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I loved crime and punishment

I hear there is one book that’s *the* best

Can’t remember if it’s Brothers Karamazov or the idiot.

The Brothers Karamazov is great! Interesting characters, interesting plots. I recommend it.

I caution you, however, to stay away from The Possessed (sometimes translated as Demons).

My feelings on the book seem to have changed a bit in that the longer it's been since I read it the more I hate it. But the first thing I thought of when I saw your post was "oh no, I must warn her not to read that horrible book!!!!".

Here is my initial review of The Possessed on Goodreads and then a followup review a few years later:

Original Review 8/10/10

To be honest I'm a bit unsure of how to rate this book. Parts of the story (and it was 700 pages) were plodding, boring, and incredibly tedious to get through. Other parts were suspenseful, fascinating, and extremely difficult to put down.

At times I was a few minutes away from putting the book down and not picking it up again..... But I always managed to keep reading it and am glad to have finished it.

Needless to say though, the book could have used an editor.

Edit - 6/1/13 - I just happened to be thinking of this book today. I was actually thinking of the worst books I've ever read and this one came to mind. I was incredibly surprised to see that I gave it a three star review as my only recollection of it is that it was so horribly long and boring. I have only the vaguest recollection of the plot and couldn't even remember if I'd finished the book. Interesting how all of my positive thoughts about the book have vanished. I wish I'd written a more detailed review of what they were!

[This message edited by outofsorts at 9:27 PM, October 7th (Wednesday)]

The Brothers Karamazov hands down. Amazing.

I would say The Idiot!

I got really tired of reading infidelity and self-help books, so I read War and Peace by Tolstoy and Crime and Punishment back-to-back as a strange act of rebellion. Crime and Punishment is the only Dostoevsky book I have ever read, and I found it compelling. I thought for its time it was an insightful view into the mind of a sociopath. I should read more of his stuff, but really enjoyed that book.

Losferwords- I really liked crime and punishment!

My sister said the idiot was her favorite but Brothers Karamazov was easier because there were less people.

Um.... maybe I should get both! There’s a two for one sale I saw, think I’ll get them!

For me - c and p the idiot and then the brothers in that order

I don't see how anyone can associate 'favorite' with 'Dosto.'

Great writer, but I associate 'favorite book' with warm, happy feelings about having read it. I'm glad I read what I read, but ... the pain Dosto writes about pushes warm, happy feelings way into the background....

[This message edited by sisoon at 12:48 PM, November 3rd (Tuesday)]

I wrote my master's thesis partly on Crime and Punishment, at the time (about 14 years ago) I listened to the audio version and just fell in love hearing the names.

I've had a copy of Brothers Karamozov in the "to read" pile for years, now I'm going to add The Idiot and hopefully get through them both sometime in the next 10 years.

All of them!!! I love 19th century Russian literature 😍 Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Krylov And yes, I totally have this crazy idea that someday I will learn to read Russian and they would be even better then

C&P but mainly because I read it when I was studying in St Petersburg. This was back in the mid 90s and there was a McDonalds in Haymaket which features prominently in the book (Haymarket, not McDs!). We, as students, spent a lot of time in that McDs. It was a treat for us as the local food was not the best at the time.

My favourite book of all time is Anna Karenina. The opening line, in my opinion, is the best opening line ever in literature. Even better in the original Russian. Think it’s time for another re-read.

[This message edited by Outoflove2020 at 10:46 PM, December 29th, 2020 (Tuesday)]

C&P but mainly because I read it when I was studying in St Petersburg. This was back in the mid 90s and there was a McDonalds in Haymaket which features prominently in the book (Haymarket, not McDs!). We, as students, spent a lot of time in that McDs. It was a treat for us as the local food was not the best at the time.

My favourite book of all time is Anna Karenina. The opening line, in my opinion, is the best opening line ever in literature. Even better in the original Russian. Think it’s time for another re-read.

OOL, I love this! And I agree, a great opening line in Anna Karenina - I find it very helpful.

I read, and adored the Idiot as a young girl. I loved the concept of the ‘simple’ but pure of heart.

As an adult I read White Nights, one of his shorter books, and thoroughly enjoyed that too. It’s a book about love, the all-consuming and hopeless nature of it. It is also an ode to St. Petersburg, which I had since the fortune of visiting.

Philistine here. I had to read all those books in college for world literature. I remember being so depressed the whole time I was reading all of them. I never did get to the end of war and peace. I was too exhausted. There’s so much misery in the world that if I can’t find a book that makes me feel good I do not want to read it. I admire people who dig into these books but I feel about them(the books) as I do about Kafka, as I do about The Scream. What’s the point?

Cool, now I have a bunch of new public domain books to add to my list things to read.