“A substantial contribution both to Dostoevsky scholarship and to scholarship on the novel. . . . The first book in quite a while to address itself to all of Dostoevsky’s opus, certainly a bold move that only someone of Terras’s stature could pull off.”—Gary Rosenshield, University of Madison–Wisconsin
Admirers have praised Fedor Dostoevsky as the Russian Shakespeare, while his critics have slighted his novels as merely cheap amusements. In this stimulating critical introduction to Dostoevsky’s fiction, literary scholar Victor Terras asks readers to draw their own conclusions about the nineteenth-century Russian writer. Discussing psychological, political, mythical, and philosophical approaches, Terras deftly guides readers through the range of diverse and even contradictory interpretations of Dostoevsky's rich novels.
Moving through the novelist's career, Terras presents a general analysis of the novel at issue, each chapter focusing on a particular aspect of Dostoevsky's art. He probes the form and style of Crime and Punishment, and explores the ambiguity of The Brothers Karamazov. Terras emphasizes the "markedness," of Dostoevsky's novels, their wealth of literary devices such as irony, literary allusions, scenic effects, puns, and witticisms.
Terras conveys the vital contradictions and ambiguities of the novels. In this informative, engaging literary study, Terras brings Dostoevsky and his art to life.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
“I know of no other book that approaches the art of Dostoevsky in the manner Terras does. And few if any that bring the artistic world of Dostoevsky in such a fine focus.”—Robert Louis Jackson, Yale University
About the Author
Victor Terras is Henry L. Goddard University Professor of Slavic Languages and Comparative Literature emeritus at Brown University. He is the author of several books, most recently Mayakovsky; The Idiot: An Interpretation; and A History of Russian Literature. A Karamazov Companion is also published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Terras has translated three volumes of Dostoevsky’s writing and edited seven volumes of Slavic scholarly texts.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but it left a bit to be desired,
This review is from: Reading Dostoevsky (Paperback)
Terras' Reading Dostoevsky consists of seven essays dealing with Dostoevsky's work and an appendix about Dostoevsky in English translation. The first essay is about Dostoevsky's work prior to his 1849 arrest for sedition; this is followed by a very strong essay on psychology in Dostoevsky's work which pays particular (but by no means exclusive) attention to his work in the early-to-mid 1860s, and by one essay each on Dostoevsky's five long novels (Crime and Punishment, The Possessed/Demons/Devils, The Idiot, A Raw Youth/The Adolescent/An Accidental Family, and The Brothers Karamazov) written between 1866 and 1880. All of the essays are fairly well-written and are accessible to anyone who has casually read the long novels (on the other hand, I suppose that if you haven't read the long novels, with the possible exception of A Raw Youth, you'll probably be somewhat lost whenever something you haven't read comes up). Terras refrains from putting forth any especially daring theses, instead taking us through each work in a thorugh but very concise fashion and pointing out a number of subtleties that would tend to escape the casual reader. Each of the essays definitely enriched my understanding of Dostoevsky. However, I have to admit I expected a bit more than what Terras offered. Not including the appendix, bibliography, and index, the book only comes to about 140 pages, which is hardly enough to do justice to Dostoevsky; Terras uses each of those pages well, but when I came to the end I felt like there should still be more. Perhaps the editorial reviews overpraise the book somewhat--in particular, contrary to some of the reviews, Reading Dostoevsky neglects some of Dostoevsky's more noted works: Notes From Underground gets only a couple of pages' worth of attention, and I'm not sure The Gambler is even mentioned. That said, I definitely enjoyed Terras' book, and I certainly came away from it with a deeper understanding of Dostoevsky's long novels.
3 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent "new" criticism,
By NY Times gal "Wendy" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Reading Dostoevsky (Paperback)
Very nicely done by Terras once again. A fresh look at most of Dostoevsky's material.
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