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jcstokes95 's review for:
Notes from Underground; The Double
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This review just pertains to Notes from the Underground in this volume.
I had such high hopes for this one. I purchased on recommendation from a booktuber who was highlighting classic you could read in a day. The ideas the recommender described appealed to me; I thought this could be a philosophical take reflecting back my own ennui and disenchantment with a life centered on status and work. I did not get what I was expecting here. The first section of Notes is a diatribe on what kind of man the narrator thinks himself to be, how he is both a thinker above everyone (but also not) and how other men in life are moved by action and attaining their own will. Yet his own self-reflections and doubts keep him from the action that would make him the more renowned sort of man. I hated this part, I understand Dostoyevsky is trying to pull the narrator back and forth, and in loops about his own predilections. He is meant to be…unreliable, but even more than that, unsure and weak in his opinions. But the writing here is dense and frustrates to the point that the message is lost and only annoyance was left for me.
The second sections improved very slightly for me, as it takes on a more narrative form, following Underground Man in his weird obsessions and attempts to gain self-respect. The most interesting part of this were his thoughts on the Russian sense of Romanticism being healthily mixed with the pragmatic. It felt…illustrative and sharp. I wish other sections felt as sharp as this segment. By the end of this, I just felt very bad for the prostitute and would have rather read something from her perspective. But I guess the conversations between the two were the most interesting part of the book and a neat little study in self-destruction. This isn’t really a review of the philosophy espoused in this text. I was too annoyed to get the the point of reflecting on all that.
I had such high hopes for this one. I purchased on recommendation from a booktuber who was highlighting classic you could read in a day. The ideas the recommender described appealed to me; I thought this could be a philosophical take reflecting back my own ennui and disenchantment with a life centered on status and work. I did not get what I was expecting here. The first section of Notes is a diatribe on what kind of man the narrator thinks himself to be, how he is both a thinker above everyone (but also not) and how other men in life are moved by action and attaining their own will. Yet his own self-reflections and doubts keep him from the action that would make him the more renowned sort of man. I hated this part, I understand Dostoyevsky is trying to pull the narrator back and forth, and in loops about his own predilections. He is meant to be…unreliable, but even more than that, unsure and weak in his opinions. But the writing here is dense and frustrates to the point that the message is lost and only annoyance was left for me.
The second sections improved very slightly for me, as it takes on a more narrative form, following Underground Man in his weird obsessions and attempts to gain self-respect. The most interesting part of this were his thoughts on the Russian sense of Romanticism being healthily mixed with the pragmatic. It felt…illustrative and sharp. I wish other sections felt as sharp as this segment. By the end of this, I just felt very bad for the prostitute and would have rather read something from her perspective. But I guess the conversations between the two were the most interesting part of the book and a neat little study in self-destruction. This isn’t really a review of the philosophy espoused in this text. I was too annoyed to get the the point of reflecting on all that.