Notes from the Underground (Dover Thrift)

Once again translation is everything in reading Dostoevsky - stick to the older ones. The modern translations are very lacking. This is a brilliant philosophical work. At times very funny and at others thought provoking. It never sags and is always interesting.

It can be read in a few hours but I have found myself re-reading it again and again and always getting something new from it.

Two Twos Four But Man Is Still Man (1/1 people found this helpful)

"Give me man" was Oblomov's cry in Goncharov's novel Oblomov. That is exactly the same clamor from Dostoyevsky's narrator. Well then, who is man? Who am I - mind or spirit? Should my life follow reason's path or should I follow my heart? This reminds me so much of Nietszche's Human, All Too Human. The narrator is extremely self-critical. He's mean and malicious, he tells lies, takes bribes and is more intelligent than anyone else around. He refutes rational economic man and just celebrates man - the whole man complete with his wilful (and perhaps destructive?) desires. Incidentally, Dostoyevsky revisits the arguments of reason versus spirit in Crime and Punishment. The last third of this book is about the narrator's seduction of a prostitute. This part is a wee bit dull after the dizzying and dazzling pace of what goes before.

Overall, an impressive story.

A truly gripping novel, focusing on the psychological anguish of existential/ethical nihilism. (2/2 people found this helpful)

I don't usually read novels and was worried that "Notes from Underground" would be one of those "books that get recommended because they are difficult to understand and make you sound intelligent". Not at all. This is the best novel I have ever read in my life: a thorough, lucid analysis of what it means to be existentially and ethically nihilistic. Being philosophically-minded (though not educated), I found it very easy to read and literally couldn't put it down.

The nameless anti-hero ("Underground Man") despises the way that humans want to flaunt their arrogance, put on a performance for others, and judge others based on their performances rather than their intellect alone.

The more intelligent you are, the more you realise the deterministic and relativistic nature of life and ethics and the lack of objective knowledge... and the less capable you are of being resolute and certain, or even blaming anyone for their actions. Intellect does not allow you to rise above evolution or "the anthill" of society; it merely constrains you to a life of inaction and inner torment, and the realisation of the limitations of being human.

Human nature is, in many ways, quite despicably egocentric. But, in a deterministic world, revenge and justice are meaningless concepts. Underground Man struggles with this (and the realisation that he is as egocentrically abhorrent as anyone else), and tries to demonstrate his freedom by acting irrationally: to seek a form of personal justice not for its own sake, but purely in order to gain comfort from the humiliation of others. He craves understanding and recognition of his anguish about the futility of life, yet realises that in getting it he will drag others down to his level of despair, rather than pull himself out.

The book (which I borrowed) was so good that I immediately wanted to buy a copy to re-read, and I have had a (very brief) look at some of the various translations available. I have to admit to being disappointed with many of them, and would very strongly recommend Jessie Coulson's translation. Her words just flow naturally and sound like a fluent non-native speaker, rather than trying to use common English phrases at the cost of punchy clarity. I've seen another review that recommends the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. I have not come across this, but will certainly hunt this down to see how it compares.

Dostoyevsky was clearly a genius. I have not read any of his other books, and I have my doubts as to whether they can possibly be as good as Notes from Underground, but there's only one way to find out...

Unique, unforgettable (1/1 people found this helpful)

This novel( or novella, it's only one hundred pages long in this Dover thrift edition) tells the story of an angry and isolated young man, the narrator, who bears a grudge against society in general and is plagued by feelings of inadequacy alternating with delusions of grandeur. He works as a lowly clerk in the civil service and is without prospects of advancement or friends, therefore he pours all of his frustrations onto the page in a torrent of words that does tell a simple story but also includes much musing on the human condition. The narrator is very convincing, and I couldn't help wondering how much of Dostoyevsky's own personality was in him. This book is very relevant to comtemporary society, as social fragmentation throws up ever more socially discontented people. In fact, what surprised me was that such a character as this existed or could be conceived of in mid-Nineteeenth Century Russia, as I had thought it to be a product of more economically advanced societies. Therein lies the author's genius, I suppose. In any case, this book bears the hallmark of deep and painful self-analysis, and refrains from offering easy answers. Once read, it will not be easily forgotten.

A Gripping Tale (17/21 people found this helpful)

It is somewhat ironic that usually the people who pick up this little book are going through a personal crisis. This is probably thelast thing they need. This is not a cheer-up book, although they may find some commiseration in the narrator's life.

Who is this narrator? Like the protagonist of Dostoyevksy's -The Idiot-, he is someone who believes himself to be superior to "the great mass," but who is so superior that he must live "underground" (much like living as an "idiot"). He is something of a voluntary outcast, who nevertheless manages little personal moments of stickin' it to the man... perhaps the funniest subplot is how he plays "chicken" with important people who are walking down the sidewalk...

A Russian literary critic is rumored to have said "Dostoyevsky is the nastiest Christian I've ever met." And indeed, you would be mistaken if you expected something overly life-affirming, even in an existentialist way, in this book. It is life-affirming only in a fatalistic Russian sense, of "No matter how bad it gets, we can always laugh about it." Even the one scene that is set up as a messianic, optimistic scene, turns into something ugly and spiteful.

Still, this novel is interesting and brilliant, and a great introduction to Dostoyevsky's psychological studies and his anti-rationalist, anti-Enlightenment crusade. If nothing else, it shows Dostoyevsky before he wrote he had written his major novels, and before he had been sent to Siberia (an experience that made him significantly temper his anti-establishment views).

All in a all I found it a gripping tale of man himself.

Notes from the Underground (Dover Thrift)

F.M. Dostoevsky

Reader Reviews:

Brilliant. Funny and profound. (0/0 people found this helpful)

Two Twos Four But Man Is Still Man (1/1 people found this helpful)

A truly gripping novel, focusing on the psychological anguish of existential/ethical nihilism. (2/2 people found this helpful)

Unique, unforgettable (1/1 people found this helpful)

A Gripping Tale (17/21 people found this helpful)

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