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shibbie's review against another edition
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
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, and Violence
Moderate: Bullying and Classism
Minor: Rape and Alcohol
eve_kadou's review against another edition
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
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexism, and Alcohol
filipa_maia's review against another edition
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!
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!
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism
Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Abandonment
nikolas_kolinski's review against another edition
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 (
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 (
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.
Graphic: Emotional abuse
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Rape
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