Is this objectively the greatest novel of all time?

subjectively yes

>>8605834
Out of curiosity, how long did it take people here to finish this?

>>8605844
Took me about a half a year only because I kept picking it up and putting it down.

I love this book though. It was my only companion during a horrible time in my life, uncle Dosto carried me in those days. I would say it's in my top three. I'd swear on it before I swore on a bible.

>>8605834
It's the best one I've read.
>>8605844
About 3 months.

>>8605844
maybe two weeks?
I read the first hundred or so pages in one week, then the rest on the second one because i was on a trip to france and had a long time to wait

>>8605844
Just under a month. I got through about 30 pages a day, only because of uni semester/study commitments.

>>8605857
I agree, it has had the same effect on me. I keep picking it up and putting it down as well. I sometimes think this is what he wanted. A long novel that one can carry for a long time in their lives.

>>8605864
>>8605868
>>8605871
Damn, you must read pretty fast

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>>8605834
Just got done reading a few chapters. Who knew that a thousand page book about God and morality could be so COMFY. I love all the Russian slice of life anecdotes.

>>8605844
I read it in 10 days.

>>8605884
I had two ~10 hour flights, plus like at least three hours a day to kill

>>8605834
just finished
it was great but i wouldnt say something like that

>>8605844
6 months, I was super busy with work though so didn't have the headspace to tackle the novel for a while.

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>translation

>>8605844
3 months, kept putting it down to finish shorter novels in between sittings.

>>8605844
I took me from sept 2015 to feb. I was reading every chance I got between classes but was able to marathon is after finished winter class.

I'm a pleb, would I like this book? Crime and Punishment was okay, but it definitely dragged on in some sections. Is this more of that? Or is there more character and story and less philosophy? Or just more story in general?

>>8605834
I would say this book left a the most impression on me out of all the works of his I read so far. The scene where Ivan is talking to the Devil is still disturbing. And I want to know how Alexie dies (since the narrator says he death was sad). I was expecting it to happen out of no where at the end but then I later read there was going to be a sequel.

>>8606013
It's far more philosophical, you should try reading something lighter like American Psycho or somethign

>>8606013
It's more character and story with chapters of talking about philosphy among each other.

>>8606013
>Crime and Punishment was okay
dont read another book

>>8606013

90% of it is garbage. The rest you can buy separately as novellas.

>>8606017
>>8606018
I'm not against that sort of thing if it has a strong relation to the characters, and the story itself is solid.

I loved Les Miserables, even though Hugo went on and on about philosophy and history

>>8606025
Then that's exactly what BK contains

>>8606013
>Crime and Punishment.
>Dragged on.

You are most certainly a pleb. Don't even bother reading TBK.

I've read TBK and currently reading Crime and Punishment. If you think it drags on you will HATE TBK.

>>8605834
no

>>8605844
'bout tree fiddy

>>8605844
A week mate i had a deadline for uni

>>8606037

Not that guy, but it definitely does drag in a couple parts, most notably the first 100 pages and near the end. Some extraneous detail could've been trimmed for sure.

>>8605844
A week mate i had a deadline for uni

>>8606326
>first 100 pages
you fucking plebe

>>8605844
A little under a month, book around 900-1000 pages usually take that long for me because uni, girlfriend and going out all steal time after class.

>>8605911
>that file name.

Jimmies were rustled.

>>8605834
is it normal that all books feel insipid after reading anything by dosto

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>>8605834

absolutely not
pic is the greatest

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hmmm, I wonder...

>>8606863
comparing books to don quixote is an asshole move

>>8605844
four days.

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I got to the trial in college and got bored. I dunno if I could stomach going all the way back through unless it really paid off for me though. Time feels more precious now.

>>8605834
I prefer Sex Motorcycle. It's deep and engaging.
http://i.imgur.com/FOTj7wJ.png

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>>8606847
>MFW Alyosha give that speech to Kolya and Ilyusha's friends in the epilogue.

>>8607407
The ending is incredible. Go back and read it, pleb.

It does drag on sometimes, but once you finish it it definitely leaves a lasting impression on you.

>>8605834
No but it's up there among the all time greats.

>>8606847
Also this. Avsey's translation is incredible. I have his translation of the Idiot as well. I need a break from Dosto for a bit though after reading the Karamazov Brothers and bunch of his shorter stuff.

It is very good but not the best. Also little long. Dosto likes to ramble from time to time but that's fine bc I think his style and humor are interesting. Imo books that qualify as "the best" are shorter, more focused, and I'm always impressed by the ability to deliver powerful ideas succinctly.

However, I think that at the time it was written, given the mindset of people then, it may have qualified as the best.

>>8605844
who else /bingeread200pagesinadaythennotpickitupforamonth/?

>>8605834
>I've just finished reading a novel that is held in high esteem and now feel that I need to validate my intellectualism by proclaiming my choice in literature as superior
Whew...

>>8605834
I read 2/3rds of it during a spring break, though I took a damn long time with the other third

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>>8605834
war and
war and
war and fuckin peace

>>8605834

Started last Wednesday and I'm roughly 200 pages from the end.

So I'd say about a week.

Oh god I thought I was generally a slow reader because it took me 2 days (around 8-9 hours each day) to read this. Do you guys intentionally read incredibly slow or what?

Nah, It's a shit book. Super long and boring. Basically a good book if you want to be a pretentious dick

>>8608514

>reading this novel, let alone any lengthy novel, in 2 days

No offense, anon, but why are you in such a hurry to read through things

>>8608525

>Dostoevsky's prose is incredibly simple by modern standards
>pretentious

b8ed me m8

>>8605844
8 hours.

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No sorry

>>8605834
How is Dostoyevsky so good? I read crime and punishment when I was like 14 and was instantly in love with it. I didn't even had any prior input or knew about him. Just found the book in my Grandfathers study and read it. Even then I knew that there was something extraordinary about it and unlike with many other books I've read at the time, the story stayed "actively" in my head for a long time, made me think about different events and turns and Raskolnikovs actions. which was new for me because up to this point, I just enjoyed my books and didn't think much about what happened in them at all.

>>8605834
Yea, pretty much.
>>8607498
I've done that with Infinite Jest, but not with this book because I actually really enjoyed TBK.

>>8608633
I don't know how Dost is so good, but damn those Russians were geniuses. Funny, smart, deep. Those old novels have it all.

>gave the book to my friend
>didn't even get up to the murder
>"It's boring"
>"I had to keep reading parts over and over, I didn't understand"

How?

>>8608742
Does your friend read a lot? Sounds like he was forcing himself to read it and not giving it much attention.

>>8608753
No, he doesn't, I gave it to him because he wanted to start reading, it seemed his style, and Dostoevsky didn't have difficult language for me.

>>8608742
To be honest The Great Inquisitor was pretty boring for me, but only that part. The rest of the books is amazing. The first books are funny as shit and the rest is easy reading.

I dont understand people that cant finish this book.

>>8606329
A week mate i have a deadline for uni

>>8607440
That really hits me especially since it was the first time I cried to a book

The Russians are so utterly mediocre compared to a good writer from America, England, or France. They're about on par with everybody else.

>>8609137

lol

>>8609137
>America
>good writers
lol

>>8609144
Can you name a single poet who has influenced poetry more than Walt Whitman since Homer?

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>>8609155

That's a tough one

>>8609162
Tell me this, friend, what did Shakespeare do that was so innovative with his verse? He didn't invent the sonnet, that's for sure. On the other hand, besides the majority of poetry published today which is being published in free verse, how many lyrical free verse songs do you hear in top 40 radio songs?

>>8609183

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_influence

>>8609186
I'm talking about poetry, my dear. No one is disputing that he is the greatest writer of all time. However, no one would argue that he is more important than Cervantes has been for the novel in terms of form, just as an example. Shakespeare was primarily a playwright and influenced people more in terms of psychology than in terms of poetic form.

>>8605844
I finished it in a week, but I skipped Zossima's long ass story and I stopped reading after smerdyakov committed suicide.

>>8609259
You didn't finish it then...

Zosima's story was one of the best parts of the book and the epilogue was incredible.

I fucking hate plebs like you. That doesn't count.

>>8609269
>butthurt because of the way somebody read a book

>>8609269
I remember I really liked his story but it's been a year since I read that part. Is that where he eplains he was a soldier who liked this one girl but gave up on her? and dueled his rival in love? Then in his later life, a guy tells him how he killed a woman he loved but stole her things to make it look like a robbery? That whole story was crazy. Then the guy returned and later told Zossima he was actually planning on killing him too.

>>8608537
Not in a hurry, just liked it a lot, so I just kept reading.
But even if I read for 2 hours a day, I'd read it in a week, which is a lot faster than most people who answered here. I wasn't criticizing, just found it strange.

>>8605844
3 years, still working on it

>>8605834
>>8606847

what is the best version to read?

>>8608122
I liked Anna Karenina a bit better.

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>>8605834
I read Notes and C&P recently, how does this compare?

>>8611144
Can someone explain to me how to "get interested" in a book like Anna Karenina? I'm entry level /lit/, so when I read a description like
>"Anna Karenina recounts St. Petersburg aristocrat Anna Karenina's life story at the backdrop of the late-19th-century feudal Russian society"
I have no idea what I'm getting. Like C&P, guy commits a murder and there's a whole moral thing. Old Man and the Sea, guy wants to catch a fish. Don Quixote, guy wants to become a chivalrous knight. I have a general idea of the themes so I can get interested, but not so much with Anna Karenina. I know it's a good book because of its reputation and I'll probably read it at some point, but if I didn't know I'd never pick it up by interest alone.

>>8611364
It's how Tolstoy wanted to present history. Put his characters in a certain backdrop to give life to it. He was very much against the 'great man' theory of history, instead wishing to present it as mass movements of people according to certain laws

>>8605834
This was the only book that scared me. Gave me nightmares. WTF

>>8611084

see
>>8606847
>>8607477

>>8605844
Six days, I could hardly put the book down.