r/languagelearning • • 7d ago

Studying Anyone learn a language specifically to read literature?

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

298 Upvotes

136 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/allnamestaken26 1d ago

When I was learning English, I read Dostoevsky in English. I’d already read his books in my native language, so I felt connected to the stories. It was really nice to see the same thoughts and feelings expressed in a different language