Notes from the Underground & Other Stories

by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Keith Carabine (Editor), Constance Garnett (Translator)

eng With an Introduction and Notes by David Rampton, Department of English, University of Ottowa. "Notes from Underground and Other Stories" is a comprehensive collection of Dostoevsky’s short fiction. Many of these stories, like his great novels, reveal his special sympathy for the solitary and dispossessed, explore the same complex psychological issues and subtly combine rich characterization and philosophical meditations on the (often) dark areas of the human psyche, all conveyed in an idiosyncratic blend of deadly seriousness and wild humour. "In Notes from Underground," the Underground Man casually dismantles utilitarianism and celebrates in its stead a perverse but vibrant masochism. "A Christmas Tree and a Wedding" recounts the successful pursuit of a young girl by a lecherous old man. In "Bobok," one Ivan Ivanovitch listens in on corpses gossiping in a cemetery and ends up deploring their depravity. In "A Gentle Spirit," the narrator describes his dawning recognition that he is responsible for his wife’s suicide. In short, as a commentator on spiritual stagnation, Dostoevsky has no equal.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Russian Literature, Short Stories, Philosophy, Literature, Russia

720 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2015

About the author

Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский (Russian)

Works, such as the novels Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880), of Russian writer Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky or Dostoevski combine religious mysticism with profound psychological insight.

Very influential writings of Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin included Problems of Dostoyevsky's Works (1929),

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky composed short stories, essays, and journals. His literature explores humans in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century and engages with a variety of philosophies and themes. People most acclaimed his Demons(1872) .

Many literary critics rate him among the greatest authors of world literature and consider multiple books written by him to be highly influential masterpieces. They consider his Notes from Underground of the first existentialist literature. He is also well regarded as a philosopher and theologian.

(Russian: Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский) (see also Fiodor Dostoïevski)

Reviews

[Guilherme Cunha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr Prohartchin (2/5)
The Landlady (2,5/5)
A Novel in Nine Letters (2/5)
Another Man's Wife, or the Husband Under the Bed (4,5/5)
A Faint Heart (4/5)
Polzunkov (3/5)
An Honest Thief (4/5)
A Christmas Tree and a Wedding (3,5/5)
White Nights (5/5)
A Little Hero (3,5/5)
Uncle's Dream (2,5/5)
An Unpleasant Predicament (3/5)
Notes from Underground (4/5)
The Crocodile (4/5)
Bobok (3/5)
The Heavenly Christmas Tree (3/5)
A Gentle Spirit (3/5)
The Peasant Marey (3/5)
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1,5/5)

[Emily D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories in this book reminded me of the monomania in Crime and Punishment. Usually the narrator or main character is painfully contradictory, insecure, and repulsive. It’s the worst qualities in you or me, but acted upon and taken to the next level. It’s constant self-destruction, involuntary and headlong. Dostoevsky makes social and political commentary which I don’t always fully understand but can get the gist of (especially in “The Crocodile”). If you like the self-torture and anxiety felt while reading Kafka, I recommend you this 600+ page story collection. I think it’s obvious why it took me so long to get through. Though I do like the insight the author gives, this is a book I am glad to finish and donate to the next unsuspecting reader.

(p.463) “Of course I cannot break through the wall by battering my head against it if I really have not the strength to knock it down, but I am not going to be reconciled to it simply because it is a stone wall and I have not the strength.”

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Mr Prohartchin confessed that he was a poor man on this occasion, he said, simply because the subject had come up; that the day before yesterday he had meant to borrow a ruble from the impudent fellow, but now he should not borrow it for fear, the puppy should brag that that was the fact of the matter, and that his salary was such that one could not buy enough to eat, and that finally, a poor man, as you see, he sent his sister-in-law in Tver five rubles every month, that if he did not send his sister in law in Tver five rubles every month, his sister-in-law would die, and if his sister-in-law, who was dependent on him, were dead, he, Semyon Ivanovitch, would long ago have bought himself a new suit… And Semyon Ivanovitch went on talking in this way at great length about being a poor man, about his sister-in-law and about rubles, and kept repeating the same thing over and over again to impress it on his audience till he got into a regular muddle and relapsed into silence.”

My favorite sentence.

“Finishing my pathetic appeal, I paused pathetically.”

This is a collection of short stories and some of them are really good, some are ok, and some are just dense and boring. The landlady is one of my personal favorites; for those romance lovers out there I highly recommend it. Their story gives Dickens’ Pip and Estella a run for their money. Will be stealing some lines from this for my vows (I wonder if Megan actually reads my reviews?) Uncles Dream is also a fun read with funny character interactions and interesting subplots.

A novel in nine letters is like reading a Key and Peele script, that was fun! White Nights has some very memorable dialogue: “‘I was thinking about you, she said after a minutes silence. You are so kind that I should be a stone if I did not feel it. Do you know what has occurred to me now? I was comparing you two, Why isn’t he you? Why isn’t he like you? He is not as good as you, though, I love him more than you.’”

A fair amount of these stories though were a struggle to get through, and when I did I had zero clue what I just read.

The marquis story, “Notes from Underground”, was one of the most challenging but semi-fulfilling reads I’ve had in some time. “Man is frivolous and incongruous, and perhaps, like a chess player, he loves the process of the game, but not the end.” Part 1 is a philosophical masterpiece, part 2 falls on its head though.

Mr. Prohartchin : DOOM
The Landlady : 5/5 BIG BOOMS
A Novel in Five Letters : 4/5
Another Man’s Wife : 3/5
A Faint Heart : 4/5
Polzuhkov : 2/5
An Honest Thief : 2/5
A Christmas Tree and A Wedding: 1/5
White Nights : 5/5
A Little Hero : 3/5
Uncles Dream : 4/5
An Unpleasant Predicament: 4/5
Note from Underground : 3/5
The Crocodile : 4/5
Bobok: 3/5
The Heavenly Christmastree : 2/5
A Gentle Spirit : 2/5
The Peasant Marey : 3/5
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man :1/5

I need a brain dead book to follow this.

[Júlia ⋆˙⟡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esqueci de atualizar aqui por pura preguiça, mas eu li Noites Brancas, Notas do Subsolo, O Sonho de Um Homem Ridículo, O Crocodilo, e Bobok.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read Notes from Underground I have yet to read the other stories.

Ah, Notes from Underground—or as I like to call it, “Memoirs of a Guy Who Definitely Needs a Hug and Probably a Nap.” This novella is your front-row seat to the mind of a man so deeply self-aware, he loops back around to self-sabotage like it's his cardio. The Underground Man hates people, but also desperately wants their approval. He’s like if a Reddit comment thread gained consciousness and moved to St. Petersburg.

The plot is minimal, our protagonist loathes everything and everyone including himself. It is a rant disguised as a novella, or maybe a novella being held hostage by a philosophical rant. Either way, Dostoevsky dives deep into free will, spite, and the bizarre pleasure of making yourself miserable.

And yes, Kafka read this and basically said, “Oh cool, so that’s how you write alienation!” Without Notes from Underground, The Metamorphosis might’ve just been Gregor Samsa waking up as a well-adjusted butterfly.

[Asma ben khalfallah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a slow reading. A little bit boring, but should be interesting. It could be more appealing if we had an idea about the life in Russia in that period. Mainly the authors focuses on a certain time in the character's life and starts from there. No ending and no beginning. my knowledge is limited on the field of short stories, but as far as I know, the stories here are a little bit long. 90% of stories are about the working class and what they went through during that period. There is also the love touch, the political aspect is also present. Some stories are weird on their ending and it drags you to think more and look between the lines.

[lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a dostoyevsky girly and I can’t hide it

[Charlie Pearce · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had 20 of his short stories, ordered chronologically, so it started quite slowly as most of his pre-labour camp stuff was fairly unremarkable (with the exceptions of The Landlady and Another Man’s Husband) but this really picked up from White Nights onward. I was not expecting any comedies going in so I was very pleasantly surprised by Another Man's Husband and The Crocodile which were both great, the latter an amusing satire of capitalism, featuring a man who is swallowed live by a crocodile but refuses release because of the resulting economic opportunity. An Unpleasant Predicament was another highlight, featuring an insight into class divisions in Russia at the time, obviously delivered via another one of his ridiculous overthinkers, as seems standard for his characters. White Nights saw the first exploration of his ‘dreamer’ character which was further fleshed out in Notes from Underground, although in a much more positive light, someone who finds refuge in dreams because he knows not what life has to offer rather than someone who actively avoids action. Given the nature of the character in White Nights and his inevitable rejection at the end of the story it seems peculiar to describe him as a positive portrait of man, but practically any character would appear like a charismatic socialite when compared to the creature that is the underground man.

Notes from Underground is the standout here, featuring a proud, haughty, spiteful, resentful, cowardly, and above all truly pathetic protagonist whose flaws are so myriad you cannot help but to find similarities with your own behaviour, however minor. The underground man perhaps represents a caricature of what a feeling of superiority over others, or a tendency to hold grudges, or paralysis in decision making could potentially do to someone in the extreme case. He is turned into this creature who is certain of his intellectual superiority and looks down on most everyone as a result, whilst simultaneously being deeply jealous of them for their ability to act, as he claims that it is his depth of intellect and awareness of potential ramifications of, and justifications against his actions, that renders it a moral imperative to remain in this self imposed stasis. If only, he argues, he were less intelligent, if he were less conscious, he would be unburdened with such things and free to act. And so, with this self imposed restriction on action he finds himself without any outlet for his bubbling resentment, harbouring deep grudges over the most minor transgressions against him. Yet paradoxically the underground man seems deeply worried about the problem of free will, lamenting how scientific advancements in the field of determinism threaten to solve the human condition, rendering man nothing more than a gear in some greater machine. It is of vital importance to him that he should be free not to act of his own free will, that his decision to remain in stasis be his own decision. This is peculiar, because as discussed he also goes to great lengths to explain how this paralysis is essentially out of his control, as it is a result of “the normal fundamental laws of over-acute consciousness”, owing to which, man “must and morally ought to be pre-eminently a characterless creature”.

The underground man’s writings are riddled with such contradictions. We might ask: since these writings are for the eyes of nobody but the underground man, why bother lying? It seems that the underground man is not conscious of these lies, but rather he is capable of holding mutually exclusive positions on a variety of subjects. After all, as per his own words: “there are other things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself … the more decent he is, the greater the number of such things in his mind”. Another such set of contradictory beliefs held by the underground man is in regards to his own definition; he seeks simultaneously to maintain an ironic detachment from his writings (“there is not one thing, not one word of what I have written that I really believe”) whilst also decrying how he wishes he could be positively defined, to have some character trait at all, to be anything. If he admitted to himself that his writings were a genuine expression of his beliefs then he would at least be capable of defining himself by those beliefs, so in the spirit of avoiding doing so and maintaining these internal contradictions he distances himself even from himself.


Mr Prochartkin: 2⭐️
Polzunkov: 2⭐️
The Heavenly Christmas Tree: 2⭐️
The Peasant Marey: 2.5⭐️
A Christmas tree and a wedding: 2.5⭐️
A novel in nine letters: 2.5⭐️
Bobok: 2.5⭐️
A Little Hero: 3⭐️
A faint heart: 3⭐️
An Honest Thief: 3.5⭐️
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man: 3.5⭐️
Uncle’s Dream: 3.5⭐️
The Landlady: 3.5⭐️
An Unpleasant Predicament: 4⭐️
The Crocodile: 4⭐️
A Gentle Spirit: 4⭐️
Another man’s wife, or the husband under the bed: 4⭐️
White Nights: 4⭐️
Notes From Underground: 5⭐️

[jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

aaaand that's enough dostoevsky for the rest of the year i think

[Dr.J.G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contents

White Nights

Notes from the Underground— part i.

underground part ii. à propos of the wet snow

A Faint Heart

A Christmas Tree and a Wedding

Polzunkov

A Little Hero

Mr. Prohartchin
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White Nights
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This first story has a title borrowed for a vivid film, one that came in some time during last two decades before the millennium, but had nothing to do with this story, unless one sets up an allegory about Soviet persecution and the escape of the dancer; and a good many of us came to know about this story due to this connection, beginning then; subsequently there was a Hindi film early in the new millennium that adapted the story, and the sheer artistic beauty of the film finally brought one to begin reading this when one found it.

As one reads, one is impressed anew with the said film. To carry the sense of the dreamy protagonist and his dreamworld in a film meant for audience far larger than the readership familiar with this, and also not familiar with Nordic latitudes, is highly nontrivial, and the film did more. It brought the flimsy wispy dream web world to life, not only via the sets that were openly theatrical in this era where shooting on locations is the basic, but had a blue twilight convey the mysterious atmosphere of Northern evenings. The boy's eyes and singing conveyed his dreamworld, as did the girl's.

So the one thing one wasn't quite ready for is the long monologues in the story, and yet, how else does the author write a lonely dreamer!

Dostoevsky has painted a miniature saga of a profound, deep loneliness and alienation of a sensitive soul in a crowded city, leaving unsaid the other side - that of someone being connected, rooted when in country - and a chance connection of two such souls for a few minutes producing a deep, everlasting connection, such that it leaves only a love filled with benediction even when one of the two makes a choice for someone else.

In this the Hindi adaptation differed, the director choosing to portray the young man as one who arrived from unknown origins one day, and heartbroken, leaving just as suddenly one night, leaving no address for any messages to be forwarded to (the young woman in the film left without any messages of gratitude, much less love, for him, unlike Dostoyevsky's Nastenska); the heartbreak of the young man in film was devastating, unlike the Dostoevsky protagonist who leaves the narrative with a total benediction for her.

Funnily enough, it was in the first film directed by RK, the grandfather of the young artist who played the role on the film adaptation of the story (incidentally his first film, in turn), that this exact benediction was used more than once, as the object of his love left him. Wonder if that was due to the natural choice, or was the then very young artist the grandfather RK was aware of Dostoyevsky's works, and picked this bit, although the rest of the film had little or nothing to do with White Nights? Or did he have writers working with him who were responsible, although he was someone known to be involved completely in every part of the creative process of his films?
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""You are sorry for me, Nastenka, you are simply sorry for me, my dear little friend! What's done can't be mended. What is said cannot be taken back. Isn't that so? Well, now you know. That's the starting-point. Very well. Now it's all right, only listen. When you were sitting crying I thought to myself (oh, let me tell you what I was thinking!), I thought, that (of course it cannot be, Nastenka), I thought that you ... I thought that you somehow ... quite apart from me, had ceased to love him. Then—I thought that yesterday and the day before yesterday, Nastenka—then I would—I certainly would—have succeeded in making you love me; you know, you said yourself, Nastenka, that you almost loved me. Well, what next? Well, that's nearly all I wanted to tell you; all that is left to say is how it would be if you loved me, only that, nothing more! Listen, my friend—for any way you are my friend—I am, of course, a poor, humble man, of no great consequence; but that's not the point (I don't seem to be able to say what I mean, Nastenka, I am so confused), only I would love you, I would love you so, that even if you still loved him, even if you went on loving the man I don't know, you would never feel that my love was a burden to you. You would only feel every minute that at your side was beating a grateful, grateful heart, a warm heart ready for your sake.... Oh Nastenka, Nastenka! What have you done to me?"

""I love him; but I shall get over it, I must get over it, I cannot fail to get over it; I am getting over it, I feel that.... Who knows? Perhaps it will all end to-day, for I hate him, for he has been laughing at me, while you have been weeping here with me, for you have not repulsed me as he has, for you love me while he has never loved me, for in fact, I love you myself.... Yes, I love you! I love you as you love me; I have told you so before, you heard it yourself—I love you because you are better than he is, because you are nobler than he is, because, because he——"

"The poor girl's emotion was so violent that she could not say more; she laid her head upon my shoulder, then upon my bosom, and wept bitterly. I comforted her, I persuaded her, but she could not stop crying; she kept pressing my hand, and saying between her sobs: "Wait, wait, it will be over in a minute! I want to tell you ... you mustn't think that these tears—it's nothing, it's weakness, wait till it's over."... At last she left off crying, dried her eyes and we walked on again. I wanted to speak, but she still begged me to wait. We were silent.... At last she plucked up courage and began to speak.

""It's like this," she began in a weak and quivering voice, in which, however, there was a note that pierced my heart with a sweet pang; "don't think that I am so light and inconstant, don't think that I can forget and change so quickly. I have loved him for a whole year, and I swear by God that I have never, never, even in thought, been unfaithful to him.... He has despised me, he has been laughing at me—God forgive him! But he has insulted me and wounded my heart. I ... I do not love him, for I can only love what is magnanimous, what understands me, what is generous; for I am like that myself and he is not worthy of me—well, that's enough of him. He has done better than if he had deceived my expectations later, and shown me later what he was.... Well, it's over! But who knows, my dear friend," she went on pressing my hand, "who knows, perhaps my whole love was a mistaken feeling, a delusion—perhaps it began in mischief, in nonsense, because I was kept so strictly by grandmother? Perhaps I ought to love another man, not him, a different man, who would have pity on me and ... and.... But don't let us say any more about that," Nastenka broke off, breathless with emotion, "I only wanted to tell you ... I wanted to tell you that if, although I love him (no, did love him), if, in spite of this you still say.... If you feel that your love is so great that it may at last drive from my heart my old feeling—if you will have pity on me—if you do not want to leave me alone to my fate, without hope, without consolation—if you are ready to love me always as you do now—I swear to you that gratitude ... that my love will be at last worthy of your love.... Will you take my hand?""
............

"Either the sunbeams suddenly peeping out from the clouds for a moment were hidden again behind a veil of rain, and everything had grown dingy again before my eyes; or perhaps the whole vista of my future flashed before me so sad and forbidding, and I saw myself just as I was now, fifteen years hence, older, in the same room, just as solitary, with the same Matrona grown no cleverer for those fifteen years.

"But to imagine that I should bear you a grudge, Nastenka! That I should cast a dark cloud over your serene, untroubled happiness; that by my bitter reproaches I should cause distress to your heart, should poison it with secret remorse and should force it to throb with anguish at the moment of bliss; that I should crush a single one of those tender blossoms which you have twined in your dark tresses when you go with him to the altar.... Oh never, never! May your sky be clear, may your sweet smile be bright and untroubled, and may you be blessed for that moment of blissful happiness which you gave to another, lonely and grateful heart!

"My God, a whole moment of happiness! Is that too little for the whole of a man's life?"

June 20, 2021 - June 22, 2021.
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Notes from the Underground
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Slightly misleading title, in that it makes a normal reader expect diary of someone involved in preparation for the revolution.

On the other hand, about a third of the way through the book one is startled, wondering if any Soviet leader or party officials ever read this, or realise the implications? Possibly not, since Dostoevsky was not known to be out of favour. Or did they know, but firmly ignore the possibility that anyone else might see it? Couldn't have been a widely read book, this!
............

Weird fact:- This particular edition, ASIN B0082Z4YIY, Public Domain, does not exist on Amazon when one searches for it, but does on Goodreads; yet Amazon owns Goodreads. How does that happen?

Equally weird, another edition that we bought on Amazon, ASIN B08NWBHTN9, is not recognised by Goodreads until one tries adding it as another edition. Then Goodreads says it exists, and the link brings forth one with an ISBN067973452X (ISBN13: 9780679734529) identification. Two hours later, its changed to the ASIN identification one searched, and now the ISBN numbers are missing. Just a goof up?
............

In fact, this could very well be a continuation of the previous , White Nights, with no girl involved, or perhaps no other character for that matter. It's a soliloquy of several pages, to begin with, and could continue, for all one might expect.

It's only about halfway through that it changes from excruciating drivel, making one wonder if readers of his day venerated this author for such stuff, to something outright despicable, as he proceeds to impose himself on a young woman after using her. One wonders if the author's fans took this protagonist as the ideal, sanctified by their god the author, to model their own conduct on, and worse.
............

"Take the whole of the nineteenth century in which Buckle lived. Take Napoleon — the Great and also the present one. Take North America — the eternal union. Take the farce of Schleswig-Holstein... And what is it that civilisation softens in us? The only gain of civilisation for mankind is the greater capacity for variety of sensations — and absolutely nothing more. And through the development of this many- sidedness man may come to finding enjoyment in bloodshed. In fact, this has already happened to him. Have you noticed that it is the most civilised gentlemen who have been the subtlest slaughterers, to whom the Attilas and Stenka Razins could not hold a candle, and if they are not so conspicuous as the Attilas and Stenka Razins it is simply because they are so often met with, are so ordinary and have become so familiar to us. In any case civilisation has made mankind if not more bloodthirsty, at least more vilely, more loathsomely bloodthirsty. In old days he saw justice in bloodshed and with his conscience at peace exterminated those he thought proper. Now we do think bloodshed abominable and yet we engage in this abomination, and with more energy than ever. Which is worse? Decide that for yourselves. They say that Cleopatra (excuse an instance from Roman history) was fond of sticking gold pins into her slave-girls’ breasts and derived gratification from their screams and writhings. You will say that that was in the comparatively barbarous times; that these are barbarous times too, because also, comparatively speaking, pins are stuck in even now; that though man has now learned to see more clearly than in barbarous ages, he is still far from having learnt to act as reason and science would dictate. But yet you are fully convinced that he will be sure to learn when he gets rid of certain old bad habits, and when common sense and science have completely re-educated human nature and turned it in a normal direction. You are confident that then man will cease from INTENTIONAL error and will, so to say, be compelled not to want to set his will against his normal interests. That is not all; then, you say, science itself will teach man (though to my mind it’s a superfluous luxury) that he never has really had any caprice or will of his own, and that he himself is something of the nature of a piano-key or the stop of an organ, and that there are, besides, things called the laws of nature; so that everything he does is not done by his willing it, but is done of itself, by the laws of nature. Consequently we have only to discover these laws of nature, and man will no longer have to answer for his actions and life will become exceedingly easy for him. All human actions will then, of course, be tabulated according to these laws, mathematically, like tables of logarithms up to 108,000, and entered in an index; or, better still, there would be published certain edifying works of the nature of encyclopaedic lexicons, in which everything will be so clearly calculated and explained that there will be no more incidents or adventures in the world.

"Then — this is all what you say — new economic relations will be established, all ready-made and worked out with mathematical exactitude, so that every possible question will vanish in the twinkling of an eye, simply because every possible answer to it will be provided. Then the “Palace of Crystal” will be built. Then... In fact, those will be halcyon days. Of course there is no guaranteeing (this is my comment) that it will not be, for instance, frightfully dull then (for what will one have to do when everything will be calculated and tabulated), but on the other hand everything will be extraordinarily rational. Of course boredom may lead you to anything. It is boredom sets one sticking golden pins into people, but all that would not matter. What is bad (this is my comment again) is that I dare say people will be thankful for the gold pins then. Man is stupid, you know, phenomenally stupid; or rather he is not at all stupid, but he is so ungrateful that you could not find another like him in all creation. I, for instance, would not be in the least surprised if all of a sudden, A PROPOS of nothing, in the midst of general prosperity a gentleman with an ignoble, or rather with a reactionary and ironical, countenance were to arise and, putting his arms akimbo, say to us all: “I say, gentleman, hadn’t we better kick over the whole show and scatter rationalism to the winds, simply to send these logarithms to the devil, and to enable us to live once more at our own sweet foolish will!” That again would not matter, but what is annoying is that he would be sure to find followers — such is the nature of man. And all that for the most foolish reason, which, one would think, was hardly worth mentioning: that is, that man everywhere and at all times, whoever he may be, has preferred to act as he chose and not in the least as his reason and advantage dictated. And one may choose what is contrary to one’s own interests, and sometimes one POSITIVELY OUGHT (that is my idea). One’s own free unfettered choice, one’s own caprice, however wild it may be, one’s own fancy worked up at times to frenzy — is that very “most advantageous advantage” which we have overlooked, which comes under no classification and against which all systems and theories are continually being shattered to atoms. And how do these wiseacres know that man wants a normal, a virtuous choice? What has made them conceive that man must want a rationally advantageous choice? What man wants is simply INDEPENDENT choice, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead. And choice, of course, the devil only knows what choice."
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"Now I ask you: what can be expected of man since he is a being endowed with strange qualities? Shower upon him every earthly blessing, drown him in a sea of happiness, so that nothing but bubbles of bliss can be seen on the surface; give him economic prosperity, such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes and busy himself with the continuation of his species, and even then out of sheer ingratitude, sheer spite, man would play you some nasty trick. He would even risk his cakes and would deliberately desire the most fatal rubbish, the most uneconomical absurdity, simply to introduce into all this positive good sense his fatal fantastic element. It is just his fantastic dreams, his vulgar folly that he will desire to retain, simply in order to prove to himself — as though that were so necessary — that men still are men and not the keys of a piano, which the laws of nature threaten to control so completely that soon one will be able to desire nothing but by the calendar. And that is not all: even if man really were nothing but a piano-key, even if this were proved to him by natural science and mathematics, even then he would not become reasonable, but would purposely do something perverse out of simple ingratitude, simply to gain his point. And if he does not find means he will contrive destruction and chaos, will contrive sufferings of all sorts, only to gain his point! He will launch a curse upon the world, and as only man can curse (it is his privilege, the primary distinction between him and other animals), may be by his curse alone he will attain his object — that is, convince himself that he is a man and not a piano-key! If you say that all this, too, can be calculated and tabulated — chaos and darkness and curses, so that the mere possibility of calculating it all beforehand would stop it all, and reason would reassert itself, then man would purposely go mad in order to be rid of reason and gain his point!"
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"I will not accept as the crown of my desires a block of buildings with tenements for the poor on a lease of a thousand years, and perhaps with a sign-board of a dentist hanging out."

"But do you know what: I am convinced that we underground folk ought to be kept on a curb. Though we may sit forty years underground without speaking, when we do come out into the light of day and break out we talk and talk and talk..."
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[Damian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully well-written and captivating stories, in the style characteristic of Dostoevsky, that so easily generates a vivid and almost visceral image and sensation within the reader has he or she assumes the role of the protagonist in his stories.

[Jack Varley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a challenging read, for the most part. So many characters in the civil service, and for what? So many similar names. I struggled to care about many of the characters, and found much of the detail headache-inducing.

MISTER PROHARTCHIN – 6/10 - 27 PAGES

This one sets the tone fittingly for the rest of the stories. Mister Prohartchin is a silly man who behaves in silly ways to his own detriment. The way the flat was described seemed oxymoronically dingy and cosy.

THE LANDLADY – 7/10 - 66 PAGES

A strong entry, but one I expect might work better in film. Robert Eggers could adapt it well; it was firmly entrenched in the brand of European folklore he does so well. Of all the stories herein, this is the only one which broaches the genre of horror. It may also be the most memorable.

A NOVEL IN NINE LETTERS – 6/10 - 11 PAGES

Quite a contrast coming to this one from the previous entry. A straight up comedy, about two men being taken for a ride. I wish all of these stories were so easily digestible. The epistolary format was clever.

ANOTHER MAN’S WIFE – 5/10 - 36 PAGES

Amusing, but belabours the point to no end. The amount of time they spent under the bed was ridiculous and there was no need for the dialogue to drone on as long as it did. This would have been much more effective about ten pages shorter.

A FAINT HEART – 5/10 - 37 PAGES

Suffers from the same pain as the previous story. Runs around in circles making the same point over and over. An amusing meditation on the perils of overthinking, but provides very little else.

POLZUNKOV – 4/10 - 13 PAGES

Reminds me of that one part of ‘The Sopranos’ wherein Tony makes a fool of himself in order to amuse the other golfers. Would make a worthy epigram near the beginning, but gets lost in the story within a story that is just plain uninteresting.

AN HONEST THIEF – 6/10 - 15 PAGES

This one at least kept me going til the end, but still managed to be repetitive despite being rather short. More bleak silliness. The conflict is contrived so as to allow the body of the plot to occur.

A CHRISTMAS TREE AND A WEDDING – 7/10 - 7 PAGES

Incredibly short, but still effective. If anything, I would have liked this one to be even longer than it was (in spite of my previous complaints). This provoked an emotional reaction from me; I found it to be deeply discomfiting.

WHITE NIGHTS – 8/10 - 42 PAGES

This one seriously impressed me. It managed to be an effective narrative (almost a parable) as to the risks of unrequited love. I can’t say I’d have reacted with such stoicism in the same situation!

A LITTLE HERO – 6/10 - 29 PAGES

This one was quite sweet, even if the premise and social relations of the characters were confusing to me. The title is apt; our protagonist is indeed a very valiant, righteous young man.

UNCLE’S DREAM – 4/10 - 113 PAGES

The length of this one was absurd; how could I take something so serious when it was so patently ridiculous? The resolution was satisfying, but the build-up was like wading through molasses.

NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND – 9/10 - 91 PAGES

Finally, we’re there! Maritn Amis once described reading Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’ “sprawling limply in your chair, ravished, overcome, nodding scandalised assent”. Fortunately, I did not have that experience with ‘Lolita’, but I did have it here.

To the average reader I imagine this story appears either as a comedy for the ridiculousness of the narrator’s actions or as a cautionary tale for the inevitable destination of where brooding habits lead.

But for those of us who have already ended up like him, it becomes an embarrassing mirror. The massive diatribe he gives to Liza could have been briefer, but I suppose the detailed (yet unimaginable) imaginings he provides is a key part of his character.

THE CROCODILE – 6/10 - 30 PAGES

Possibly the silliest story of all, and quite a bizarre note to end on. By highlighting how ridiculously the characters respond to a hypothetical situation, Dostoyevsky serves to illustrate how absurdly they approach everything – even the mundane.

Final Tally:

4/10 - 2 - (‘Polzunkov’ and ‘Uncle’s Dream’)

5/10 - 2 - (‘Another Man’s Wife’ and ‘A Faint Heart’)

6/10 - 5 - (‘Mister Prohartchin’, ‘A Novel in Nine Letters’, ‘An Honest Thief’, ‘A Little Hero’ and ‘The Crocodile’)

7/10 - 2 - (‘The Landlady’ and ‘A Christmas Tree and a Wedding’)

8/10 - 1 - (‘White Nights’)

9/10 - 1 - (‘Notes from Underground’)

Overall I am glad I read this book, but found many of the stories difficult and largely unenjoyable. I mainly came to this book to read ‘Notes from Underground’, which I can at least say with certainty that I enjoyed.

[Kerstin Heydrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Laugh, cry, feel empty, shed tears; remain dumbfounded, you inconspicuous reader!'

That’s what Dostoyevsky seems to be saying with this collection.

“Notes from Underground (and Other Stories)” has it all; from mundane, uneventful narratives to some of the most touching and beautifully tragic tales about human nature.

Let’s begin with the less compelling stories. I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers:

“Mr. Prohartchin”
—The first story in the collection (at least in Wordsworth’s edition) is impressive for all the wrong reasons. Right from the start, it throws five or six unintelligible Russian names at you; along with their descriptions. If you’re unfamiliar with the Russian language, this will feel like a bucket of cold water. The story itself is somewhat confusing and ends just as it seems ready to take off.

“Polzunkov”
—This is Dostoyevsky’s absurdist humor gone wrong. It tries so hard to be amusing but ends up feeling like nothing more than a strange, forgettable anecdote.

“An Honest Thief”
—The problem here is the lack of depth. There simply isn’t enough time to form any real connection with the characters, making the story feel rushed and underdeveloped.

“Notes from Underground”
—Ironically enough, it’s mediocre. So much so that if I were reviewing this piece alone, it wouldn’t get more than three stars. Why? Perhaps it’s because, after all the emotionally charged love stories preceding it, this one feels repetitive in its dramatic themes and weaker in comparison.

“The Heavenly Christmas Tree”
— Beautiful and heartbreaking, yet far too short to leave a lasting impact.

“The Peasant Marey”
— Similarly brief, but even more forgettable, lacking any real substance.

Not all of these are outright bad, but they pale in comparison to what follows; presented in no particular order:

“The Landlady”
—A madman, an alluring yet afflicted woman, and a protagonist whose heart pounds uncontrollably at a sight to behold before the ikon.

“Another Man’s Wife”
—This is absurdity done right: two men brawling under the same bed while the owner and his wife mistake the commotion for cats hissing downstairs.

“A Christmas Tree and a Wedding”
—Despite its brevity, this piece perfectly captures the social dealings of nobles and the wealthy in Dostoyevsky’s time.

“White Nights”
—I could place this on the podium without even looking. How should a gentleman act when he finds a woman crying alone in a dreamlike forest? And what does he receive in return for his kindness? Your answer awaits here.

“A Little Hero”
—This one hits different. For once, we don’t follow a lost, wretched, or reclusive man. Instead, we witness a child’s quest to reach adulthood before he was meant to.

“Uncle’s Dream”
—By far the most entertaining of the bunch. Alexandrovna, in her relentless pursuit of power and influence, persuades a decrepit, senile prince to stay at her home. What follows is pure chaos as her family becomes the laughingstock of Mordasov.

“An Unpleasant Development”
—A tale of two entirely different perspectives fusing, and culminating into one of the most scatterbrained outcomes in the entire book.

“The Crocodile”
—Someone is swallowed whole by a crocodile; and somehow, from inside the beast, he begins to develop an entire ideology promoting the symbiosis of reptile and man.

“Bobok”
—An original take on the philosophical and metaphysical implications of death.

“The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”
—A gun, a journey through space, and Christian redemption; all wrapped into a finely assembled package, delivered to you by a little girl.

All of these stories are remarkable in their own way, but as with anything, one stands supreme; the favorite in my heart of hearts:

“A Gentle Spirit”
—For me, it's Dostoyevski's most distinctive and profoundly disheartening love story. The emotions in this tale seem to battle against their own confinement, trapped within the shell of a man whose choices cost him, perhaps, the most precious years of his life.

[zaza]

May it not be that he loves chaos and destruction…because he is instinctively afraid of attaining
his object and completing the edifice he is constructing? Who knows, perhaps he only loves that
edifice from a distance, and is by no means in love with it at close quarters. (477)

While I may have certain misgivings against Dostoevsky, I think he does effectively show where the rational egoist may bump against a wall. I wanted to read What is to be Done before Notes from Underground so that I could understand what part of the conversation Dostoevsky was engaged. He creates this guy called the Underground Man who is just the worst. He's spiteful, self-conscious, has a superiority complex, and apparently can't help being so. The Underground Man can't help but rail against the rational utopian "crystal palaces" of Chernyshevsky or the taming of the human race by civilization as described by Henry Buckle. He says,

You are fully convinced that he will be sure to learn when he gets rid of certain old bad habits, and when common sense and science have completely re-educated human nature and turned it in a normal direction. You are confident that then man will cease from intentional error and will, so to say, be compelled not to want to set his will against his normal interests. (470)

He criticizes the idea that humans are primarily motivated by self-interest, the Underground Man being a representation of such an individual. He hates the idea that human actions can be tabulated and determined to a perfect science. He thinks that even if our choices could be recorded in such a way, we would intentionally compromise this system to give us pleasure once all of our agency has been determined, "I say, gentleman, hadn’t we better kick over the whole show and scatter rationalism to the winds, simply to send these logarithms to the devil, and to enable us to live once more at our own sweet foolish wind!" (470) If all our actions can be considered as a sort of action-reaction to the "laws of nature," then does this not scatter our sense of morality to the wind? If a man were to slap me in the face, why should I despise him for doing something that is neither good nor bad but just is? He would rather be crippled than add one brick to the crystal palace. He would sooner rebel than become a "stop in an organ [meaning the musical instrument]."

Additionally, the Underground Man rejects the idea that we chiefly pursue our self-interest. He asks two questions, By what measure would we use to determine human well-being, does this measurement consider the full scope of human desires, and who says we even want to do what is best for ourselves?

You are fully convinced that he will be sure to learn when he gets rid of certain old bad habits, and when common sense and science have completely re-educated human nature and turned it in a normal direction. You are confident that then man will cease from intentional error and will, so to say, be compelled not to want to set his will against his normal interests. (470)

He criticizes the idea that human nature will change when provided with a different environment to pursue their self-interests. People enjoy suffering--suffering is their reason to live. What will be our reason to live when we are propped up on a couch of pillows having peeled grapes stuffed into our mouths for the rest of our lives!

I think not only was Dostoevsky ahead of his time as the precursor to existentialism, but also to technological skepticism. His critiques are still being echoed one hundred and fifty years later!

My notes: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12tTM...

[Orlanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is a total deep dive into the darkest, messiest parts of being human. It’s a claustrophobic showcase of Dostoevsky’s talent for finding "the human within the human," especially when people are at their lowest or most isolated. While Notes from Underground acts as the big philosophical manifesto—basically a middle finger to the idea that humans are just predictable, logical machines—the other stories in the book take those heavy theories and turn them into visceral, sometimes uncomfortable reality.

The real magic of this book is how everything mirrors itself. Every single story explores the "underground" of the human heart through a different lens:

- Notes from Underground: This is the anchor. It introduces us to a man living in a "mousehole" of his own spite, who chooses to be irrational just to prove he’s a person and not some programmed piano key.

- Bobok: A weird, grotesque satire set in a cemetery. It’s Dostoevsky’s way of mocking a society so shallow that even death can’t stop people from gossiping. The corpses are literally rotting, but they decide to spend their last moments of consciousness being "shameless," proving that the soul usually starts rotting long before the body does.

- A Gentle Spirit: A haunting "psychological autopsy" of a marriage. It moves away from jokes and into a tragic monologue, showing how one man's pride and cold silence can slowly destroy the person he’s supposed to love.

- A Christmas Tree and a Wedding: A sharp, cynical look at high society. It shows how predatory people can be, treating a young girl’s innocence like a business investment and calculating her dowry with cold, creepy precision.

At the end of the day, whether it’s the narrator of Notes in his basement, the corpses in Bobok in their graves, or the husband in A Gentle Spirit hiding behind his ego, Dostoevsky shows how easily we build our own prisons. It’s a heavy read, but it leaves you with the idea that while being "too aware" can feel like a disease, the only real cure is to stop being so full of yourself and actually find some empathy.

[Sander · Rating 4 out of 5]

(1864) Notes from Underground 8/10

Notes from Underground is a very good book, a book full of psychological insights of what I would describe someone detached from reality with a very bad mental health. These psychological insights combined with criticism and the discussing of topics like free will, suffering and reason makes it a very interesting and compelling read.

The Underground man is the perfect example of what we could be and become if we would let ourselves slowly drift away from reality fuelled by our own reason and intellect. Therefore, the book is way more useful and crucial to our lives than we might think.

The Underground man is smart, yet he turns his intellectual capabilities into intellectual arrogance, thinking he is always right and that all the other people just doesn’t know any better. He wants to be recognized for his smartness but finds that people only ignore him, making him think that he has been wronged. He is spiteful all the time, and he is thinking about all the small details of his life all the time, that it completely detaches him from what is actually happening. And so, he sees fault in everything and everyone except in himself.

We might not always recognize ourselves in the Underground man, but one thing is certain. In each of us, hides a bit of the Underground man, and we should be honest and loving to detect and deter our own destruction from life.

Short Stories

- (1848) Another Man's Wife and a Husband Under the Bed 7/10
- (1848) A Faint Heart 7/10
- (1848) A Christmas Tree and a Wedding 6/10
- (1848) White Nights 8/10
- (1849) A Little Hero 6/10
- (1865) The Crocodile 7/10
- (1873) Bobok 5/10
- (1876) The Heavenly Christmas Tree 8/10
- (1876) The Peasant Marey 7/10
- (1877) The Dream of a Ridiculous Man 8/10

[Ruby Lyons ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars ⭐️

Wow. Ask you can probably tell with how long it took me to read this book, it was a journey.

I started it in November without fully considering my availability, because although I love Dostoevsky, you do have to timeee to read his books. So I got 200 pages in and then just kind of put it down? And it was just on my bedside for the rest of the year (this is a yearly tradition of that ONE book that just sits there so 🤷‍♀️).

But now that it’s summer and I’m down with Kerry, it was time to finally read it. So I actually just started from the very start as I forgot it and here are my thoughts.

I’m not the biggessst fan of short stories because I find I only just get into them and understand the character and plot and then it’s over 🙄

But then again this is Dostoevsky and he is an absolute genius writer so I would genuinely read his shopping list, here were my favourite short stories:

A novel in nine letters
Polzunkoz
White nights (already read but)
Uncles dream
The crocodile
Bobok

And of course the most important story of the entire book is “Notes from underground”. When I first bought the book I thought that “notes from underground” was a novel, not a short story and didn’t realise it came with loads more short stories but anyway.

It was insanely good. I was so suprised as it was one of the last few stories in the book but saved the best for (one) of the last I suppose?

I was just so shocked that the language and ideas and analogies seemed so modern and relatable! I know obviously you can still find modern and relatable ideas in classic literature, but this was so oddly modern to me I really liked it! I did find it like a harsh truth at times, but I honestly I was underlying ever second word 🤷‍♀️🙏🏻

[Taka Wakabayashi · Rating 5 out of 5]

You’re immediately brought inside the mind of a spiteful, hanneous (arguably), a cynical man.

A once honorable man working as a bureaucrat now a mad man spiteful of everything around him. The spiral is like the fall of Rome when you understand the Underground man. He think’s he’s better than himself and tries to pull himself out of an abyss.

To put things into perspective, he finds some connection with a woman, who was a prostitute (A profession seen as a lowly one) and thinks still he is better! He’s views are all against society thinking she is a product and victim of it. Whilst in reality a reflection of his self loathe. He tries to rescue her by making her his wife and telling to leave prostitution. You can feel that she can love the underground man but shortly leaves after realizing she can only be loved by the humiliating words that patch up the spite of the underground man. It’s a brilliant story of what can be considered a “narcissist” trying to fall in love with someone equally as broken as him!

There are tons more to think about, though it’s a man who’s spiteful, you can understand some of his views. The brilliant analogy of men and piano keys, how one can have everything yet still create chaos of whats around, the ideas of how a chess player is interested in chasing the goal than the goal itself. And how man is more respectable when he has more hidden ugly truths kept to himself.

Just go read it.. darn it.

[Zoe Artemis Spencer Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as I am concerned, Dostoevsky wrote the best dialogues especially when it comes to comic stories or scenes, he simply has this amazing sense of humor alongside the depth of insight into human psyche and the extraordinary skill in detailed portrayal of absurd characters. The rating I give here is based solely on my enjoyment and how much the story appeals to me.

- Mr Prohartchin : ★★★
- The Landlady : ★
- A Novel in Nine Letters : ★★
- Another Man's Wife, or the Husband Under the Bed : ★★★★
- A Faint Heart : ★★★★
- Polzunkov : ★★
- An Honest Thief : ★★★
- A Christmas Tree and a Wedding : ★★★★
- White Nights : ★★★★
- A Little Hero : ★★★
- Uncle's Dream : ★★★★★
- An Unpleasant Predicament : ★★★★
- Notes from Underground : ★★★
- The Crocodile : ★★★★
- Bobok : ★★
- The Heavenly Christmas Tree : ★★★
- A Gentle Spirit : ★★★
- The Peasant Marey : ★★★
- The Dream of a Ridiculous Man : ★★★

[Max Haywood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gift from Tom Enefer.

Probably the hardest book I’ve read. Even though Notes from Underground is a short story it’s so difficult to keep up with what he’s talking about, particularly in the first half when he’s explaining his views. It’s basically the rantings of an incel who is detached from the world. I was actually getting frustrated at what he was saying at times. But, I guess that’s what makes it so good. He is just a character.

I read a few of the really short stories. Will do White Nights one day.

[O'Neal Sadler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Notes from the Underground. Read it. Read it. Read it. Not sure if this is the best translation or not, but for my money, it ain't half bad! I love this story. Much better than the "Eternal Husband," with themes that are better stated, but it's less of a story than a masterful polemic on the state of the soul according to Fyodor. It's been written about since forever, so no point in adding any more ink, just do yourself a favor and read it. You'll be so glad that you did. Highly recommend!

[Bucyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find the style incredibly slow to read so the collection felt like a drag. However, by the second half of each story I usually did en up appreciating the idea of it, though still not much the form. White Nights is often given as an example of 'what true love is', but I would argue that A Faint Heart was a much more subtle and touching piece. A Christmas Tree and a Wedding stood out the most for me and I am extremely curious how it was perceived first upon release.

[Zyra Mngqibisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took me so long to finish because the stories truly bored me.
What I can say for the stories I liked is that they are good reads and if you’re someone who’s prone to getting into reading slumps then you’ll probably take the same amount of time I did.

My favorite stories were:
White Nights
A Little Hero
Uncle’s Dream
A Gentle spirit
The dream of a ridiculous man

Stories I liked but were not a favorite:
Notes from the underground
An honest thief
The crocodile

[David Gudovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

White nights, Notes from Underground, Dream of a ridiculous man, Gentle spirit and somewhat Another man's wife give this collection 5 stars, the rest is subpar, in subsequent readings i will skip it, suggest new readers do the same.

[Julie Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I like a challenge, so asked for this book for my birthday. It’s taken two months to read the collection of stories. Some were easier than others. Glad I persevered.

Google is your friend if you don’t understand the thread of each story.

[Gary · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't waste your time

[Jur Van Der Beek · Rating 4 out of 5]

notes from underground very interesting, other stories bit dreadful.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't think it was possible to fall in love with Dostoevsky more. Profound, true, raw. He is the greatest literary thinker there has ever been.

[Radhika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the most captivating collection, still spellbounding.

[Edith Sykes · Rating 5 out of 5]

a faint heart <3<3