Customer Reviews

Notes from Underground; White Nights; The Dream of a Ridiculous Man; and: White Nights Dream Ridiculous Man and selections from The House of the Dead (Signet classics)

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I've read Notes from Underground twice--once when I was fairly new to Dostoevsky and Russian literature in general, and once after reading many of his other novels and learning a bit about the intellectual and literary climate of Russia in the 1860s from other sources as well. Both times I was deeply impressed, though for different reasons. On the first reading, Notes was simply a very moving, often disturbing psychological portrait of, as is revealed in the first two sentences, a sick and spiteful man. That Dostoevsky could produce this work over 35 years before Freud's heyday was, and still is, extremely impressive to me. What I did not realize on the first reading was the historical importance of the work. For some time, some Russian liberals had been dreaming of creating a utopian state, and more recently the increasing popularity of nihilism (and in particular the critic Chernyshevsky) had led to hopes that the exact laws of human action could be deduced and a rational utopia set up accordingly. Dostoevsky's underground man is a stinging condemnation of this idea, as his behavior shows that individuals do not naturally act according to the best interests of either society or themselves. Though the novel's merits certainly stand alone, it's worth reading a bit about the historical context in which it was written in order to get a better idea of its impact.

A few words about the other works in this edition: Dostoevsky wrote White Nights while in his 20s, before his Siberian exile and while he still held an interest in the Utopian ideas he would later condemn. It's a story of a young man and a young woman, both socially isolated, who happen to meet one night and, over the course of the next three nights, fall in love, with, unsurprisingly, a maudlin ending. The book dragged a bit at first, but I found the second half of it very touching and, though a fairly immature work, it was definitely worth my time.

The Dream of a Ridiculous Man was the last short story Dostoevsky wrote, and contains a very clear version of his notion of the necessity of suffering for love and redemption, expressed through a man who dreams of travelling to another planet identical to earth in which suffering doesn't exist. It's not a really great work, but it's a quick and pleasant read.

The volume also contains three short excerpts from The House of the Dead (the book based on Dostoevsky's imprisonment)--two of them dealing with prisoners' tales of the murders that got them imprisoned, and one a discussion of corporal punishment. The excerpts are fairly interesting, but if this sort of thing fascinates you you're better off getting the whole work, which is published by Penguin Classics.

This excellent collection has three of Dostoevsky's best short works "White Nights," "Notes from the Underground," and "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" plus excerpts from The House of the Dead. Ranging from great to masterful, the stories are essential for anyone even remotely interested in Dostoevsky and a fine starting point before tackling his mammoth novels. That said, since the first three works are available in other collections with additional stories -- e.g., The Best Short Stories of Dostoevsky -- and The House is best read whole, this is not the ideal volume. Even so, anyone who has not read the works and comes across this would do well to pick it up.

"White" is one of Dostoevsky's most intensive love meditations and, indeed, one of the most profoundly searching and affecting - not to mention thorough and honest - investigations of the perennial subject. He shows many of its sides, including those most writers and people ignore, with such realism and emotion that they come across as powerfully as ever - and surely always will. Though missing some of his later depth, this is in many ways one of Dostoevsky's most timeless works. It is also interesting in his canon in that the narrator prefigures some of his more famous characters, especially the Underground Man.

One might question the inclusion of Notes because it is so widely available, but including it makes sense in many ways. Primarily, it lets us trace Dostoevsky's career arc, which is particularly interesting in that we can see how prior tales in many ways led up to it. The work itself is masterful beyond words. A vivid depiction of the dark side of human nature, it is a great classic that perfectly evokes the feelings of isolation, despair, narcissism, and paranoia that continue to afflict the masses. Though very short, one feels on completing it that one has read a very profound book. It is one of the best and most essential short novels ever. Dostoevsky is known for stunning penetration into human nature, and his mastery showed here for the first time. Notes touches on many profoundly important issues: philosophical, religious, social, political, etc. Indeed, it was right at the heart of the era's prevalent intellectual modes and remains relevant today. It also works as a springboard for Dostoevsky's later, more ambitious novels. Part of the reason it works so well is that the narrator is so recognizably, touchingly, and pathetically human. Anyone who considers him or herself an outcast, who feels as if he or she has never been able to fit in, who is uncomfortable in social situations, feels morally or intellectually superior for unknown reasons, is overly emotional and susceptible to constant depression - or any such thing - will undoubtedly identify and sympathize. Another reason it works so well is the writing style. Far from traditional novel or documentary style, it gives the impression that one is reading a record of a person's private thoughts. We see the thoughts as they come to the character, not in any linear form. He may well be neurotic, psychotic, manic depressive, bi-polar, or egocentric - but is human nonetheless. This is a singular, profound, and important literary work of unique value that sticks a penetrating and insightful knife straight through human nature's heart. It is an essential read for all; even those who will despise it must deal with it, such is its importance and influence.

"The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" is one of Dostoevsky's best, most original, and most influential short stories. It epitomizes several of his defining preoccupations - alienation, Christian charity, etc. - and is a preeminent example of his characteristic psychological realism. A first-person tour de force, it shows yet again that no one matches him for psychological verisimilitude. It is also heavy on his core philosophical concerns and, perhaps most notably, pioneered important concepts that had not even been defined, namely psychoanalysis and solipsism. One can easily see why Freud frequently cited Dostoevsky, as this story essentially prefigured much of his work on dreams by several decades. Fantastic as the story is in some ways - recalling the wilder flights of Paradise Lost and arguably even being almost a science fiction precursor -, it is one of Dostoevsky's most moving and deeply human works.

Wherever one chooses to read them, these stories are required reading.

A nice selection of shorter works by Dostoevsky. Among the works: "White nights," three selections from "The house of the dead" ("Baklushkin's story," "Akulka's husband," and "In the hospital"), "Notes from Underground," and "The dream of a ridiculous man." Much of the work in this collection explores the psychology of humans.

My favorite? "Notes from Underground." This is the story of a petty bureaucrat--and he creates a character stereotypical of the person who wishes to "lord" their small amount of authority over others. When I teach a particular course in Public Administration, I actually quote passages from this book to illustrate a particular perspective that people have of public servants. Some of the personal reflections by the protagonist: "I'm a sick man. . .a mean man. There's nothing attractive about me." "I used to be in government service, but I'm not any more. I was a nasty official. I was rude and enjoyed being rude. Why, since I took no bribes, I had to make up for it somehow."

All in all, a solid collection of stories. . . .

This volume is Dostoyevsky's `Boulevard of Broken Dreams'.
It contains the short stories `White Nights' and `The Dream of a Ridiculous Man', excerpts of `The House of the Dead' and the short novel `Notes from Underground'.

In the short stories, the dreams of love and paradise (`Love others as you love yourself') are shattered, while in `Notes from Underground' the author attacks head-on reason, only to put his thesis seriously in doubt in the excerpts of `The House of the Dead'.

In `Notes from Underground' Dostoyevsky's main character stigmatizes consciousness as man's greatest plague. Reasoning is poisoning, resulting in inertia. 'Consciousness only generates questions, never-ending doubt and torments until man lays on his deathbed.' People who think do nothing. (`The more conscious I was, the deeper I sank in the mud.') Therefore, `let's send all this reason to hell.'
While a man of heightened consciousness is not a child of nature, the spontaneous man is the real, normal one: `People should be stupid and act', even if world history is a story of `blood being spilled as if it were champagne.'

But, we see how these `stupid' men (re)act in `The House of the Dead' with its horrifying scenes of unrestrained violence and brutal murders.

With these flagrant contradictions we should perhaps finish with the beginning of `The Dream of a Ridiculous Man: `I'm a ridiculous man. Now they call me a madman. That would be a promotion.'

This book, with its excellent afterword by Andrew R. MacAndrew, is a perfect introduction to Dostoyevsky masterpieces like `The Brothers Karamazov' or `Crime and Punishment.'
A must read for all lovers of world literature.

Life's a struggle, so perhaps it should be a struggle reading a work focused on its pain and frustration. This Signet collection of short works by Fyodor Dostoyevsky makes a case for why shorter isn't necessarily easier to read, even when it is (sometimes) worthwhile.

Most central and covering nearly half the pages of this collection is "Notes From Underground" (1864), the story of a singularly bitter man who has given up on a life that has not lived up to his dreams. He understands himself to be unworthy of anything better, though, and after much philosophical rambling, looks back on a younger time when he spat his contempt at former classmates and a prostitute in order to confirm his own sordidness.

"I constantly tortured myself with the humiliating thought, which turned into a physical feeling, that, to the world, I was nothing but a dirty pestiferous fly - more intelligent, sensitive and noble than the lot of them of course - but nonetheless a fly that everybody scorned," the nameless narrator explains.

The Underground Man's story, when he gets around to telling it, reads like a particularly uncomfortable episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." A sensitive reader may find himself squirming as the narrator tells of his crashing a party and telling off the guest of honor between gulps of champagne and pleas for another guest to loan him money. The tragedy of this tale is very much on the surface, and rather maudlinly rendered, but a whiff of humor creeps out of the corners, too, mostly at the narrator's expense.

But to get to the better passages, you have to first brave dozens of pages of random, sometimes bracing, often tendentious ramblings meant to portray the disorder of the narrator's mind. It's disordered, alright, and the repetitiveness and self-pity is quite enough. The two main parts of the story when they finally arrive, the ruinous party and the prostitute, feel disconnected and too often an excuse for more philosophizing. College types often champion Dostoyevsky because he's so full of ideas, but his fiction here seems rather by-the-by.

This problem recurs with the other stories collected here. "White Nights" (1848) features another nameless main character, a loner like the Underground Man but one of gentler, more optimistic mien. His account of a life lived more for dreams than reality is much like that we read in "Notes From Underground", yet here the story is of his meeting a young woman he falls in love with. Long, philosophical conversations make up the bulk of the story, and it winds up in fairly predictable fashion, yet the feelings are ones I could relate to and I found this the easiest read.

"The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man" (1877) features another nameless narrator, self-loathing as Underground Man but in the kinder mold of the "White Nights" protagonist. It's tempting to call them variations on Dostoyevsky himself at various stages of life. This time, the idle dreamer's story takes place in his dream, a visit to a utopian world he proceeds to corrupt without meaning to. This would be a far better story if we knew how the guy ruins things; but here as elsewhere Dostoyevsky wants to explore the mysteries of death and God, not tell stories.

I have no idea why the selections from "The House Of The Dead" (1862) are here; these extracts from a larger novel about prison life seem off-point. The characters we meet here are desperate self-haters, but not solitary dreamers like the other protagonists. Mostly they tell horrible tales of misery inflicted, in a guiltless way that might render some point if read in context.

Andrew R. MacAndrew, who translated this book and provides the Afterword, makes a case for Dostoyevsky as unfairly pigeonholed by every scholar and writer who has come after. Then he pigeonholes Dostoyevsky as a half-mad existentialist whose vision outstripped his consciousness.

Perhaps MacAndrew's translation missed some nuances that would have made Dostoyevsky more palatable. But I found this to be a mixed bag, too overbaked to make up for the few good parts.

If Fyodor Dostoyevsky was trying to portray a truly beautiful soul in The Idiot, then he was obviosly trying to portray a truly ugly soul in Notes from Underground. He succeeds immensely. From the opening paragraph (" . . . let it hurt still more!") one can just visualize this nameless narrator sitting in refuse, gnashing his teeth. The book is divided into two parts: The Mousehole, which is where the narrator talks to you--yes YOU, dear reader, whether you like it or not. And then there's the second part: Brought to Mind by a Fall of Wet Snow, which is the story-portion of the masterpiece. The story portion reads MUCH faster than the former, BUT should be read AFTER reading the first part--some people do it the other way around. The story portion is basically about our anti-hero trying to get revenge on someone. If your taste lies in lemon-yellow mittens and mindless bar-room brawls, you're in for a real treat. Now there's two ways of buying this book. 1) Get it new. But poor thing, unless you are in AP English or have Cliff's Notes--or are Dostoyevsky himself--you'll probably miss much of the symbolism and between-the-lines stuff that this work has to offer. If you get it by way number 2) Used, your copy will more than likely have high-school scribblings in it. If you can read the writing, you can toss Cliff's notes, well, off a cliff. Highly recommended.

The Dream is about one man's struggle with life in a real world. His idea of escape is to kill himself, but just before that he creates the world comletely opposite of ours. He transforms himself onto a planet similar to Earth only in a physical sense. Peple on the other Earth are happy in every aspect of their lives -- they even die happily, knowing that they had served to their community honorably. They are free of corruption and lies until He comes to them. He corrupts that utopia and teaches them how to lie. The people like it and start using it in their lives. After, the wars break out and nothing is the same on that Earth again. After waking up He understands what is wrong and now he is on his way of changing the real Earth. Looking at this piece of literature it might occur that utopia is communism -- many want it , but not many fight for it