I am starting Dostoevsky book club «Theta-Delta»

And invite everyone who is interested in reading "Crime and Punishment" with me starting July 11!

Since April, I have been participating in the wonderful club Footnotes and Tangents, where Simon Haisell organized the reading of War and Peace.

The more I read Tolstoy, the more I miss Dostoevsky for balance. And reading alone is no longer interesting. Moreover, an amazing fact: Tolstoy's "War and Peace" and Dostoevsky's «Crime and Punishment» were published simultaneously in the same journal – «Русский вестник» (Russian messenger or Russkiy Vestnik) in 1866. Can you imagine what a rich year it was for Russian literature and what a gift it was for its readers.

• «Crime and Punishment» was published in parts from January to December 1866. Dostoevsky worked on the novel throughout the year, hurrying to add new chapters to the next issue of the journal.

• In the same issues, the first two parts of Tolstoy's epic novel «War and Peace» were published, originally titled «The Year 1805».

Here is the page of the journal "Russian Messenger" for February 1866. In general, such journals looked like books of 800-900 pages. You can read:

• II. Crime and Punishment. Novel. Part one, chapters VIII-XIII. F.M. Dostoevsky.

• And right below under number IX — The Year Eighteen Hundred and Five. Part two. War. Chapters I-IX. Count L.N.Tolstoy.

So I though it fitting to have a Dostoevsky club running in parallel with Tolstoy!

In Dostoevsky's novel, the events take place in July 1865. Therefore, I find it symbolic to start reading in July as well.

The post about the first chapter will be published in a week on Thursday — July 11. We will be reading two chapters a week. I will post on Mondays and Thursdays. In these posts, I will write about small details that will help better understand the plot, 19th-century Saint Petersburg, and the subtexts of the novel.

Schedule

A few words about myself

My name is Dana. I was born, raised, and educated in St. Petersburg, the city of Dostoevsky. Now I live in Poland. I've been reading Dostoevsky's books in Russian since my youth and studied them in detail at university, where Russian literature was the main subject. I continued my philological education by studying French literature and cinema at the Sorbonne, where my thesis focused on Georges Bernanos' book The Diary of a Country Priest (Journal d'un curé de campagne) and its adaptation by Robert Bresson. I speak Russian, French, English, and Polish.

Thanks to my knowledge of Russian, St. Petersburg, Russian literature, and culture in general, I feel I can share a lot during the reading process.

This club will be completely free until the end of 2024 for the entire period of reading "Crime and Punishment." All materials and readings will be fully accessible to you. If you like, you can thank me with donations, but nothing more.

The subscription itself will mean a lot to me.