Notes from Underground

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Constance Garnett (translator)

In "Notes from Underground" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, we are not talking about revolutionary personalities, a secret struggle for some ideas Fyodor Dostoyevsky tells the story of a man who is "too conscious." The man, whose name we never learn is so aware of his own thoughts and feelings as to cause him to be indecisive and overly self-critical. Add in his belief that societal expectations are shaping his actions. Notes From Underground is one of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's most well renowned novels. It is thought to be one of the first existentialist Russian works. The novella is the disorganized memoir of an unknown narrator, who is referred to by critics as the Underground Man. His narration is disjointed and unreliable, and is colored by a general sense of disdain. The reoccurring themes in Dostoyevsky's Notes From Underground, such as hopelessness, self-consciousness, and his grotesque Gogol-esque style of prose, proved to hold much literary influence on 20th century Russian writers, exemplified in novels such as We, Envy, and Master and Margarita. Illustrated by D. Fisher.

Genres: Classics, Literature, Russia, Fiction

143 pages, Paperback

Published January 27, 2025

About the author

Alternate spelling, see main profile Fyodor Dostoevsky

Reviews

[Meg Cook]

Took a long time to wade through the first half, my eyes often losing focus before turning the page, shaking myself awake to give the section one more try. Here's a question featured in my lesson plan for Tuesday: Can we assume that we all want to feel good about ourselves and not bad about ourselves? Underground, that assumption is firmly disproven, like that worst part of myself crawled out and tried living independently. Without much success, to be fair.
From section V: "For the direct, lawful, immediate fruit of consciousness is inertia [...] ingenuous people and active figures are all active simply because they are dull and narrow minded. How to explain it? Here's how: as a consequence of their narrow-mindedness, they take the most immediate and secondary causes for the primary ones, and thus become convinced more quickly and easily than others that they have found an indisputable basis for their doings [...] Oh, gentlemen, perhaps I really regard myself as an intelligent man only because throughout my entire life I've never been able to start or finish anything." Mm! Awful.

[Victoria]

Siempre le diré que si a un depressed dostoyevski… En realidad es fuerte cómo un señor en Rusia hace 150 años se ponía a divagar, lo escribía y a día de hoy me encuentro identificada con su rayada, el problema de la gente hiperconsciente de sí misma, supongo que hemos existido siempre. La segunda parte well, que decir, he’s just a man.

[Aslı Mus]

Do I want to read it again? Yes!!

[steph]

"Para nós é pesado, até, ser gente, gente com corpo e sangue autênticos, próprios; temos vergonha disso, consideramos tal fato um opróbrio e procuramos ser uns homens gerais que nunca existiram. Somos natimortos, já que não nascemos de pais vivos, e isto nos agrada cada vez mais. Em breve, inventaremos algum modo de nascer de uma ideia."

[Cris]

El precio de ser demasiado consciente es la imposibilidad de el auto engaño, ergo de todas sus ventajas. El hombre del subsuelo ha pretendido responder a las preguntas más duras con la honestidad más dolorosa.

[Джамила Джина]

coming soon.

[Mark]

So good
10/10

[XxZEROxx16]

Really confusing 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

[Alix Tate]

Messed up w my brain in a good way

[addi†]

this read like a teenage girls diary at times, and while that was entertaining, not enough sustenance for me to actually enjoy the book. i still adore pevear and volokhonskys translations and dostoyevskys writing, this one just wasn’t for me.