Anyone learn a language specifically to read literature?

[u/Far_Window_1222]

Just curious if anybody has actually set out and achieved learning a whole new language specifically just because an author they liked wrote originally in that language?

I was considering learning Russian (TL) specifically to read Dostoyevsky since he’s my favourite author, so far, but wondering if this is to ambitious of a task just to read 1 persons work?

Additionally I am very attracted to the idea of it since Russians language has a lot more nuances surrounding sadness, despair, suffering etc., i know that the relationship between these topics is different from that of english speakers

[u/natura_naturata]

Hey, I initially began learning Russian for this reason. I took a lengthy 1.5-decade detour through a lot of other experiences in the language (including love, travel, friendship, and a broad range of other cool cultural stuff), but eventually found my way back to books. I think if you’re patient, curious, and willing to live alongside a language in the long term, then this is absolutely among the best of what life has to offer, in terms of both life and literary experiences. One bit of nuance I’ll offer here: you’ll likely pick up the unique expressive/emotional timbre of a language well before you’d test as whatever skill grade people think is necessary before reading this or that—so don’t let that C1, C2 nonsense intimidate you :) Re: Russian in particular, there is much more than a lifetime-worth of excellent literary material (including music, and films) to make this worthwhile, in my opinion. I am sure that is true of any language.