Notes from Underground; The Double (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Author), Jesse Coulson (Translator, Introduction) "I AM a sick man. ... I am an angry man..." (more)
Key Phrases: ten copecks, Christian Ivanovich, Andrey Philippovich, Anton Antonovich (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Written in 1864, this novel is the first and strangest of Dostoevsky's masterpieces--and the source of those that followed. Violating literary conventions in ways never before attempted, this classic tells of a mid-19th-century Russian official's breakaway from society and descent "underground".

Language Notes

Text: English, Russian (translation)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (July 30, 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140442529
• ISBN-13: 978-0140442526
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #635,056 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I have read hundreds of books, this being the most worthwhil, August 20, 1999

By A Customer

There is no greater writer than Dostoyevsky. He captures emotions in his works and this is what makes him timeless. Though this may me a "lonely" book, it takes you to a desolate place and teaches you of the coldness of reality. I was moved by this piece, and also found great humor in some of the darkest moments in the story.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, November 30, 1998

By A Customer

Dostoyevsky's dark and genius satire spares none of his intellectual enemies the whip.

In the space of barely a hundred and twenty pages, Dostoyevsky reduces l'homme de la nature et la verité to a snivelling anti-ideal paradox acting only out of "spite" and "wickedness".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two literary gems from the pen of pyschological realism master Fyodor Dostoevsky, July 11, 2007

By	C. M Mills "Michael Mills" (Knoxville Tennessee) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Penguin classic has included two of Fyodor Dostoevsky's greatest short pieces of fiction in one volume.
"Notes from Underground" was published in 1864 shortly before the novelist produced his classic novel "Crime and Punishment". This shorter work informs the characterization of Raskolnikov in "Crime and Punishment." The anonymous narrator presents himself in print as a person who is deeply disillusioned with his life. He is a failure in life, love and quest for meaning in a St. Petersburg fog of bureacracy and poverty. He meets a prostitute named Lisa but she disappears in a swirling St. Petersburg fog. He views himself as an "insect". The work is a precursor of such works as Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" in which the main charcter is turned into a beetle. Dostoevsky is not for those seeking a cheerful, sunlit read on a lovely beach! The narrator of the tale is very skeptical of human goodness. He is distrustful of everyone believing that life is a succession of troubles until the final chapter ends in the obscurity of the grave.
The early story "The Double" is the most interesting of the two included in this Penguin Classics Edition. The tale focuses on a nonentity named Golyadkin who is tortured by the appearance of a man who is his exact image! (He is called Goldyadkin Jr!). Golyadkin is a wretch of an individual. He reminds this reader of a character out of Gogol who specialized in portraying the lives of St. Petersburg's poor caught in the web of Tsarist governmental ministries. The tale ends in a macabre way as Golyadkin is taken away to what is, probably, a mental institution.
Does Golyadkin Jr. exist or is he a figment of the imagination of Golyadkin Sr? We not know. This tale is written as the fog of St. Petersburg wraps the main character in obscurity and despair.
These two tales are good introductions to Dostoevsky's shorter fiction. The themes evident in these tales are:
a. A feeling of despairing anomie
b. A person who believes he is trapped like an insect in the webs of modern society.
c. A belief that life is difficult, complex and often confusing to ordinary people.