ETA mostly to self

[pantryslut]

I think I also love Petersburg because of how it plays off one of my other favorite novels of all time, Turgenev's Fathers and Sons. The main characters are a very high Tsarist official and his aspiring-to-be-a-terrorist son.

Comments

[badgerbag]

I am just starting Petersburg and already love it for being very funny and political and strange. I also like the footnotes and am going back and forth a bit. The best bit in the first chapter footnotes is when they describe the word "Hessitic" as "a Gogolian flaunting of non-existent knowledge." Ahahahah!

I feel like I should go back and read Fathers and Sons again but maybe afterwards or on a 2nd reading!

[badgerbag]

Part of what I'm enjoying is the very enmeshed relationship of the translators with the text and all its depths and background. With a "difficult" text that relationship and engagement is fractally intense!

[pantryslut]

The footnotes may be the best part of the book. 'Intense' is exactly the right word.

[badgerbag]

I wish I could go fetch Bely out of time and give him a fantastic plane ride over Petersburg.