Notes From Underground
Published on 25. October 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-0-85786-021-7 (ISBN)
Description
'I am a sick person. I am a spiteful person. An unattractive person, too . . .'
In the depths of a cellar in St. Petersburg, a civil servant spews forth a passionate and furious note on the ills of society. The underground man's manifesto reveals his erratic, self-contradictory and even sadistic nature. Yet in Dostoyevsky's most radical and disturbing character, there is the uncomfortable flicker of recognition of the human condition.
When the narrator ventures above ground, he attends a dinner with a group of old school friends. It is here, paralysed by his own social awkwardness, that he carries out extraordinary acts and cements his status as a true and original outsider.
In the depths of a cellar in St. Petersburg, a civil servant spews forth a passionate and furious note on the ills of society. The underground man's manifesto reveals his erratic, self-contradictory and even sadistic nature. Yet in Dostoyevsky's most radical and disturbing character, there is the uncomfortable flicker of recognition of the human condition.
When the narrator ventures above ground, he attends a dinner with a group of old school friends. It is here, paralysed by his own social awkwardness, that he carries out extraordinary acts and cements his status as a true and original outsider.
Reviews / Votes
Dostoyevsky is one of the few psychologists from whom I have learned something * * Nietzsche * * An author whose Christian sympathy is ordinarily devoted to human misery, sin, vice, the depths of lust and crime, rather than to nobility of body and soul . . . [Notes From Underground is] an awe- and terror-inspiring example of this sympathy -- Thomas Mann Notes From Underground, with its mood of intellectual irony and alienation, can be seen as the first modern novel . . . That sense of the meaninglessness of existence that runs through much of twentieth-century writing - from Conrad and Kafka to Beckett and beyond - starts in Dostoyevsky's work -- Malcolm Bradbury Notes From Underground established Dostoevsky's reputation as the most innovative and challenging writer of fiction in his generation in Russia -- Rowan Williams * * Guardian * * Notes From Underground transcends art and literature, and its place is among the great mystical revelations of mankind . . . It cannot be recommended to those who are not either sufficiently strong to overcome it or sufficiently innocent to remain unpoisoned. It is a strong poison, which is most safely left untouched -- D.S. Mirsky in HISTORY OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE One of the most revolutionary and original works of world literature * * Walter Kaufman * *More details
Series
Edition
Main - Canons
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Canongate Books
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
150 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-85786-021-7 (9780857860217)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Notes From Underground
Book
04/2020
Canongate Canons
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Persons
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky was born in Moscow in 1821. He has written many works of fiction including Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov. He died in St. Petersburg on 9th February 1881.
Natasha Randall has worked as a translator for many years in New York, Moscow and St. Petersburg. She has translated a number of the Russian greats including Mikhail Lermontov. Her writing has appeared in A Public Space, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Moscow Times, BookForum, The New York Times, HALI magazine, The Strad magazine, The St. Petersburg Times (FL), and on National Public Radio. She also wrote a column on books and publishing for Publishing News (UK) from 2002 to 2007. She writes articles on the topics of literature, Islamic art, Russian culture and music.
Natasha Randall has worked as a translator for many years in New York, Moscow and St. Petersburg. She has translated a number of the Russian greats including Mikhail Lermontov. Her writing has appeared in A Public Space, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Moscow Times, BookForum, The New York Times, HALI magazine, The Strad magazine, The St. Petersburg Times (FL), and on National Public Radio. She also wrote a column on books and publishing for Publishing News (UK) from 2002 to 2007. She writes articles on the topics of literature, Islamic art, Russian culture and music.