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| Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky |
At the start of 2021, I've set out to read the entire works of my favorite author, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. I should've began with this endeavor once the year started but I kept on delaying it, up until now that the world is celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth.
Born in Moscow, Russia on November 11, 1821, Dostoevsky is considered as one of the world's literary greats. And with his bicentennial, the timing is perfect for me to go through his entire bibliography, read about his life, and write in here about my thoughts and the impact his works have had on me.
The first Dostoevsky work that I ever read was Crime and Punishment way back in the early 1990s through the Constance Garnett translation published by Bantam Classics that had the iconic Vasily Perov portrait of Dostoevsky on the cover. Some thought that this was way too advanced for me to read but my defiant nature and rebellious streak was already brewing back then and other people's thoughts regarding my reading preferences was the least of my concern.
After finishing Crime and Punishment, I stocked up on his works that were available at the time which were the Bantam Classics editions of Notes from Underground, Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. I wondered then why Demons/Devils/The Possessed was not available even though it is considered as one his four great novels.
It was only upon the turn of the century when bookstores in here began to be more sophisticated that I started to see not just Demons and his other short story collections but also other translations and editions of his major works apart from the usual Bantam/Signet Classics releases.
Since then, I've had my hand on various English translations of Dostoevsky's major works. I even have copies of them in the original Russian although they serve no purpose other than to look pretty on the shelf giving me the satisfaction that I have them in my collection. It would thrilling if I could get my hands on a Filipino translation but my search has been unfruitful so far.
So to kick off this Dostoevsky Challenge, I am going back to where it all began for me, the Constance Garnett translation of Crime and Punishment released by Bantam Classics. The plan is for me to post regular, hopefully weekly, updates in this blog regarding my progress with whichever Dostoevsky work that I am reading at the moment. I will also cover other related stuff like comicbook/manga and movie adaptations of his works.
This particular Bantam Classics edition features an introduction by Joseph Frank a noted biographer and scholar of Dostoevsky. I remember getting all confused when I first attempted to read his introduction since it referenced key parts of the novel. I had yet to read the book in its entirety so I couldn't make any sense of what he wrote. But I did go back to rereading the introduction once I managed to finish the novel. And it became instrumental in my later appreciation of introductions, forewords, afterwords, literary essays that are included in books that can truly enrich the reading experience beyond the main text.
Speaking of Joseph Frank, I will read simultaneously with Crime and Punishment his one volume biography Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time so that I can have a deeper understanding and greater appreciation of Dostoevsky and his works.
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Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
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