Sophisticated, Yet Conversational
Many readers of Dostoevsky's novels are struck by the amount of dialogue in his novels. You have to wonder if anyone really talks as much as Dostoevsky's characters do. But this is also what makes Dostoevsky's novels so gripping to read. He is able to capture the speech rhythms of each of his characters, from the Dmitri's frenetic idealism to Ivan's cool cynicism, from Alyosha's awkward sincerity to Fyodor's clownish malice. Even the minor characters have distinctive speech patterns – think, for example, of the way the young Kolya Krasotkin parrots the intellectual fashions of the day. You get the sense that each of these characters is speaking to you directly, drawing you into their world through their words.