How to read Dostoevsky: starting points and reading order

Dostoevsky is not a difficult writer to read. He is an intense writer -- one who works at full psychological and moral pressure on almost every page -- and that intensity requires a different kind of preparation than most novelists. The practical question is where to start and in what order to proceed.

Fyodor Dostoevsky published his major novels between 1846 and 1880. The five that matter most are Poor Folk, Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons (also translated as The Possessed), and The Brothers Karamazov. Each is very different in scope and mood, and the order in which you read them significantly affects the experience of each.

Where should you start?#

Start with Crime and Punishment unless you have a specific reason to start elsewhere. Crime and Punishment has the clearest narrative drive of any of the major novels -- a young man commits a murder and then spends the rest of the novel being psychologically destroyed by what he has done. It reads quickly for Dostoevsky (quickly being relative: it is still 550 pages). The central question -- why does Raskolnikov confess? -- is one of the most gripping psychological puzzles in all of fiction. For the full answer, why Raskolnikov confesses in Crime and Punishment covers the argument in detail.

If you want something shorter first: Notes from Underground (1864) is a novella of roughly 130 pages. It is the first work in which Dostoevsky's mature voice appears fully formed -- the Underground Man's hyper-articulate self-contradiction and resentment of the world anticipates every subsequent major character. Many readers find it more accessible than the longer novels precisely because its scope is contained. The Underground Man is one of literature's great unreliable narrators.

What order after Crime and Punishment?#

Two approaches:

Chronological: Crime and Punishment (1866) -- The Idiot (1869) -- Demons (1872) -- The Brothers Karamazov (1880). This follows Dostoevsky's intellectual development and shows how his concerns evolved over fifteen years.

Thematic: Crime and Punishment (guilt and redemption) -- Notes from Underground (consciousness and resentment) -- The Brothers Karamazov (faith, doubt, morality). This tracks the three most argued-over questions in Dostoevsky scholarship.

Most readers find The Idiot the hardest of the major novels -- Prince Myshkin's saintly epileptic is the most unusual protagonist Dostoevsky created and requires significant tolerance for narrative indirection. Leave it until you are committed to the project.

Which translation should you read?#

The Pevear and Volokhonsky translations are the current standard for all major Dostoevsky novels. They are close to the Russian and capture the rhythm and texture of Dostoevsky's prose better than any previous English translation. The Constance Garnett translations (early 20th century) are smoother reading in English but domesticate the strangeness of Dostoevsky's prose.

For a first reader: Pevear and Volokhonsky, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux or Vintage. The quality is consistent across all five major novels.

What makes Dostoevsky hard and how do you handle it?#

The most common difficulty is the Russian names (same issue as Tolstoy -- see how to read War and Peace for the practical solution: a character list in the first 50 pages). The second difficulty is the intensity of philosophical dialogue. Characters in Dostoevsky argue at length about God, free will, morality, and history. These arguments are the substance of the novels, not interruptions to the plot. Treat them as you would dramatic dialogue: follow the logic, notice who changes position, and consider which character you find most compelling even if you disagree with them.

The third difficulty is the emotional register. Dostoevsky does not modulate. Characters are in crisis constantly. Reading him for extended periods without breaks is exhausting in a way that Tolstoy, who gives you breathing room, is not. An hour of Dostoevsky per session is usually enough.

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Further reading#

For the life of the man and the personal extremity that produced these novels, who Fyodor Dostoevsky was and why he nearly faced a firing squad is the essential biographical companion.

For the specific question of The Brothers Karamazov and how long it takes to read, how long does it take to read The Brothers Karamazov covers the practical approach.

Crime and Punishment is free on Foxing.

Sources#

• Joseph Frank, Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849, Princeton University Press, 1976 (first of five volumes)
• Gary Saul Morson, The Long and Short of It: From Aphorism to Novel, Stanford University Press, 2012
• Richard Pevear, translators' notes, various Dostoevsky editions, Farrar, Straus and Giroux