Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Notes from Underground

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Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

12 reviews

suicidylan_epub's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Wn incel

Dostoievsky desarrolla un juego casi humorístico de la condición humana más exacerbada y derivada en un círculo de inestabilidad. Su protagonista, el hombre del subsuelo, es despreciable en un modo correspondiente a la visión infundada y malévola con que percibe sus acciones. Pero es una maldad consciente de sí, tanto como de su incapacidad de superar la bajeza moral en su presunción de autoproclamarse a sí mismo como malvado. No menos cierto es que mediante él aún así se percibe la empatía del autor por el rechazo a la estructura social parodiada correctamente en el libro.

Por otro lado, ese choque entre la esencia intelectual e ilustrada de su personaje no concuerda asolutamente con este pseudo-romanticismo hacia su visión personal. Así sucede que tanto su relato como su preámbulo dialogado sobre la concepción externa hace de Memorias del Subsuelo un retrato rico en interpretaciones. Mediante cada párrafo Dostoievsky planea hilos de oraciones arropadas por una frialdad y egolatría que le dan un easpecto real y realizable.

Un último triunfo es el de la novela en tratarse como un texto autobiográfico que tiene como finalidad la singular presencia del titubeo en que su ridículo protagonista se ve envuelto. Cierto es, como especifico en los tags, que no hay un amplio desarrollo de personaje; no por ello hemos de negarle la impotrancia del relato presente.

¿Qué quiere decir con la hisoria de Liza y los compañeros de escuela? Para mí es una presencia de los antecedentes de la alienación como un suceso perdurable respecto a la formación de los individuos, a quienes el protagonista percibe como patéticos y canones risibles de la comunión social rusa. Del mismo modo percibe en un inicio a Liza, no mas que un ser maleable a voluntad de la maldad; mas explora las peculiaridades de la ternura en su debilidad por la sensación, comprendiendo dos miradas distintas de ese romanticismo grotesco retratado en la obra: el de la bondad pasional y la maldad alienante

.

Brillante, un libro que me acompañó bastante (no atrajo del todo mi interés, pero sus atributos son evidentes).

Content Warnings

kubs's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad tense slow-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

4.5

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shibbie's review against another edition

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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

3.5

Content Warnings

eve_kadou's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-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

3.0

Content Warnings

hjb_128's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense slow-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

3.5

Content Warnings

saomah5566's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

4.5

Content Warnings

i_write_on_occasion's review against another edition

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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

5.0

A reflection of a character with a fascinating mind. Some parts are dated and a bit uncomfortable, but I am able to look past them

Content Warnings

biobeetle's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

3.25

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!

Content Warnings

nikolas_kolinski's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad medium-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

2.5

Notes from the Underground - review

Dostoevskij is certainly a master when he has to express the deep psychological conflicts and hidden ideas of his characters, but this doesn't mean that he is always also a good writer.
And Notes from the Underground is the perfect example of this.

In fact, I agree with most of the ideas Nabokov expressed in his short review of this literary work at the end of the book.
Notes from the Underground is truly a "concentrate of Dostoevskij", that perfectly captures his philosophical and political ideas, his opinions, his literary tendencies and hints to many leitmotifs that will be used in future books (

e. g., both the theme of the freedom of choice and the woman as a character that "purifies" the anti-hero/main character, recurring elements in Crime and Punishment

).
However, it's easy to say that the book's merits end there: the content is there, but it is too dense and the style doesn't really have any peculiarity or interesting trait, other than being somewhat chaotic and, again, very dense (in typical Dostoevskian style).
The main character is simply horrible (for no particular logical reason), most of his choices don't really make sense and the plot is basically nonexistent (

and let's not even talk about the ending, which is completely terrible and nonsensical; it would be hard to justify any of the things that happened even for Dostoevskij's number one supporter

).
Furthermore, the book doesn't even pass the test of time: it might have made sense for a Russian citizen who had read it as soon as it was published, but the modern reader can hardly relate to the societal struggles and difficulties shown in the book, which are strongly related to everything that was happening in Russia at the time Dostoevskij wrote and published this literary work.

In the end, even the best writers can fail and, let's not kid ourselves, if anything resembling failure ever flowed from Dostoevskij's pen, this is definitely it: as beautiful or entertaining as one may find it, it is really just a complete mess.

The pleasure of despair. But then, it is in despair that we find the most acute pleasure, especially when we are aware of the hopelessness of the situation...
...everything is a mess in which it is impossible to tell what's what, but that despite this impossibility and deception it still hurts you, and the less you can understand, the more it hurts.

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