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What Members Thought
I sure do wish I could give this a 4.5.
I have greatly increased my forays into Russian literature in the past year and a half. I'm becoming so familiar with the didactic undertones of Russian work that I have to conclude that this is a 4.5 and not a 5 for me. It didn't do anything wrong, surely--The Idiot made me think, and it made me think often and on a number of levels. I enjoyed it a lot and finished it pretty quickly, considering its length. I would recommend it to others; I would read it a ...more
I have greatly increased my forays into Russian literature in the past year and a half. I'm becoming so familiar with the didactic undertones of Russian work that I have to conclude that this is a 4.5 and not a 5 for me. It didn't do anything wrong, surely--The Idiot made me think, and it made me think often and on a number of levels. I enjoyed it a lot and finished it pretty quickly, considering its length. I would recommend it to others; I would read it a ...more
I often feel guilty when I give less than four stars to a book that is considered to be a literary masterpiece. However, I think I’ll leave this at three stars, partly because Dostoyevsky himself was dissatisfied with it. I could tell what he was aiming for, but I thought it fell short of the mark. There are too many characters and too many of the major events take place “offscreen”, as it were. Jane Austen is guilty of that sort of thing from time to time, too, but at least she makes it funny.
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Nov 04, 2009
E.S.
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Dec 23, 2009
Electricfancy
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Brandy
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Chelsea
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Ceci
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Mar 30, 2014
Katt Hansen
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Cait
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Jan 05, 2018
Regina
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May 17, 2019
Weng
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May 30, 2019
Michelle
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Theresa Wright
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Mar 26, 2020
ilovebakedgoods (Teresa)
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Nov 12, 2020
Donna
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