Classics for Beginners discussion

This includes books 7-9.

Book 7. I feel so completely inappropriate - I'm curious to know if anyone else had a similar reaction. When I found out what the "cliffhanger" at the end of book six was all about, I couldn't stop giggling about it. It's not funny. It's not. But, something in the translation makes me laugh. Please, someone, spare me the guilt and tell me you snickered too?

Book 8 was exciting! That was my favorite chapter so far!

Book 9: The legal process in Russia is absolutely fascinating to me! The idea of questioning the witnesses in the presence of the suspect, getting the suspect's agreement on the facts that should be documented, the strip search right there at the scene of apprehension... it's all just so interesting to me right now. And Dmitri - it's like the apple didn't fall from the tree. He's told so many lies that it seems like even he can't remember what was fact and what was falsehood.

Cliffhanger was a poor description. It was when "something" happened, and it was important, and etc. And then we found out in the following chapter that the big thing - the utterly important thing that everyone paid attention to - was that the priest was decomposing and smelled bad. LOL!

Joy wrote: "In book 8 (I'm only on chapter 5) do we know where Dmitri got the money? It seems unlikely that a servant would have had thousands of rubles on his person, doesn't it?"

Where, oh where, did Dmitri get the money? That becomes a crucial point later in the novel.

I am way behind with my reading, just starting with this book now. Last year I red Garcia, so I can concentrate on Dostojevski. Hope I like it!

Hope you enjoy it too, Corine!

I felt the same way. The last half of the novel was much more interesting to me than the first half.