Lael’s Comments (group member since Mar 19, 2013)

Lael’s comments from the Read Across The Seas group.

What do you think the main theme/ themes of this book are? How does this relate to Nietzsche's ubermensch? Did Doestoyevsky know of Nietzsche? Did they ever meet?

I just got to the point where Marmeladov is mentioned again. And yes FD knew what he was doing. :-)

I am appreciating this duality in FD's characters as well. Probably because I can relate so well. I am constantly having a different conversation in my head while in the presence of someone else.
I could tell that FD's personal life must have influenced his descriptions of utter poverty and desperation. I will look up FD's biography.

"She was a particularly argumentative and irresponsible German."
"I have once before told that you to call me Amalia Ludwigovna may not dare; I am Amalia Ivanovna."
"You are not Amalia Ivanovna, you are Amalia Ludwigovna..." (Page 174)

Why does FD talk so derogatorily about Germans? And what is this difference between Ivanovna and Ludwigovna?

"Now if the whole room had been filled, not with police officers, but with those nearest and dearest to him, he would not have found one human word for them, so empty was his heart. A gloomy sensation of agonizing, eternal solitude and remoteness took conscious form in his soul." - page 103
I love how Dostoevsky can describe this feeling so perfectly. I have felt this way before - just a complete disinterest in other people and an overwhelming hopelessness caused by emotional strain. I wonder what FD's personal life was like to cause him to be able to pinpoint these emotions. I think most of his novels have this gloominess about them, right?

As of this moment I am on part 2 of Crime and Punishment, page 110. I am unclear as to the whole purpose of Raskolnikov meeting Marmeladov at the bar and hearing Marmeladov's sob story in chapter 2 of Part 1. I am assuming this is something that resurfaces again later in the novel? I want to know, but I don't want any major plot points spoiled for me. I guess I want reassurance that Dostoevsky knows what he is doing here. Also why is Marmeladov's wife called Katerina Ivanovna? Is Ivanovna a common term in referencing women?

I have heard many people complain about Russian novels being hard to read. I know that one reason for this is the sheer length as many of them can be 600 + pages. But why else do you think they have this reputation?