DDR: The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoyevsky / Подросток by Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский

 

Back to Dostoyevsky. And back to Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, because (1) I wanted to read a book book, (2) I didn't want to pay anything, and (3) this translation was the only one the LFPL had. 

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:

Public Domain

You can read the whole thing HERE if that picture's not worth 1,000 words.

Day 7 (DDRD 2,624) January 5, 2025

Read to page