Netochka Nezvanova (Penguin Classics) [Mass Market Paperback]

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Author), Jane Kentish (Translator, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2006 | Series: Penguin Classics

"Netochka Nezvanova - A Nameless Nobody" - tells the story of a childhood dominated by her stepfather, Efimov, a failed musician who believes he is a neglected genius. The young girl is strangely drawn to this drunken ruin of a man, who exploits her and drives the family to poverty. But when she is rescued by an aristocratic family, the abuse against Netochka's delicate psyche continues in a more subtle way, condemning her to remain an outsider - a solitary spectator of a glittering society. Conceived as part of a novel on a grand scale, "Netochka Nezvanova" remained incomplete after Dostoyevsky was exiled to Siberia for 'revolutionary activities' in 1849. With its depiction of the suffering, loneliness, madness and sin that affect both rich and poor in St Petersburg, it contains the great themes that were to dominate his later novels.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Russian (translation)

About the Author

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881), one of nineteenth-century Russia’s greatest novelists, spent four years in a convict prison in Siberia, after which he was obliged to enlist in the army. In later years his penchant for gambling sent him deeply into debt. Most of his important works were written after 1864, including Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov, all available from Penguin Classics.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (July 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140444556
• ISBN-13: 978-0140444551
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.5 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #731,132 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intense, but excellent read, January 8, 2005

By 

Mrs Baldwin (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Netochka Nezvanova (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

I got this book with some Christmas money this Christmas. Reading it was amazing to me, but then Dostoevsky almost always amazes me. His characters are so believable, even though they're always mentally such a mess - severely distraught, haunted by memories, twisted out of stability by circumstance, or downright delusional. Netochka wanting so desperately to be loved and being frightened to death of people who tried to be kind to the point of making them sick of her...

I found this to be a fascinating and all too short read. I would love to know how the story was intended to come out in the end. I felt the story moved along in the first two parts; the third part began to lose momentum, but I think that's because the conflict in it was not really resolved. The first part was the best-written, though. I would definitely agree with the other reviewers on that point.

The second part was indeed strange, and yet not so strange. Netochka has this thing for kissing the princess Katya at the place where she lives after her father dies. That seems downright odd, but I don't think it really is. I think a lot of people would take this as some sort of lesbian angle in the story, but I think it's something else, because I can see right into Netochka's soul. She has such a fervent desire to love someone, because she has never had anyone to be her "hero" or that was nice to her, really nice to her. Katya is everything she is not: impetuous, rambunctious, energetic, a real livewire. Netochka is a thinker, silent, emotional, but would like to be more like Katya. The two of them battle furiously with one another in spirit, competition is intense, until finally one night they talk after being put to bed and admit that they really adore one another after all. But back to the kissing bit. I think this is a result of lack of physical contact of any kind with other people. Netochka has lived her life with no hugging, handholding, kissing, cuddling... It just didn't happen. So, to love people so intensely and want to kiss them seems like normal human reaction. Katya was available. It is possible to be very close to another woman and not be lesbian. I think Netochka worshipped her - but not in a romantic way.

I enjoyed reading this book very much, although I had to put it down sometimes because its intensity was too much for me, and come back to it a few hours later. I recommend it as a glimpse into Dostoevsky's early writings and to see themes arising that he later developed more fully in other works.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A mixed bag, June 26, 2000

By 

"mikeu3" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Netochka Nezvanova (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

Dostoevsky intended Netochka Nezvanova to be his first full-length novel, but his work on it was interrupted by his arrest for his involvement in a radical political group, and he never returned to the novel after he was released from prison. What he finished comes down to us as a fairly short piece (about 170 pages) divided into three parts which vary considerably in setting, style, and, I would say, quality.

At the start of the novel we meet Netochka, the narrator, as a young impoverished child who strangely can't remember anything that happened before she was nine. The first part centers primarily on Netochka's stepfather Efimov, a good but not great violinist with delusions of grandeur who treats Netochka and her mother poorly but whom Netochka still loves profoundly. Eventually a famous violin virtuoso comes to town, and after seeing him play and attempting to imitate him, Efimov realizes that he can never measure up, and, exposed to the absurdity of his pretensions, goes mad and shortly thereafter dies. Meanwhile, Netochka's mother has killed herself, so Netochka is now an orphan, and is adopted by a Prince who has heard of Efimov through a friend. Efimov is definitely one of Dostoevsky's more memorable characters, and in the first part we see that Dostoevsky has extended beyond the dreamy, slightly awkward style of most of his early works; indeed, I would consider the first part of Netochka Nezvanova to be the best piece that Dostoevsky wrote prior to his exile.

Unfortunately, I can't say that the next two parts quite measure up. The second part, set at the Prince's estate, revolves around Netochka and the Prince's daughter, Katya, who is about the same age as Netochka. While Katya initially finds the orphan a little odd and teases her occasionally, Netochka is awestruck by Katya from the start and can't be described as anything other than in love with her. Eventually, Netochka's feelings are reciprocated, and these two 11-year old girls want to spend all of their time smothering each other with kisses, but, understandably, the rest of the family is a bit weirded out by the situation and accordingly separates the two, sending Netochka to live with the Prince's older stepdaughter Anna. I found that the placement of this section after the tragic tale of Netochka's impoverished and ill-fated parents made the problems Netochka has fitting in with the other residents of the Prince's estate seem a bit trivial. The love story between the two children is certainly interesting, though not extraordinarily well-done.

The third part is a rather unoriginal soap opera involving Anna, her husband, and a letter that Netochka discovers from Anna's past. Apparently Dostoevsky was trying to emulate George Sand, and the result was this mediocre fragment. I'd tend to say that the novel is worth reading if only for the very well-done first part and the novelty of the second part, but be prepared to be unimpressed at some points.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unfinished Miss Nobody, December 15, 2003

By 

Nijik Sonata (Kyoto, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Netochka Nezvanova (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

An engaging story about a girl ("Nameless Nobody") and her personal miseries as a tortured and lonely outsider, first in poverty, later amidst material riches. This interrupted early Dostoevsky novel has all the usual Dostoevskyan themes, but one less typical subject is Netochka's sexual awakening and scenes of secret fun with another girl. Overall an enjoyable read for any aficionado of D's writing.