Similar authors?

[smbaig]

Hi everybody, I was attracted to Dostoevsky's writing by the depth of philosophical and psychological analysis, as well as it's ability to simply tell a good story.

Can anyone recommend authors with the same sort of style or themes?

[underworld men]

Well I can't think of any xeroxes of D. I think that Kafka was in the angst ballpark as was Gogol.

[Canerican]

Is Gogol great? "Dead Souls" is next after "A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich" (Solzhenitsyn)

I can't wait maybe I will read Dead Souls first so far my queue list for reading is:

1) Dead Souls
2) A day in the life...
3) The Brothers Karamazov
4) Beautiful and the damned
5) Something by Twain or T.S, Eliot

[underworld men]

Is Gogol great? "Dead Souls" is next after "A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich" (Solzhenitsyn)

I can't wait maybe I will read Dead Souls first so far my queue list for reading is:

1) Dead Souls
2) A day in the life...
3) The Brothers Karamazov
4) Beautiful and the damned
5) Something by Twain or T.S, Eliot

Yes he's awesome any Gogol is great, but dead souls was never finished. If you are into the really warped you should read Nevsky Prospect or the Overcoat. Everyone is always about the Nose or Dead souls but I like Nevsky and the Overcoat. Also Niki was big D's favorite (other then Homer) so the double and that story about the violin that Dostoevsky never finished are VERY VERY Gogol.

[Canerican]

I heard Gogol completed Dead Souls, but burned most of the third book in a fit. Is this true?

[guelder-rose]

I advise you to read Leonid Andreyev (1871-1919). The intellectual basis of his stories is the works of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Dostoevsky; the essence of the writer's spirits is the tragedy of lonely person having lost faith, who found oneself in the face of Absurdity. I must say it's just a brief and rather perfunctory description.... Anyway, he's one of my favourites.   I think he's similar to Dostoevsky in some senses.
His well-known tales for example are The Red Laugh, The Life of Vasily Fiveisky, Iuda Iskariot, The Abyss, Silence, The Seven That Were Hanged, There Was, Satan's Diary, Gubernator, In Springtime...

[changkob]

"Also Niki was big D's favorite (other then Homer)"

I never knew Dostoevsky was a big fan of Homer. Got any references?

[Canerican]

"Also Niki was big D's favorite (other then Homer)"

I never knew Dostoevsky was a big fan of Homer. Got any references?

Right off the top of my head... there are many references and quotes by him in some of his minor works: Poor Folk, House of the Dead.

I have another question how long does it take you guys to read D's longer novels like C&P, TBK etc.

I am not a slow reader but I spend so much time thinking of what I am reading, the book ends up taking so much longer... I feel that D's philosophy's deserve alot of thought... does this happen to any of you.

PS- I have ten pages left of Poor Folk and can't finnish them because I am running a fever of 102F. I am so frustrated with that..

[underworld men]

"Also Niki was big D's favorite (other then Homer)"

I never knew Dostoevsky was a big fan of Homer. Got any references?

Yes in a letter to his brother Michael Jan 1, 1840, Dostoevsky wrote -

"Now better Pushkin and Byron one might speak of a likeness. But as to Homer and Victor Hugo, I postively believe that you have chosen to misunderstand me! This is what I meant : Homer (a legendary figure, who was perhaps sent to us by God, as Christ was) can only be placed with Christ; by no means with Victor Hugo. Do try, brother, to enter truly into the Iliad ; read it attentively (now confess that you never have read it). Homer, in the Iliad, gave to the ancient world
the same organization in spiritual and earthly matters as the modern world owes to christ."

[underworld men]

And Canerican reign that fever in, leave the wild delirum to your fictional brothers- for their health can tolerate such illness because they are made of paper.

You are of flesh and blood and every "real" constitution has its limits.

[MikeK]

Smbaig, if you're interested in reading a philosopher - not a novelist - similar to Dostoevsky, you can try Kierkegaard.  Their ideas are very similar; just that D gave his ideas the form of fictional stories with plot, characterization, etc., whereas K did not.

As for fictional writers, Camus is very Dostoevskian.  His story "The Fall" seems patterned completely after "Notes From Underground."  His heroes (or anti-heroes), like Mersault from "The Stranger", would get along well with the Underground Man, Raskolnikov, and Ivan Karamazov.  But I would warn you, that their thoughts are not exactly similar.  In fact, I like to think of Camus as an "inverted" Dostoevsky.  Those ideas that D sought to discredit are the very ones that Camus accepted.  But if you're looking for the same depth of "philosophical and psychological analysis and the ability to tell a good story", Camus fits.

[MikeK]

Sorry, I forgot to include in my last post, that if you're curious about Kierkegaard, I'd try "The Sickness Unto Death" first.

[underworld men]

Smbaig, if you're interested in reading a philosopher - not a novelist - similar to Dostoevsky, you can try Kierkegaard.  Their ideas are very similar; just that D gave his ideas the form of fictional stories with plot, characterization, etc., whereas K did not.

As for fictional writers, Camus is very Dostoevskian.  His story "The Fall" seems patterned completely after "Notes From Underground."  His heroes (or anti-heroes), like Mersault from "The Stranger", would get along well with the Underground Man, Raskolnikov, and Ivan Karamazov.  But I would warn you, that their thoughts are not exactly similar.  In fact, I like to think of Camus as an "inverted" Dostoevsky.  Those ideas that D sought to discredit are the very ones that Camus accepted.  But if you're looking for the same depth of "philosophical and psychological analysis and the ability to tell a good story", Camus fits.

I found Mersault to be a shallow psychopath with an almost nonexistent internal dialog??? How does anything that Mersault represent compare like or opposite to the underground man. I found no depth of psychology in Camus at all. I found Camus to be an athiest and a socialist.
Dostoevsky was neither and would have rejected Camus much the same way he did Turgenev for the same reasons.

Camus has no enlightened passages in his text that could hold a candle to Dostoevsky let alone the Grand Inquisitor.

As for ol Soren.. Well he's alright but he's a philosopher and for mysticism Karl Jaspers and Heidigger were way better about addressing existenz and working through it and articulating the big questions and giving some attempt at answering them.

[MikeK]

Camus certainly was an athiest, and I'm pretty sure he was a socialist, as you say.  Those traits came out in his writing, as he portrayed men without God, in an absurd state of affairs.  And let me ask, who portrayed the atheist/socialist mindset better than Dostoevsky?  Just because Dostoevsky would've rejected Camus' beliefs (you're correct there again), that doesn't mean their works weren't similar.  Camus showed the absurdity of life without God, lived in isolation, and so did Dostoevsky.  The only difference is that Camus believed that that WAS man's lot on earth while Dostoevsky tried to show the emptiness and trouble of such a life.  Camus showed the life of the 20th century isolated man without God "from within", while Dostoevsky showed what 20th century isolated man without God would be "from without".  One might call Dostoevsky a prophet not only for seeing 20th century totalitarianism, but also for seeing the 20th century individual; isolated, alone, unbelieving, in a word...Camus.  

As far as Camus having no depth of psychology, I think that's wrong.  Everything he says about man is right...if you accept his first principles (namely that God doesn't exist).  Just because you, I, and Dostoevsky don't agree with that principle doesn't mean Camus failed to show the psychological depths of man without God.

Incidentally, you're also right about Camus not holding a candle to Dostoevsky as a writer...I never claimed he did (but he did have a few more good passages than you suggest).

Overall, I think you misunderstood me, or I didn't make myself clear.  I didn't mean to imply that they would've agreed philosophically (they were quite opposite), only that their work had a similar quality - Camus praising those things which Dostoevsky rejected.

[littlefermat]

Nietzsche and Kierkengaard (spell?) are probably the two closest authors that immediately come to mind.

I think Nietzsche considered his "Beyond Good and Evil" to be an introduction to his views.

Kierkengaard (again, spell?): Either/Or  (??)