The Brothers Karamazov

I feel jealous about all the people who managed to really have a profound experience reading this. After forcing myself to read all this - I just feel like I understood half of it, intimidated by the absolute density of the work and the ambition the book reaches.

It is a philosophy book first, a novel second, and it truly takes its time to discuss these massive philosophical topics. The plot takes a backseat and it makes no qualms to devote pages upon pages to whatever the topic of the chapter is. Most of it is way beyond my understanding and in typical Dickensian fashion, is way more verbose than needed (though that can be due to the translation).

This is definitely a great book - but a book I do not feel as I was prepared for. This is not a beginner's introduction into classics for sure. Maybe one day I will build up myself to take a proper chance at this once again, but for now I am relieved that I got to accomplish at least finishing this book.