Notes from the Underground (AmazonClassics Edition)

A fascinating view into a wretched little man's mind, albeit one that feels very real and alive. Perhaps many of us have bits of this wretchedness within us. I am lucky due to the circumstances of my development to not suffer envy, but I do recognise other unpleasant aspects of this man in me. For instance, the tendency to observe people and decide I'd really rather not interact with 99% of them, and then lament my own isolation and solitude. The underground man's tirade on irrationality, choice, and the questioning of the existence of free will in light of future scientific advances, was brilliant.

Very vivid in his descriptions and timeless in his search for meaning and belonging. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a classic that tells the story of one man's attempt to break free from the conventions of life and who isn't afraid to ask "what is the point of it all?" Definitely ahead of its time!

Reading Dostoyevsky is many things on many levels but fundamentally it is about looking at yourself in the most unflattering and realistic light you can possibly endure and coming out scarred and fresh. Like a baptism in metaphorical clorox. Cleansing. Painful.

This is a great book to introduce stream of consciousness writing. I was a bit apprehensive about having my 10th graders read it, but we read it aloud and at home using the "KWL" study method. Students did not love the book, but I feel have an understanding of both stream of consciousness and Dostoyevsky's writings.

You may think I am merely using superlatives to drive home a point, dear reader, but I assure you, this book is better than all other books that came before it and all those that have and will follow.

Excellent portrait of a person who desperately longs for recognition by his peers. Inferiority-complex and ressentiment are words we use to describe his condition. Try as he might, he only experiences humiliation.

Refusing to accept his role at the bottom of the social ladder he finds his own victims to vent his frustration upon.

There were some pretty thought provoking moments in this book.

I bought this on a recommendation from a friend and was not familiar with Dostoyevsky.

This book made me want to learn more about him.

Dostoyevsky writes an original paradoxical account from the perspective of an emotionally damaged man seeking some attempt at happiness, only to fail as a result of preconceived ideas regarding how life is lived. Quick read, exceptional writing.

A realistic but very different interpretation of reality. Completely blasts the concept of the upwardly mobile erudite self made man. Pretty depressing but inspiring at the same time in a twisted sort of way. Hard to forget...

With this review, I'll probably reveal myself to be an unthinking boob, but I have to be honest. I didn't particularly enjoy Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground. The writing is sometimes brilliant, the language (in translation, of course) is compelling at times, and the depth of the main character is occasionally intriguing. But the story, well, there really is no story. I am such a simple-minded reader of fiction that I like to see some semblance of a plot thread. I enjoy seeing the transformation of a character or the resolution of the problem. But I didn't see that here.

The novel, if we can call it that, is a rambling, first-person, account of an embittered, self-loathing civil servant. His self-loathing leads him to, seemingly intentionally, attempt to make the lives of others miserable. The first portion of the book, about a third, is his own reflection on misery. It's not until almost halfway through that anything actually happens, when he becomes obsessed with an officer who refuses to give way when they pass on the street. He then imposes himself uninvited on a social gathering of acquaintances, who clearly despise him (and whose antipathy the narrator seems to relish). He leaves them for a brothel, where he convinces the prostitute to leave her life there and come to him. But when she does, he turns her away, continuing to spread his misery around.

I'm no Dostoyevsky scholar (obviously), but I know some of his other works are much better than this. It's almost as if he decided to try something new and experimental, which, arguably, he did. Notes was first published in 1864, and can be seen as a precursor to the existentialism which gained wider readership in the works of Camus and Sartre (but those two writers actually told stories).

In the last paragraph, the narrator writes, "Why, to tell long stories, showing how I have spoiled my life through morally rotting in my corner, through lack of fitting environment, through divorce from real life, and rankling spite in my underground world, would certainly not be interesting. . . ." Amen to that. Not interesting, indeed. Call me ignorant, call me stupid, call me obtuse, just don't call me to read this boring, depressing book again.

Very well written. A cocktail of psychology and fantasies. If you have a year alone on an island you would love this book and read it twice. It is just not written for our times. But that's me, not the book. Perhaps for people who can read faster.