I've been itching to read everyone's posts—but first, my own for Book I. Sorry for the delays. I thought of writing about the mysterious narrator till I saw Joe had titled his post "The Narrator." Let me just say here that this use of first person is a very strange choice, considering we (so far) know almost nothing about him. Hopefully the reason will become clear soon. Anyway this didn't trouble me too much; the characters are far too interesting!
Dostoevsky must have been teasing when he wrote, "one is not bound by anything—the book can be abandoned at the second page of the first tale, never to be opened again"—he knows well enough how good he is! Drop an atheist, a monk-in-training, a soldier, and their wicked father into the same room and see if anyone can resist turning to Book II. Who knows how these minds will clash?
Say, isn't this a bit like our blog here? Of course, I'm the godless Ivan; Rick, the saintly Alyosha; JRock, the extraordinary and wondrous Zossima; and Greg, I suppose, is the unnamed lady who threw herself into the river "like Shakespeare's Ophelia," which is the most reasonable explanation for his silence. That leaves Dan as the evil, evil Fyodor Karamazov. We'll have to stretch our imaginations a little...
Anyway, I'm glad to see such a response so far and I hope everyone's enjoying the novel. Lastly, is anyone reading an annotated version? I'm wondering who the Frenchman was who described hell thusly: "J'ai vu l'ombre d'un cocher qui avec l'ombre d'une brosse frottait l'ombre d'une carosse" (I've seen the shadow of a coachman who with the shadow of a brush rubbed the shadow of a carriage) (Chapter IV).
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You know, linking Dan with Fyodor Karamazov is such an obvious move, I'm surprised I didn't think of it myself!
ReplyDeleteI am really glad you are with us now, Matt. I look forward to more of your insight, especially on the literary end (not that any other insights would be unwelcome!), since I am such a novice as a reader. You and Joe have already assisted me by drawing attention to the Narrator. This helps me to pick up on things I would otherwise miss, and hopefully will help me approach literature more maturely.
As for the French quote, I looked online but can't find the answer. Maybe someone else will come up with something.