to say) I have seen some flickers of truth in that, depressing as that might be. The whole "Why does she stay with a guy who treats her like that?" thing which I've seen more than a few times. The whole "bad boys" thing. 😕
Day 17 (DDRD 2,634 January 15, 2025
Read to page 490. So only 74 pages to go.
Today would have been my 42nd anniversary if my first marriage hadn't dissolved. 😔
"...I didn't believe very much, but still I couldn't help yearning for the idea [of God]." (470)
Day 18 (DDRD 2,635 January 16, 2025
Read to page 535. Which leaves 30 pages. And I might do some damage there, since it's Sit In The Car & Wait For Joe Day.
🎉🥳🎉
And...yep. Read to page 580 (which includes all the the notes), = The End. Not a great book, but not a bad one, either. It was never a chorse to read it, at least. On the other hand, the plot is pretty thin, and many times there were echoes of other Dostoyevsky novels. So all in all, I'd say this one is skippable.
As for me...I've now read all of Dostoyevsky's novels, all of his novellas, and some of his shirt stories--enough to know that I don't want to read the rest of them. So...
Here Endeth the Dostoyevsky Project.
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