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A review by mothgoth
What Is to Be Done? by Nikolai Chernyshevsky
3.75
What an interesting novel that I feel very few have heard about! This novel employs so many different literary devices that I feel a lot of other authors and stories could not get away with so well, but this one does! From Vera's dreams, to Rakhmetov's importance (despite his minor role), to the focusing on a completely different set of characters in the last chapter... it's all pulled off so well.
Ultimately this is a book about hope for a different society and revolution. Chernyshevsky was a proponent of women's rights and bettering everyone's lot in life and this shows very clearly through his writing, despite his having to be careful to avoid being caught out by the tsarist censors. I very much appreciate his revolutionary optimism and vision- even if it's at least somewhat utopian, I think it's very cool to read so clearly about what this man saw as an ideal post-revolutionary Russia. When reading socialist theory you don't see a lot of that typically. People often ask what socialists think the world might look like post-revolution and it's hard to know what to say. Chernyshevsky's got it all figured out! Even if his ideas are certainly dated at this point, I think it was really cool to see that. Also, this was definitely a character driven novel which is cool, and despite having some weird, stilted (again, dated) dialogue, it was enjoyable seeing the character's develop. Vera's dreams in general were a cool device. I'm glad I finally read this!
Ultimately this is a book about hope for a different society and revolution. Chernyshevsky was a proponent of women's rights and bettering everyone's lot in life and this shows very clearly through his writing, despite his having to be careful to avoid being caught out by the tsarist censors. I very much appreciate his revolutionary optimism and vision- even if it's at least somewhat utopian, I think it's very cool to read so clearly about what this man saw as an ideal post-revolutionary Russia. When reading socialist theory you don't see a lot of that typically. People often ask what socialists think the world might look like post-revolution and it's hard to know what to say. Chernyshevsky's got it all figured out! Even if his ideas are certainly dated at this point, I think it was really cool to see that. Also, this was definitely a character driven novel which is cool, and despite having some weird, stilted (again, dated) dialogue, it was enjoyable seeing the character's develop. Vera's dreams in general were a cool device. I'm glad I finally read this!