Reviews

Umiliati e offesi by Fyodor Dostoevsky

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beatrice_apetrei's review against another edition

5.0

So far, I’ve only read 4 novels written by Mr. Dostoyevsky, the fourth being The Insulted and Humiliated ( the others : The Eternal Husband, Notes from Underground and The Adolescent). The first three books written by him that I’ve read made me feel a lot of sadness, regret, helplessness, and so every time I felt like picking up a book written by him, I decided not to. I was scared of having my good mood ruined or of being induced into a certain mood that I could not stand.
A few weeks ago I decided that I wouldn’t care. I missed his exceptional writing, his honesty, his attention to detail, his caring for others and for the world. I missed his first view perspective and how centered on human feelings he was. I needed something of the kind.
I have to admit that I still carried, in the depths of my mind, the thought that he might be as helpless as in his other works (that I’ve read, of course; by helpless, I actually mean his protagonists. It’s a feeling that I was left with after reading the other three mentioned novels). And I was having a great week. But I tried. And no regrets followed.

The Insulted and Humiliated was such an extraordinary experience for me.

The action takes place in Dostoyevsky’s beloved Petersburg, in the 19th century. If you’ve read any of his novels, you already know this famous city, the cold and misty nights, the wind; the paved alleys, the shadows, the old houses. There is a series of images pictured in most of his novels, images that create the appropriate background for what is to be told.

The characters and plot.
We are introduced to Vanya, a poor writer, who is narrating the events, giving us an insight of his feelings and thoughts concerning the development of the plot. He is mainly an observer, but also the one both Natasha and Alyosha turn to in times of need. Vanya loves Natasha and once intended to marry her, but the circumstances made it so Natasha fell in love with young and childish Alyosha, who, for well-known reasons, won’t marry her. This fact humiliates and saddens both Natasha and her father, who, in his anger, decides to slowly let go of all the beautiful memories of his daughter as if she were dead.
This is a journey of learning to understand, accept and forgive. Vanya needs to selflessly love and accept Alyosha as a friend disregarding his jealousy of him. Alyosha must learn to face his father and grow up into the man everyone expects him to be. Natasha has to face reality and let go of what she is not meant to have. But how much of what is asked of them, can they provide?

The writing. The narration is mainly composed of dialogue through which we are introduced to everyone’s actions, wishes, last events, feelings. This way of presenting the action, in my opinion, gives more insight into how the characters are and their motifs (the way they talk, what are they focused on, the rhythm etc.); and so they are given more dimension. The characters are so horrifyingly real that you can’t really know if the presented content took birth in Dostoyevsky’s mind, or if it was inspired by real events that the author took part in.

I have to add that I personally loved Natasha. She is mature, strong, faithful, but still sensitive and easily broken. She loves, forgives, appreciates. And what I found to be the most precious feature of hers, was her selfless love for Alyosha. A love void of selfishness. She loved him for him, and not for what he was giving her, and that is a quality and a power so hardly found in humans.

If I recommend this book? Certainly yes.