100th post -- more Dostoyevsky

Russian lit puts one in a precarious place: it's some of the longest stuff out there, and every inch is stuffed full of meaning. Thus, an hour's reading means you've only conquered 13 pages, and you probably missed a bunch, too. Is there much hope of getting to page 940 this time around?

Plus, Russians speak French. Older French. And not all the English translators bother to gloss over the translations. There are four years of French under my belt, but I killed a good 15 minutes today trying to find a translation for just one word.

After that 15 minutes, the translation: "I've seen the shadow of a coachman rubbing the shadow of a coach withthe shadow of a brush."

Now I need a translation of the translation.

But, as I said, every paragraph demands careful reflection -- much more reflection than I'm patient enough to give.

In the same way, if he had decided that God and immortality did not exist, he would at once have become an atheist and a socialist. For socialism is not merely the labour question, iti s before all things the atheistic question, the question of a form taken by atheism to-day, the question of the tower of Babel built without God, not to moutn to Heaven from earth but to set up Heaven on earth. Alyosha would have found it strange and impossible to go on living as before. It is written: "Give all that thou hast to the poor and follow Me, if thou wouldst be perfect." / Alyosha said to himself: "I can't give two roubles instead of 'all,' and only go to mass instead of 'following Him.'"

I love Russian lit. I need a Russian lit reading group.