Reviews with content warning for Classism - Memorie del sottosuolo

Notes from the Underground is a dark and depressing book, but it is also a powerful and profound one. It is a masterpiece of existential literature, as it explores the themes of alienation, freedom, responsibility, and meaning. It also provides a remarkable portrayal of a complex and conflicted character, who represents the human condition in its most extreme and tragic form.

The book is not easy to read as it is quite confronting, but it is also hard to forget. I found it really relatable, as I could identify with some of the Underground Man’s thoughts and feelings. I think that anyone who has ever felt lonely, misunderstood, or unhappy can relate to this book. It is a book that challenges us to confront ourselves, to question our assumptions, and to seek our own truth. It is a book that I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in philosophy, psychology, or literature.

Content Warnings

filipa_maia's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was my first time reading Dostoevsky and, for me, his writing is a middle ground between confusing and brilliant.

This is a very heavy and dense book but that completely transmits to the reader the utter caos that is going on in the main character's head. His feelings of not want to belong to the society but, at the same time, being alone. He wants to be left alone but wants to be noticed. He wants to be independent from others but wants to be loved.

Confusing!
Brilliant!

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abbyschafer's review against another edition

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tense slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

2.0

Dostoevsky really captures the self-righteous, manic ramblings of someone who has locked himself in a basement for 40 years (derogatory)

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ninjawolf's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I don’t even know what to give this one, I had a love-hate relationship while reading it.
I wanted to love it because I love Dostoevskij, I liked the beginning, I hated reading some parts though, I could kind of see myself in some things (unfortunately) and not at all in most (fortunately).

I like how Dostojewski is able to portrait people, especially the dark in people, and show us how an idea, a mindset brings you to some truly despicable actions. Also it’s astonishing how relatable his works are, even if only in theory.
I think I simply wasn’t in the right mood for this, first: it’s inevitable to encounter sexism in classics (some more some less), you just have to set it apart but I had troubles doing that this time, which dampened my reading of the second part, second: I’m getting in such an optimistic mindset in my personal life that I have the feeling it’s sometimes difficult to « get » or maybe care? what the main character is all about.

To be fair: I still enjoyed it, just not as much as other stuff he wrote. (Even though I loved the monologue in the beginning and think it’s brilliantly done)
I think if you want to give it a try, try to read it in as less sittings as possible to really enter the vibe, also knowing something he wrote before this (for example crime and punishment, I see correlations here) and/or some theories that were around at the time (because he reacts to them!) will enhance your reading.
If you want a lot of plot: this is a monologue, very philosophical and psychological and there’s also narrative in the second part of the book but it’s more of a character study, so there ain’t much of plot here.

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floatinthevoid's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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gailbird's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I don’t really know what to say about Notes from Underground. I’ve read it twice now. It was my first taste of the great Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky and it made me want to read more by him. Although it is in translation, I like Dostoyevsky’s style that comes through. A bitterly funny, self-deprecating introduction to the narrator and his life sets us in the class-driven system of civil life in Russia of the mid-1800s; however the feelings and ideas portrayed don’t seem at all outdated or unique to the time period, but applicable to any time, no matter how supposedly “modern” it is, and any system of government, no matter how supposedly idealogically opposed to the feudal Russia of this time it is.

The narrator quickly lapses into dark musings on life and the psychology of morality, setting up for the incidents that he stumbles through later. The first third of the book is quite a rambling of philosophies, general descriptions of the man’s mode of life, and his isolation in his hatred for not only the greater part of humanity but also for himself. While it is slow, it is thought-provoking and gives a necessary backdrop for the sequence of events following. Basically, reading it is like getting a view of this guy’s view into his own head.

It’s unsettling, and not always because of how bizarre and perverse it is, because there is that too, but because of how eerily familiar it is. There is something about Dostoyevsky’s writing that seems to be able to elucidate things I didn’t know I knew, or felt. Being so lonely that you impose yourself on people you know don’t care enough about you to include you in their lives, but you go anyway and pretend that you aren’t aware of how little you mean to them, just to have someone to talk to. Being at an event with other people and not being able to speak a word, because the longer you let the silence go, the harder it is to insert yourself. Finding someone you relate to unexpectedly, only to realise that you can’t let the intimacy continue because you’ll lose some critical, malignant part of yourself that you have nursed for years. Doing or saying the one thing that you know will hurt them, drive them away, because you know them… because they are you. The underground dweller finds himself in all these situations, seeing his own fraudulence and posturing even while he enacts it, commenting on it sarcastically to himself, and the reader. His self-awareness is even more disheartening because it doesn’t stop him from doing these destructive things, calling into question whether there is the possibility of change or growth at all, or if some things are just inevitable.

It’s a short book (novella actually) but it feels heavy to read, not because of the writing style, but because of the concepts about humanity, society, psychology, and sin. All things common to Dostoyevsky, and what I will be looking forward to more of when I finally read Crime and Punishment.

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