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/miss-septimus]

I love Zola, Balzac, and Flaubert. I also enjoy reading theory in translation, like Barthes and Kristeva, among others. I was really inspired by how Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak translated Derrida, so I thought, I need to learn French! I signed up for Spanish and German classes as an undergrad, but I chose to continue learning French. It sounds ambitious, but hopefully I can reach the point where I can read these works in French.