DDR: Netochka Nezvanova by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

 

Day 1 (but still DDRD 2,238) December 17, 2023

I only had 19 pages of "The Landlady" left to read for today, so I thought I'd take a little nibble at the next (chronologically speaking) piece, Netochka Nezvanova ...Dostoyevsky's abandoned novel. I put the title into Google translate (Russian to English) and it just gave me the same two words back. But Oh!, hold de door; when I went to another Wikipedia page (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netochka_Nezvanova_(author) it said that "The name [of A writer] itself is adopted from the main character of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's first novel Netochka Nezvanova (1849) and translates as 'nameless nobody.'" Don't know where they came up with that, but I'm sure they know more about it than I do.

 

At any rate....

Oh, breaking news. I ran across an article on this nove/l by Elizabeth Cheresh Allen (courtesy of JSTOR), and check this out:  "Dostoyevsky's arrest in St. Petersburg for political subversion in late 1849, followed by his imprisonment in Siberia, interrupted work on the novel, which he had begun in 1846. ...he did correct proofs of the second installment of the novel while still incarcerated in St. Petersburg—it was being published serially in Notes of the Fatherland [Отечественные запискиu] during 1848 and 1849—...." (115-116)

So several interesting things there. First, that this is the work which immediately preceded his arrest. And second that this is considered his first novel. I didn't know either of those things before now.

Read to page 485. And it was pretty captivating right from the get go. Thus far (the first 11 pages) the story is focused on Netochka's stepfather, who was a musician. Ultimately a violinist / fiddler, which is always close to my heart since my #1🌞 is a fiddler. So there's that.

And as for that JSTOR article...I went back and read more of it. Quite interesting. I think ill come back to this again right soonish.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1zxsjmd.11?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=au%3A&searchText=%22Elizabeth%22&searchUri=%2Fopen%2Fsearch%2F%3FQuery%3Dau%253A%2522Elizabeth%2522%26amp%3Btheme%3Dopen%26amp%3Bsi%3D1&seq=5

Currently on page 5 of 36.

Day 2 (DDRD 2,239) December 18, 2023

Read to page 526.

"Like a regular dreamer, she broke down at the first step into hostile reality...." Welcome to my 🌎.

I know more than a few people like this: "...there are natures who are very fond of thinking themselves injured and oppressed, complaining aloud of it, or consoling themselves by gloating in secret over their unrecognised greatness." (496-497) As A matter of fact, if I'm not careful, I can slip into this mode of thinking, I'm chagrined to say.

On page 525, B., speaking to Prince X about Yefimov, says that if Yefimov were ever to discover that his violin playing was inferior to someone else, like S., that "he would recover at once; his madness is stronger than the truth, and he would at once invent some evasion.” Which makes me think of the many Trump supporters who are not swayed by facts or logic. Their support for Trump is so strong because it has been tangled up with their identity, and there might not be anything to be done about that. Which makes you wonder why. I can only think if two reasons: racism or love of money, since Trump has helped some rich people to get richer.

As for that JSTOR article...I'm currently on page 12 of 36, and it continues to hold my interest. In fact, more than that: it reminds me of the joy I felt when researching papers back in my first Bellarmine days...A joy comparable to that an archeologist must feel when s/he makes a fund and begins to scrape away the earth that clings to and obscures it, the thrill of discovery.

Thought this was an interesting comment on Netochka's mom: "The burdens of reality weigh on Netochka's mother too heavily to allow her to narrate or even to imagine a tale in which she and Netochka might live happily ever after." (126)

It made me think of how hard it is to be creative when your Real Life depletes your energies. Some people can do it. Maybe I'm one of the ones who can't. Maybe I am lacking the grit...the strength...the courage...the whatever...to keep on pushing.

Well, THAT'S not a happy thought.

😮

P. S. On page 127, Allen makes reference to "the version of 1849" of Netochka Nezvanova. Hmmm. I'm guessing that that means there are two versions of this "novel." You're killing me, Smalls. Read to page 17 of 36.

Day 3 (DDRD 2,240) December 19, 2023

Read to page 565.

What a difference a three letter word makes:

Constance: "Get it me to-day...."

Ann Dunigan*: "Get it for me to-day...."

* Translation I found at Internet Archive.

As I was reading today, I started thunkung, You know, this "novel" 's (at least so far) really revolving around the father's violin. And then I read this:

"...suddenly he snatched up the violin, brandished it above me, and... another minute and he would perhaps have killed me on the spot." (538)

How's that for intense? That should be the cover image, I think. If I had any talent whatsoever, I'd paint this.

At the end of Chapter 3, Efimov has a Road to Damascus Experience which doesn't turn out as well as Paul's did: "the truth was more than his eyes could endure when he gazed upon what had been, what was, and what awaited him; it blinded and burnt up his reason. It had struck him down at once inexorably like lightning." (545)

Day 4 (DDRD 2,241) December 20, 2023

Read to page 602.

After reading a section of Stephen King's Gerald's Game-- the part where the handcuffed Jessie tries to get a glass of eater from a shelf above her head--I thought, If I were ever to teach a class on writing, I'd use this to show how to create tension in your reader, how to blow up a moment into something that pulls the reader into the world you're creating. Dostoevsky does the sane thing here with Karta and the bulldog. Its such good writing that I wad no longer reading: I was watching the events unfold, seeing the details. It's amazing that he was able to do this in what is actually his first novel. 🎩🎩📴 to FD.

It occurs to me that (1) this novel is quite good, superior to the earlier Dostoyevsky pieces I've read, and (2) the tone of this is quite different from the late works of Dostoyevsky; it seems lighter, almost prone to joyfullness or humor. Of course, this writing precedes his arrest, near execution, and imprisonment. At any rate, it's an interesting look into Fed's character, perhaps more revealing than autobiography. 

Day 5 (DDRD 2,242) December 21, 2023

Read to page 640. So tomorrow will do it. I had some trepidations about this one, given my previous experience with unfinished works (Kafka, Dickens), but I have to say that this has been a pleasant reading experience, for sure. Unless something goes seriously awry in the last 30 pages, I'm giving this one two snaps up with a twist.

"Her gentle character seemed created for seclusion." (603)

Day 6 (DDRD 2,243) December 22, 2023

Read to page 669. -ish. For some reasons the page numbers in this Kindle version shift a bit, so what was 669 A few days back us now 668. In any event, its The End . And a pretty fine read it was, too. I wish that FD had finished it off, as I would have liked to see where he took Netochka next. 

Oh well. Onward.

DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day

A History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI

History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III

Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III

Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III

The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip IIl Volumes I - III

This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611

The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates

Peat and Peat Cutting

+

DDR Day 1,001 to Day 2,000:
(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

(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages

(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 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

(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 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

(29) Master Humprhey's Clock 4 days, 145 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

(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages

(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol  7 days, 380 pages

(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages

(38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages

2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day

(39) David Copperfield 21 days, 1,092 pages

(40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages

(41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages

(42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages

(43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages

        + 25 pages Bleak Hose and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.

2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day

DDR Day 2,001 to Day 3,000:

(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages

494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).

(3) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages

(4) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages

(5) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages

(6) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages

(7) Our Mutual Friend 29 days, 1,057 pages

(8) The Mystery of Edwin Drood 6 days, 314 pages 

FTR vis-a-vis Dickens: 18,671 pages in 468 days

(9) Dickens and Kafka, 7 days, 315 pages

(10) Franz Kafka: A Biography 8 days, 267 pages

(11) The Frozen Sea: A Study of Franz Kafka 5 days, 198 pages

(12) Franz Kafka, A Writer's Life 12 days, 385 pages

(13) The Lost Writings 2 days, 138 pages

(14) Amerika: The Missing Person 11 days, 333 pages

(15) The Brothers Karamazov  24 days, 816 pages

(16) The Eternal Husband & Other Stories 8 days, 375 pages

(17) Poor Folk 5 days, 164 pages

(18) The Double 4 days, 190 pages

(19) The Landlady 3 days, 90 pages

(20) Netochka Nezvanova 6 days, 196 pages

DDR: The Landlady by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Next up...a short one, just 90 pages long. I've never read "The Landlady" before, and, in fact, know nothing about it. Here's hoping it's better than "The Double"! 

Day 1 (DDRD 2,236) December 15, 2023

Read to page 410.

This

"Then he walked into a dark, lofty, and deserted room, one of those dreary-looking rooms still to be found in old- fashioned family mansions that have been spared by time, and saw in it a grey-headed old man, hung with orders of distinction, who had been the friend and colleague of his father, and was his guardian. The old man handed him a tiny screw of notes. It turned out to be a very small sum: it was all that was left of his ancestral estates, which had been sold by auction to pay the family debts." (380)

struck me as a bit off. Especially the "screw of notes" bit. I looked it up via Google's just the phrase in quotation An every resulting hit referred to Dostoyevsky's "The Landlady." So I took a look at a different translation: the Dover version by our old friend C. J. Hogarth. Here's what C. J. did with this passage:

"In this room he had found himself confronted by a much-bemedalled, grey-haired dotard--the friend and colleague of Ordynov's father, and Ordynov's guardian--who had handed to his ward what seemed to the latter a very small sum, as representing a legacy derived from some property which had just been sold under the hammer, to liquidate a debt incident upon his grandfather's estate."

Well, I've got to give it to Constance for most of this, but still..."a very small sum" seems better than "a screw of notes." Funny, though, that at the end of this paragraph Constance refers to the protagonist as becoming "a complete recluse," but C. J. translates this as his becoming "a savage." Well. I guess I can put up with a screw of notes as long as they're not proffered by a savage.

Speaking of savages, here's a it more of that from Conference's version aka bit that I live dearly and which is quite close to the center of my being:

"There he shut himself up as though he were in a monastery, as though he had renounced the world. Within two years he had become a complete recluse. He had grown shy and unsociable without being aware of the fact; meanwhile, it never occurred to him that there was another sort of life — full of noise and uproar, of continual excitement, of continual variety, which was inviting him and was sooner or later inevitable." (Still 380)

Oh, I quit to soon. Check out this bit of beauty: "He was devoured by the deepest and most insatiable passion, which absorbs a man’s whole life and does not, for beings like Ordynov, provide any niche in the domain of practical daily activity."

Hey, mister, that's me up on the jukebox.

Katerina says to Vassily, “Life is sweet; is it sweet to you to live in the world?” (398)

And that's really the question, its it? There are flies and there are bees. For the flies, life is shit and rot. For the bees, life is sweet and buzzing with life. That was to be the central metaphor of a novel I tried to write. I did get a couple hundred pages out, but...well, my heart crapped out, I fell into the Slough of Despond.... There it is. But I have been better at being the bee. Sucking on the flowers. Buzzing around.

Ahem.

Thus far (30 pages in) I'd say this is quite an interesting story. Maybe even entrancing. And definitely a big step up from "The Double." Hmm. "The Double" was first published 30 January 1846, and "The Landlady" October and November of 1847. So close to two years between them. That might explain The Great Leap Forward.

Day 2 (DDRD 2,237) December 16, 2023

Read to page 450. Pretty interested, so if I can grab a moment later, I might finish this off today.

On page 416, Vassily is talking to his best friend about his landlord. Vassily mentions that the landlord has a daughter...or perhaps a wife...living with him, then says, "I know there is some woman with him. I have had a passing glimpse of her, but I did not notice.” (416) The funny thing is that not only did Vassiky " notice," but he's been absolutely smitten with this woman. It's very true to life to me...the way that we casually bullshit our way through the days, hiding our desires, perhaps frightened by them. Perhaps just so afraid of exposing our vulnerabilities that we'd rather hide behind a wall if bullshit. And that's me, too, of course. I'd have had a lot more sex if I hadn't been hiding behind that bullshit wall. Which may or nay not have been a good thing, but certainly is a thing I think about regularly. Was it my sense of morality that made me hide behind that walk of bullshit...or was it just fear? Or both, maybe...it doesn't have to be binary.

I guess I'm lying to myself...Lord, I miss you, chile.

There's some pretty heavy incestuous stuff running throughout this story. Several times Katrina has told Vassiky that he was to be her brother, then kissed him passionately. And at one point the old man says to them, "So you are brother and sister, born of the same mother! You are as fond of one another as lovers!” (444) 😟

Day 3 (DDRD 2,238) December 17, 2023

Well, that didn't happen. But today was it:

Read to page 469, aka The End.

At one point near the end of the story, Constance describes Vassily turning his head "like a plaster kitten to right and to left...." (457) Which I thought was an odd description. And what the neck is a plaster kitten with a moveable head, anyway? So I checked in with my other translation to see if that would shed any light.

C.J. says, "rolling his head from side to side...like a china dog." 

Hmm. So I'm thinking it's like one of those https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804138066442.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt things you see in cars and in the houses if Very Old People. Funny how Constance said cat and C. J. said dog, though, isn't it? 

At any rate...this was an interesting thing. Touches on the Sickness As A Means to Enlightenment that seems so prevalent in FD's works. Also the incomprehensible and possibly evil nature of women, who can either be the guide to salvation or the source of hideous suffering...possibly simultaneously. Well. I've been there, done that, and bought souvenirs. 

Onward.

DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day

A History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI

History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III

Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III

Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III

The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip IIl Volumes I - III

This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611

The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates

Peat and Peat Cutting

+

DDR Day 1,001 to Day 2,000:
(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

(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages

(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 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

(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 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

(29) Master Humprhey's Clock 4 days, 145 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

(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages

(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol  7 days, 380 pages

(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages

(38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages

2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day

(39) David Copperfield 21 days, 1,092 pages

(40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages

(41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages

(42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages

(43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages

        + 25 pages Bleak Hose and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.

2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day

DDR Day 2,001 to Day 3,000:

(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages

494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).

(3) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages

(4) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages

(5) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages

(6) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages

(7) Our Mutual Friend 29 days, 1,057 pages

(8) The Mystery of Edwin Drood 6 days, 314 pages 

FTR vis-a-vis Dickens: 18,671 pages in 468 days

(9) Dickens and Kafka, 7 days, 315 pages

(10) Franz Kafka: A Biography 8 days, 267 pages

(11) The Frozen Sea: A Study of Franz Kafka 5 days, 198 pages

(12) Franz Kafka, A Writer's Life 12 days, 385 pages

(13) The Lost Writings 2 days, 138 pages

(14) Amerika: The Missing Person 11 days, 333 pages

(15) The Brothers Karamazov  24 days, 816 pages

(16) The Eternal Husband & Other Stories 8 days, 375 pages

(17) Poor Folk 5 days, 164 pages

(18) The Double 4 days, 190 pages

(19) The Landlady 3 days, 90 pages

DDR: TtHhEe DdOoUuBbLlEe by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It's beginning to look a lot like more Dostoyevsky. So, flowing chronology AND Brother C's wake, I'm going for The Double. I've never read this one before, but have read many references to it, and got the impression that it was pretty central to Dostoyevsky's thought & methodology.

Well see how THAT goes.

190 pages, so about six days' worth. 🏁

Day 1 (DDRD 2,232) December 11, 2023

Read to page 206 yesterday (20 pages), then read to page 236. So that's a pretty good start (50 pages diwn, about 1/4th of the journey). Sorry to say that it hasn't really hooked me yet...but there are still 140 or so pages to go, so we'll see.

"...he lay in his bed without moving, as though he were not yet quite certain whether he were awake or still asleep, whether all that was going on around him were real and actual, or the continuation of his confused dreams." (186)

Reminds me of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" opening. Instead of turning into a giant bug, Golyadkin splits in two.

Also, it seems that Mr. Golyadkin lives in a tiny room (reminiscent of Raskolnikov's in Crime and Punishment), yet he has 750 rubles and a servant. (Albeit a rather ridiculous looking servant: "He had on a much-worn green livery, with frayed gold braid on it, apparently made for a man a yard taller than Petrushka.")

His servant wears a negligé? Meriam-Webster has a secondary definition "carelessly informal or incomplete attire" (https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/negligee), but I'm thinking we have a FAILure to translate properly.

More on that thought: hast instead of haste? 

"It’d let them all know" instead of "I'd"? (190)

"...he admired a fashionable and very toilet table for ladies’ use." (207) ?

In other news: 

Funny: Dr. Krestyan Ivanovitch Rutenspitz is described as "elderly," and then we're told that his "whiskers...were beginning to turn grey" (194), which probably means he's in his late 40s or 50s. What I wouldn't give to be in my 40s. Or even 50s, for that matter.

On page 198, Mr. Golyadkin tells the doctor,"I’ve no taste for contemptible duplicity...." A bit of foreshadowing, that.

Hoopla had a copy of The Double translated by Evelyn Harden, so I thought I'd have a look at what she did with my Constance problems.

Instead of negligé, Evelyn had "the outfit in which he was wont to go to sleep."  Which seems much less homoerotic. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Instead of "huddled with almost panic-stricken hast into the darkest corner of his carriage", Evelyn has "hastily, and even fearfully, huddled into the darkest corner of his coach."

Instead of "It’d let them all know, if only...”, Evelyn has "I'd tell them all a thing of two, but...."

And instead of "...he admired a fashionable and very toilet table for ladies’ use", Evelyn has "regarded with pleasure a fashionable and extremely fanciful ladies' dressing table...."

Looks like Evelyn has all four rounds here. Oh, Constance. I was COUNTing on you.

Day 2 (DDRD 2,233) December 12, 2023

Read to page 266. 

Day 3 (DDRD 2,234) December 13, 2023

Read to page 305. However..after a number of missteps like this...

At the beginning of Chapter 8, Constance has Golyadkin exclaim, "What does this new circumstance portend?” (267) Which was so awkward that I had to have a look at Evelyn did with this. She had, "What does this new occurrence mean?" Which is still pretty awkward, but is at least a little better. What the hack is going on with Ms. Garnett? I'm thinking that this must have been one of her earliest translations. Wikipedia? Nope. By the time she did this one, shed been translating Dostoyevsky for five years, and had already done all of his major works. Hmmm. So I've got nothin'.

...and various minor typos, I took a look at the hoopla translation by Even Harden. But it was rife with insertions directing that this be deleted and that be added in...which was even worse than the typos and awkwardnesses of Constance. So after searching unsuccessfully for another option, it was back to Constance.

Day 4 (DDRD 2,235) December 14, 2023

Read to page 340.

From Golyadkin's* dream:

"And all these precisely similar Golyadkins set to running after one another as soon as they appeared, and stretched in a long chain like a file of geese, gobbling after the real Mr. Golyadkin, so there was nowhere to escape from these duplicates — so that Mr. Golyadkin, who was in every way deserving of compassion, was breathless with terror; so that at last a terrible multitude of duplicates had sprung into being; so that the whole town was obstructed at last by duplicate Golyadkins, and the police officer, seeing such a breach of decorum, was obliged to seize all these duplicates by the collar and to put them into the watch-house, which happened to be beside him..." (309)

* Autocorrect insists that thus should be "Holy a skin's." You know, as in "I went to the grocery store, but they were all out of Holy a skin's." Do we REALLY have to worry about AI replacing us?

Addendum: read to page 375 = The End. 

Have to say that this was not a great read. The premise was interesting--more so if you ignore the fact that it's been done to death since Dostoyevsky did this--but the story just didn't go anywhere. There wasn't enough ambiguity for the reader (or at least This reader) to be able to wonder if this was a mental health issue, and if it was supposed to be Real real, then that didn't really work out, either. And, though I'm loathe to say it, a great deal if this story just wasn't very interesting. Not to mention that the word "hero" was used way too often--365 times according to my text search. Sigh. 

Onward and upward.

DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day

A History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI

History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III

Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III

Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III

The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip IIl Volumes I - III

This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611

The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates

Peat and Peat Cutting

+

DDR Day 1,001 to Day 2,000:
(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

(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages

(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 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

(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 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

(29) Master Humprhey's Clock 4 days, 145 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

(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages

(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol  7 days, 380 pages

(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages

(38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages

2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day

(39) David Copperfield 21 days, 1,092 pages

(40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages

(41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages

(42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages

(43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages

        + 25 pages Bleak Hose and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.

2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day

DDR Day 2,001 to Day 3,000:

(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages

494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).

(3) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages

(4) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages

(5) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages

(6) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages

(7) Our Mutual Friend 29 days, 1,057 pages

(8) The Mystery of Edwin Drood 6 days, 314 pages 

FTR vis-a-vis Dickens: 18,671 pages in 468 days

(9) Dickens and Kafka, 7 days, 315 pages

(10) Franz Kafka: A Biography 8 days, 267 pages

(11) The Frozen Sea: A Study of Franz Kafka 5 days, 198 pages

(12) Franz Kafka, A Writer's Life 12 days, 385 pages

(13) The Lost Writings 2 days, 138 pages

(14) Amerika: The Missing Person 11 days, 333 pages

(15) The Brothers Karamazov  24 days, 816 pages

(16) The Eternal Husband & Other Stories 8 days, 375 pages

(17) Poor Folk 5 days, 164 pages

(18) The Double 4 days, 190 pages

DDR: Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Well...I guess it's not just me. I went to grab my next Dostoyevsky, which I'd picked up from the library a few days ago, and much to my surprise...

So NOPE.

And I went searching. First my bookshelves, because SURELY there was some unread Dostoyevsky lying about, right? Well...not that I could find. So I went online. And bumped into this: "Gave up on P&V's 'Idiot'"...which you can read here:  https://www.reddit.com/r/dostoevsky/comments/w5o2bw/gave_up_on_pvs_idiot/

But the short version is Others Agree With Me That Pevear and Volokhonsky's translations are not very good terrible horrible and no fun to read. 

So I headed online again to see what non Pevear / Volokhonsky I could find.

And after much deliberation, I settled on one of hoopla's versions of Poor Folk. It's 164 pages long. The translator isn't identified, but I know it's not P&V  because they haven't translated PF, so that's good enough for me.

Day 1 (DDRD 2,227) December 6, 2023

Read to page 35.

In his April 12th letter, Makar refers to Barbara as his "little friend beyond price." Surprisingly, when I Googled this seemingly not uncommon phrase (in quotation marks), it came up with "Poor Folk." Which was disappointing, as I was hoping to find that this was an allusion to the 14th century poem, "Pearl."

Public Domain

But it looks like it's more likely a Biblical reference, if anything.

In my search, I also found that it's likely that the translation I'm reading is the work of one C. J. Hogarth.  Which might be a problem. Check out this bit from Wikipedia:

"Mr. Hogarth has a very poor knowledge of Russian but a rich fancy (I believe he, too, is a novelist), and decorates Gogol with such ornaments of style as to make him unrecognisable [...] It would be necessary to copy out practically his whole translation of Gogol's work to point out all the absurd additions and errors which it contains, as it contains them on every page."  (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._J._Hogarth)

Hmm. That would be scanned.

Meanwhile, here's a cool word I'd never encountered before:

hoyden

noun

hoy·​den ˈhȯi-dᵊn 

Synonyms of hoyden: a girl or woman of saucy, boisterous, or carefree behavior

hoydenish ˈhȯi-dᵊn-ish adjective

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hoyden

So there's that.

Day 2 (DDRD 2,228) December 7, 2023

Read to page 65.

New word--or new usage, anyway:

cabal

verb

caballed; caballing

intransitive verb: to unite in or form a cabal

And unlike P&V, it actually IS a word, and not just something the translator made up. Speaking of, despite the forewarning, this translation seems okay to me. Admittedly I don't have anything to check it against, but I didn't need that to know that something was seriously fucked up with P&V, so I rest my case. For now, at least.

Day 3 (DDRD 2,229) December 8, 2023

Read to page 100.

I'm beginning to think that Barbara is a bit of a cock tease. She tells Makar that she just wants to be friends, but then she accepts presents from him, knowing that he can't afford them, and even calls him "sweetheart" in one letter, and "your friend and lover" in another. And it's pretty obvious that he's smitten with her. 

= ? 

🐓ttt

Day 4 (DDRD 2,230) December 9, 2023

Read to page 136. The poverty of these characters is crushing, and Dostoyevsky writes so convincingly of it that it's hard not to believe that he knew this kind of deprivation. 

Only one more day for this book. And then? Well...for 99¢, I purchased this for my Kindle:

So...6,599 pages for 99¢? Not too fuckin' shabby. And most of these are Constance Garnett translations (🙂)...and NONE of them are Pevear and Volokhonsky translations (😃). So I might could stay on this Dostoyevsky 🚂 for a little while.

Speaking of R&L, when I went to check on the spelling of their last names, I ran into an article entitled 

PEVEAR AND VOLOKHONSKY ARE INDEED OVERRATED: MY TWO ROUBLES

Expanding on my passing comment last week, because I have thought a lot about it.

by JOHN MCWHORTER

You can read it at

 https://johnmcwhorter.substack.com/p/pevear-and-volokhonsky-are-indeed

...but the gist of it is that R&L turn Tolstoy's War and Peace into "1200 pages of diligent and relentless awkwardness." (McWhorter also identifies this as "language that feels like English rendered through cheesecloth." And in the Comments section, a reader, one Sarah Chemiakine, says of R&L that "their translations read like Google Translate.") It's an enlightening article unit just about the Evils if R&L, but about the Art of Translation itself. Definitely worth a read.

Day 5 (DDRD 2,231) December 10, 2023

Read to page 168 = The End.

Kind of sums up life: "One seems to die to so little purpose!" (150)

Reminds me of Hamlet's bung-hole:

"Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole?"

The September 23rd letter seems to indicate that I'm completely wrong about the relationship between Makar Devushkin and Varvara Dobroselova. As in, despite their use of affectionate words, there was actually no romantic love between them. Hmpf. Also, I took notice (finally) that his "middle" name is Alekseyevich and hers is Alekseyevna, which means that they both had a father named Aleksey. Could it be that they share a father? Wikipedia says that they are third cousins twice removed, so I guess not. I must have missed something at the start of this story, then.

NOT A TYPO: sempstress, which Merriam-Webster identifues as a variant of SEAMSTRESS. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sempstress)

P.S. Well...maybe u WASN'T wrong about the ice thing. Also...what an incredibly sad story!

Onward.

DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day

A History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI

History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III

Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III

Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III

The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip IIl Volumes I - III

This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611

The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates

Peat and Peat Cutting

+

DDR Day 1,001 to Day 2,000:
(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

(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages

(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 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

(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 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

(29) Master Humprhey's Clock 4 days, 145 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

(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages

(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol  7 days, 380 pages

(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages

(38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages

2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day

(39) David Copperfield 21 days, 1,092 pages

(40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages

(41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages

(42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages

(43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages

        + 25 pages Bleak Hose and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.

2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day

DDR Day 2,001 to Day 3,000:

(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages

494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).

(3) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages

(4) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages

(5) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages

(6) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages

(7) Our Mutual Friend 29 days, 1,057 pages

(8) The Mystery of Edwin Drood 6 days, 314 pages 

FTR vis-a-vis Dickens: 18,671 pages in 468 days

(9) Dickens and Kafka, 7 days, 315 pages

(10) Franz Kafka: A Biography 8 days, 267 pages

(11) The Frozen Sea: A Study of Franz Kafka 5 days, 198 pages

(12) Franz Kafka, A Writer's Life 12 days, 385 pages

(13) The Lost Writings 2 days, 138 pages

(14) Amerika: The Missing Person 11 days, 333 pages

(15) The Brothers Karamazov  24 days, 816 pages

(16) The Eternal Husband & Other Stories 8 days, 375 pages

(17) Poor Folk 5 days, 164 pages

Christian Conservatives Please Note:

James 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?