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A review by tits_mcgee
Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
funny
reflective
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
5.0
Notes From Underground
Dostoevsky takes the unspoken flaws of the human experience and amplifies it through the unreliable narration of a forty year old civil servant thinking back on his twenties in order to evaluate his own motivations, a kind of therapy session or a psychologists examination of human self awareness; the result of which is an existential crisis in book form, written superbly with the kind of satire I like best, one that is both mocking of our behaviours and also a deeply revealing.
The civil servant lays his most personal fears and desires into this journal-esque novella; drunk on his bitterness, jealousy and spite, he recounts two events that happened to him in his twenties, in one of which he is trying desperately to gain social status with some old acquaintances who despise him and another where he is talking with a prostitute whom he both admires and is repulsed by.
Though only a short book, the emotions and motivations surrounding these two events contain topics that transcend its time. It may be a 19th century Russian prose, but its philosophies and readability are as contemporary as they are classic.
“How can a man of consciousness have the slightest respect for himself”
I would recommend everyone read this book, especially those excited by existentialism or psychology. It’s really quite funny too, doesn’t feel outdated or alien.
10/10
Dostoevsky takes the unspoken flaws of the human experience and amplifies it through the unreliable narration of a forty year old civil servant thinking back on his twenties in order to evaluate his own motivations, a kind of therapy session or a psychologists examination of human self awareness; the result of which is an existential crisis in book form, written superbly with the kind of satire I like best, one that is both mocking of our behaviours and also a deeply revealing.
The civil servant lays his most personal fears and desires into this journal-esque novella; drunk on his bitterness, jealousy and spite, he recounts two events that happened to him in his twenties, in one of which he is trying desperately to gain social status with some old acquaintances who despise him and another where he is talking with a prostitute whom he both admires and is repulsed by.
Though only a short book, the emotions and motivations surrounding these two events contain topics that transcend its time. It may be a 19th century Russian prose, but its philosophies and readability are as contemporary as they are classic.
“How can a man of consciousness have the slightest respect for himself”
I would recommend everyone read this book, especially those excited by existentialism or psychology. It’s really quite funny too, doesn’t feel outdated or alien.
10/10