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# Tuesday
- URL: https://thedailyeudemon.com/38487/
- Published: 2015-11-17T06:34:04.000Z
- Updated: 2015-11-17T06:34:04.000Z
- Author: Eric Scheske
- Tags: Books, #wpChunk

![dostoevsky310](http://thedailyeudemon.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/dostoevsky310-238x300.jpg)

Hey, Pope Francis and I have something in common: [admiration for Dostoyevsky and Guardini](http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/what-pope-francis-has-to-say-about-dostoyevsky-and-guardini-76130/?utm%5Fsource=hootsuite).

I went on a major Fyodor kick in my twenties. I read all his major works (except *The Idiot*, which, for some reason, I could never penetrate) and even bought *A Writer's Diary* and got about 100 pages into it (which left me well short of the goal line 1,300 pages away).

The *Diary*, incidentally, isn't a diary at all. It's not one man's reckless rambling to himself. It's written that way, but intentionally so. From my edition's Introductory Study: "\[O\]ne need only compare the published *Writer's Diary* with its notebooks to see how much processing was necessary to present the illusion of spontaneity."

One of my favorite quotes from that first 100 pages: "Don't you see that loving the universal man means surely to scorn and sometimes even to hate the real man standing next to you?"

BTW: If you want a great study of Dostoyevsky, get de Lubac's masterpiece, [The Drama of Atheist Humanism](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/089870443X/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=089870443X&linkCode=as2&tag=thedailyeudem-20&linkId=2EOVBJWVOH76XGNQ&ref=thedailyeudemon.com)

![](http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thedailyeudem-20&l=as2&o=1&a=089870443X)

. It's a great book from start to finish, but the chapters on Dostoyevsky move on every level: spiritual, emotional, intellectual. If there were a Kindle version, I'd probably buy it. Back when I first tried to buy the book, it was out of print, so I copied it page-by-page at the Notre Dame library and that's the only copy I have to this day.