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Dostoevsky’s most revolutionary novel, Notes from Underground marks the dividing line between nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction, and between the visions of self each century embodied. One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the unnamed narrator is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In complete retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory narrative that serves as a devastating attack on social utopianism and an assertion of man’s essentially irrational nature. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, whose Dostoevsky translations have become the standard, give us a brilliantly faithful edition of this classic novel, conveying all the tragedy and tormented comedy of the original.
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A night of ramblings from a man living in self-imposed solitude speaking solely in crazed paradoxes.
I honestly did not enjoy this book but it is without a doubt a good book. I think everyone can see themselves, even a little bit, in the underground man. The thought yo-yo that occurs when in a precarious situation was exemplified scarily accurately with the narrator jumping from thinking he is in power and above all to being ashamed and inferior all within one thought.
The book is a constant back and forth of this man thinking through possible scenarios and makes you wonder how much of this is an accurate recollection or an inflated memory of a relatively normal situation.
This is a 2/5 for me because while I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, I also wouldn’t NOT recommend it if someone said they were interested in reading it. As I said above, it’s definitely a good book but not one that I personally enjoyed.
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