The Fyodor Dostoyevsky Group discussion

Keep Calm and Say Hello to everyone.

Thank you, Samadrita for forming this group. Looking forward to an interesting year of reading Dostoyevsky.

Hello to you too Garima! And thanks to Dolors, Ema and yourself for helping me arrive at the decision of making this group.
There seemed to be no significant group devoted to Dostoyevsky on GR so I thought why not make one? After we are all done with TBK and wish to move on to his other works we can always come back here and make new threads.

Hello all!
Thanks for inviting me to the group. This looks great! Very excited. Though I have already read TBK a couple of years ago, I am still thrilled to know that I would be able to learn about your views on it. As some of you might know about my love for Dostoevsky himself, TBK is definitely one of my favorite works of his. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did. Looking forward to the discussions. :)
Warning: Could be life-changing!

thank you for the invite, I would love to do a re-read (it will be my first in English, I read it originally in a Romanian translation.
Speaking of which, is anybody familair with the best translations (Pevear?)

Deepthi wrote: "Hello all!
Thanks for inviting me to the group. This looks great! Very excited. Though I have already read TBK a couple of years ago, I am still thrilled to know that I would be able to learn about..."

It is. 'The Grand Inquisitor' chapter was unforgettable and tremendously thought-provoking. Do pitch in with your comments every now and then, Deepthi. We would love to hear from the sworn Dostoyevsky fan. :)

Welcome Deepthi and Algernon. Glad you both joined the group. We're yet to decide about the preferred translation though P&V is favored by all especially for TBK so most probably we'll go for that only.

Algernon wrote: "thank you for the invite, I would love to do a re-read (it will be my first in English, I read it originally in a Romanian translation.
Speaking of which, is anybody familair with the best translat..."

Yes the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky one is the best translation available. I guess we can trust them since they won an award for translating TBK and Anna Karenina. It is so good that it doesn't even read like a translated work.

Hi Samadrita, Garima and everyone else! Thanks so much for the invite to this group. ..and as it is, I've been planning with a few other friends to read Dostoevsky this year, so perfect timing...
Ah, Dolors, Ema and Declan it was, so I see they were in on your decision-- perfect. Perfect, so we can all do it together. Thanks so much for arranging this.

Absolutely ecstatic to be part of this great group of people and above all the one devoted to 'Dostoevsky'... Thank you so much, Garima and Samadrita for this initiative and looking forward to the wonderful joys in store :)

Thank you for the invitation, Samadrita and Garima. It is a wonderful idea.

I will join initially as a lurker, though. I have read Karamazov, as well as the bio Dostoievski not too long ago.

I am also fully "Booked" for at least the first half of the year. I am in the Dante & Bocaccio and in the WW1 Groups already. I also have Dutch history and art on the plate..... Not to mention Faust...

But may be in a later read I will be able to join actively.

A warm welcome to all of you, Trav, Cheryl, Tej and Kalliope. This group just got better with the members like you. We're still in the initial stages of forming threads and deciding upon the reading schedule but will try to update soon. Meanwhile, feel free to pour in any kind of suggestions. :)

Garima wrote: "A warm welcome to all of you, Trav, Cheryl, Tej and Kalliope. This group just got better with the members like you. We're still in the initial stages of forming threads and deciding upon the readin..."

I suggest a Thread on translations. That is a big issue with Russian writers. I have a good article to post.

WW1 Groups? Kall, I sent you a request to join that. I actually started a similar History group with Kris and others, but we got too bogged down in all the other stuff that's been going on, and it never got off the ground, so we have not invited members yet.

It might clash with your group in somce respects, so I'd rather join your group then since it's already established, and we can use our other group for 'other' history rather.

Kalliope wrote: "Garima wrote: "A warm welcome to all of you, Trav, Cheryl, Tej and Kalliope. This group just got better with the members like you. We're still in the initial stages of forming threads and deciding ..."

Well, post away, Kalliope. That's certainly an important issue.

Thanks for the invite, Garima :) Though I am not good with discussions in groups, I'll try to contribute my best and look forward to members' thoughts on the writer and his writing :)

Good to have you on board, Rakhi. I can safely say the same about myself too but here's to the practice in solidarity ;) Welcome!

Thanks for the invite. Having just read Crime and Punishment, I look forward to The Brothers Kamarazov blowing me away this year!

Hello Samadrita, Garima and the group,
Thanks for inviting me. Dostoyevsky is among my favorite writers. I have already read his novels in original. He wasn’t on my must reading list for this year, however I thought of re-reading some of his novels (and maybe in English as well).
Looking forward to interesting discussions, and I hope I will be able to contribute actively.

Hurrah! Great to see so many people joining.

@Kall:-Thank you for helping out amateur moderators like ourselves. So good to see you!

@Sergei:-We are really glad to have earnest Dostoyevsky devotees like yourself and hope we can all get interesting insights into Dostoyevsky's works through your posts. Thank you so much for joining.

thank you for the invitation Samadrita!Dostoyevsky has always been my favourite author, so i'm glad to be a part of this group!looking forward to the discussions! happy reading everyone!

Hello everyone!

Nice to join the group. I am currently reading TBK and I am loving it. This particular book really makes you think and its very philosophical with conflicts of religious faith and doubt. I'm glad I decided to pick this one up :)

Welcome Sophie and Daisy. Glad you both joined the group. It will be sometime before a group read for TBK will actually start so it's exciting to have among us experienced readers who have read or reading Dostoyevsky's works.

Garima wrote: "Welcome Sophie and Daisy. Glad you both joined the group. It will be sometime before a group read for TBK will actually start so it's exciting to have among us experienced readers who have read or ..."

Thank you kindly, Garima, for the warm welcome :)

Thanks much for the invite - I look forward to discussing FD with all of you!

Hi all, I'm excited to be part of this group and look forward to diving in...I'll eagerly await the reading schedule.. Cheers!

Here am I!! so, where do we start digging the Dostoyevskian treasure:)

Thanks for the invite, Samadrita! I bought a copy of TBK last year and I'm excited to begin reading it and discussing it with everyone:)

Many thanks Dolors for inviting me to join this group. I look forward very much to being part of these discussions and to reading everybody's contributions.

Hello all. Thank you for the invite. My last reading of TBK did not go well at all, so here's hoping a group read improves upon the past.

Hi all, so glad to be part of this group.
I loved Notes from the Underground and I am in awe of Dostoevski. Still a newbie to group discussions so I look forward to them.

Brian, Praj, Kristen, Rowena, Declan, Aubrey, Nikhilesh - Thank you all for joining. A warm welcome to all of you. I understand not all of you want to participate in the group reading but you can always join the discussions whenever you want to. :)

Hmm, yet another Group Lounge! Thank heavens I managed to sway Jason Morais from calling his Don Quixote chat room Group Lounge as well. If not, we would have had about 5 Group Lounges to try and discern from one another on our feeds.

Personally I think a name like Salon, or solarium, or unless that's already been taken, which it might be, but something like that, like the gazebo or the parlor, would have been nice to distinguish one group's lounge from all the other lounges... :P

Traveller wrote: "Hmm, yet another Group Lounge! Thank heavens I managed to sway Jason Morais from calling his Don Quixote chat room Group Lounge as well. If not, we would have had about 5 Group Lounges to try and..."

Ha! You won't find this lounge roaming on your feed, Trav so don't worry. ;)

LOL, it's just appeared on my feed underneath the Divine Comedy and Decameron Group Lounge thread. I just clicked on both in different tabs... :P

These two groups' group lounges keep doing that to me. Thank heavens the Proust group lounge has become less active than it used to be... But I think the WW1 group also called their salon a lounge.

(Although seeing who posted tends to help distinguish which lounge it is...)

Ok Trav has a point. How about we rename this 'Say Anything' or 'Anything Goes'? Because in other forums, I have seen sections with names like the ones I mentioned where discussions on any subject is permitted.

Or could it be Group Drawing Room?

Sergei wrote: "Or could it be Group Drawing Room?"

That sounds like a good one that I've not seen before! (And it goes nicely with the period in which the author lived).

Traveller wrote: "Sergei wrote: "Or could it be Group Drawing Room?"

That sounds like a good one that I've not seen before! (And it goes nicely with the period in which the author lived)."

Yes! If name is to be changed, then anything related to author's period would be nice. Apart from Drawing room, something related to underground, hehe.

Hi everyone. Thanks Kalliope for sending me an invite! *congratulates self on excellent whining skills* I read Crime & Punishment last year and was surprised to enjoy it so much. I'm looking forward to reading TBK with you all. :)

HaHa, BP.

Good to see you here too.

Garima wrote: "Apart from Drawing room, something related to underground, hehe. "

The Basement, hahaha. >:)

Just being silly now. But you know what would also be nice? The Den. Perhaps too informal, though.

I'm almost surprised this group didn't already exist. I do look forward to discussing some F.D. and I hope to be able to gain some more insight out of a re-read of The Brothers Karamazov

Welcome Ken and Shruti. Glad you both joined. And Ken, it's rather surprising for all of us so looking forward to a fruitful discussions with you all.

Traveller wrote: "Garima wrote: "Apart from Drawing room, something related to underground, hehe. "

The Basement, hahaha. >:)

Just being silly now. But you know what would also be nice? The Den. Perhaps too in..."

The Den sounds great to me, Trav.

...and then, of course, if one wanted to, one could put up a poll with all those names and let The People decide. 0(:-)

I love this current logo of the group. Let's keep it :-)

Sergei wrote: "I love this current logo of the group. Let's keep it :-)"

Thanks, Sergie. :)

Traveller wrote: "...and then, of course, if one wanted to, one could put up a poll with all those names and let The People decide. 0(:-)"

Will do that.

That would be nice, Garima! I agree with Sergei that the current masthead and logo pic of the group is very nice.

I was wondering what kind of extended reading schedule you guys were envisaging here. I want to do at least Crime and Punishment and The Idiot, but my year is very full, so I was hoping you're planning give a bit of time inbetween?

Traveller wrote: "That would be nice, Garima! I agree with Sergei that the current masthead and logo pic of the group is very nice.

I was wondering what kind of extended reading schedule you guys were envisaging h..."

Samadrita will hopefully post the detailed reading schedule today, Trav. The reading of TBK will go for at least 2 months starting Jan 31. We'll keep it to TBK for the time being and decide upon other books later on after discussing with you guys.

Hi All,

Thank you Garima for the invite. I was looking forward to reading TBK this year and the forming of this group is icing on the cake.

Though I was in half a mind to first read Crime and Punishment, but now I am confused as to which of these books to first read.