On novelists
Just read J.I. Packer’s evaluation of the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky: Who Is the Greatest Novelist of All Time? (HT: Justin Taylor). There must be something wrong with me! I can appreciate the depth of this novelist’s faith, but I could never get into or through any of his novels. I really do not like his work! But then I have not been able to read any of the Russians, except for A Solzhenitsyn, whose Red Wheel cycle I loved (but then I cannot read his Gulag series or any of his other novels). But what can you expect from someone who has never been able to make it through Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress ?!!
No, my favourite author in the 19th century is Jane Austen (can anything be more different than Dostoevsky?) and in the 20th J.R.R. Tolkien (now there is an epic writer!).
This entry was posted on Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 3:35 am and is filed under 19th Century, 20th Century. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
January 1st, 2010 at 1:00 pm
I think many would agree that Dostoyevsky is very difficult to read. I really enjoyed Crime and Punishment, but The Brothers Karamazov took a lot of work to get through.
January 3rd, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Glad to know I’m not the only one who can’t read Pilgrim’s Progress! Maybe we cn start a club. I’m hoping the new translation with great illustrations will help.
January 3rd, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Regretfully nothing has worked for me, not even an audio version!
Blessings, Heather.
January 4th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
I, too, struggle with Pilgrims’ Progress. Guess its the old English but it is difficult for me. But I must admitt that I am shocked to hear that the great historian, M. Haykin, has trouble with it! What a confession!I have sometimes wondered how Spurgeon could have read through Pilgrim’s Progress 100 times!
January 4th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
Well Spurgeon had read it from a young age and loved it possibly in part for that. I am sorry to let you down by my confession, brother! But c’est la vie!
Michael’
January 13th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
One of these days I am going to track down a copy of Bunyan’s “The Life and Death of Mr. Badman.” He wrote it to parallel Pilgrim’s Progress. I think it could be very funny.