In my province Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" was required reading in Grade 12. We got to read it in the depths of a Canadian winter, in January when you start to doubt the existence of warm weather or the sun. I have no idea why this was considered a good idea - surely reading Dostoevsky is difficult and depressing enough without doing it during the high season for suicide. I've never been able to bring myself to read another one of his works.
However, if you have ambitions to read yet more Russian novelists, I recommend Tolstoy. The story of War and Peace and Anna Karenina are actually half the length of the book because Tolstoy spends every other chapter expounding his philosophy, and if all you want to do is read a story, you can skip those chapters with impunity.
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Date: 2011-03-07 05:14 am (UTC)However, if you have ambitions to read yet more Russian novelists, I recommend Tolstoy. The story of War and Peace and Anna Karenina are actually half the length of the book because Tolstoy spends every other chapter expounding his philosophy, and if all you want to do is read a story, you can skip those chapters with impunity.