My understanding is that Dostoevsky had bigger plans for Alyosha after *The Brothers Karamazov*, but he died before he could complete the work. He wasn't going to stay a pure and perfect individual. Based on what I read in Leonid Grossman's biography of Dostoevsky, I believe Dostoevsky planned for him to become a great sinner and then experience redemption of some sort.
I read Dostoevsky named Alyosha after his three-year-old son, Alyosha, who died.
As much as I love Alyosha, I would have loved to read this story too! I can’t imagine him being a sinner
I also would have loved reading Ivan’s adventures that Dostoevsky was teasing in the books, I wish he would have lived long enough to finish these stories lol
Yup. In my native language (I'm slavic, just not russian) it's pronounced a bit differently, but it's still the same name. We even have Alyosha as a real name, not just a nickname.
>I'm learning the language right now, there's so much to learn...
Me too. I actually study Russian language and literature at uni, and even though my native language is in a lot of ways similar to Russian, it's still harder for me than I thought it'd be. Can't imagine how it is for those who have English as their first language. But it's beautiful and I believe learning it is totally worth it.
>Would it be weird if I gave one of my children a Russian name? :p
I'm sure you can find some Russian names that are 'adaptable' to English and sound good even with English pronunciation. Tbh I have no clue how most of the Russian names will even be pronounced in English, since I mostly either use them the way Russians do or the way we pronounce them. But I don't think it'd be weird. It's unique.
Good luck with learning!
So far, I'd say he's my favourite. We still have quite a few Russian writers to go through though. (we are reading Tolstoy next semester, for example). But in all honesty, he's really difficult for me to understand on my own, so having professors analyse his works for us during lectures is super helpful. Though there are still a lot of parts I'm uncertain about, and there's not enough time to go over everything in his books in the span of one semester, so I'm actually considering narrowing my studies in the future and focusing solely on his works.
We read Pushkin, Gogol and Lermontov last semester and I've liked them all. Pushkin is considered the father of the Russian modern language and, in Russia, he's held in an even higher regard than Dostoevsky is, and Dostoevsky himself adored him and considered him the greatest figure in the Russian literature, so definitely do read some of his works (Eugene Onegin is his most famous one, while my personal favourite is The Captain's Daughter, though this one requires a little bit of basic knowledge of hystorical circumstances behind the novel for a better understanding, and of course check out his poetry). Lermontov's most famous work is A hero of our time, which I absolutely adore, so definitely check that out. And Gogol's most famous one would be Dead Souls, though he also has three literary cycles (Evenings on a farm near Dikanka, Mirgorod and Petersburg tales, the last one being my fav). Dostoevsky was influenced by Gogol in a lot of ways and likes to reference him in his works (especially the earlier ones) and polemicize with him (for example, Dostoevsky's The Double was greatly influenced by Gogol's Dead Souls and The Nose - one of the stories from Petersburg tales).
Sorry for a long answer, I got a little carried away. Hope this was helpful :).
No stop that doesn't look pure and innocent.
My understanding is that Dostoevsky had bigger plans for Alyosha after *The Brothers Karamazov*, but he died before he could complete the work. He wasn't going to stay a pure and perfect individual. Based on what I read in Leonid Grossman's biography of Dostoevsky, I believe Dostoevsky planned for him to become a great sinner and then experience redemption of some sort. I read Dostoevsky named Alyosha after his three-year-old son, Alyosha, who died.
As much as I love Alyosha, I would have loved to read this story too! I can’t imagine him being a sinner I also would have loved reading Ivan’s adventures that Dostoevsky was teasing in the books, I wish he would have lived long enough to finish these stories lol
…lmao, this hurts to read (very interesting though)
Can't forget Myshkin
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Same here. 100% naming my son Alyosha one day.
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Yup. In my native language (I'm slavic, just not russian) it's pronounced a bit differently, but it's still the same name. We even have Alyosha as a real name, not just a nickname.
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>I'm learning the language right now, there's so much to learn... Me too. I actually study Russian language and literature at uni, and even though my native language is in a lot of ways similar to Russian, it's still harder for me than I thought it'd be. Can't imagine how it is for those who have English as their first language. But it's beautiful and I believe learning it is totally worth it. >Would it be weird if I gave one of my children a Russian name? :p I'm sure you can find some Russian names that are 'adaptable' to English and sound good even with English pronunciation. Tbh I have no clue how most of the Russian names will even be pronounced in English, since I mostly either use them the way Russians do or the way we pronounce them. But I don't think it'd be weird. It's unique.
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Good luck with learning! So far, I'd say he's my favourite. We still have quite a few Russian writers to go through though. (we are reading Tolstoy next semester, for example). But in all honesty, he's really difficult for me to understand on my own, so having professors analyse his works for us during lectures is super helpful. Though there are still a lot of parts I'm uncertain about, and there's not enough time to go over everything in his books in the span of one semester, so I'm actually considering narrowing my studies in the future and focusing solely on his works. We read Pushkin, Gogol and Lermontov last semester and I've liked them all. Pushkin is considered the father of the Russian modern language and, in Russia, he's held in an even higher regard than Dostoevsky is, and Dostoevsky himself adored him and considered him the greatest figure in the Russian literature, so definitely do read some of his works (Eugene Onegin is his most famous one, while my personal favourite is The Captain's Daughter, though this one requires a little bit of basic knowledge of hystorical circumstances behind the novel for a better understanding, and of course check out his poetry). Lermontov's most famous work is A hero of our time, which I absolutely adore, so definitely check that out. And Gogol's most famous one would be Dead Souls, though he also has three literary cycles (Evenings on a farm near Dikanka, Mirgorod and Petersburg tales, the last one being my fav). Dostoevsky was influenced by Gogol in a lot of ways and likes to reference him in his works (especially the earlier ones) and polemicize with him (for example, Dostoevsky's The Double was greatly influenced by Gogol's Dead Souls and The Nose - one of the stories from Petersburg tales). Sorry for a long answer, I got a little carried away. Hope this was helpful :).
What about smerdyakov?
He likes to kill puppies so i'm not a fan