The adolescent

Rating:
Summary: The Most Modern Novel I've Read in a Year
Review: If you judge this book on plot and style - you would probably be inclined to toss it after the first hundred pages. However, plot and style are not parts of what modern art is all about. Every reader is, essentially, a passive consumer, sometimes endowed with a degree of healthy curiosity. And every writer's goal today, in my opinion, is to penetrate deeply into the heart and mind of such a consumer, shake him up, wake him up from his slumber, and, if possible inspire him to "create". Not to the extent of turning him into a writer, but at least into a "co-creator", raise a storm in the reader's soul, so that both the writer and the reader now participate in building this amazing world that only a human mind can build.

Dostoyevsky achieves this par excellence. The long and tedious phrases, the weird characters, their strange, bizarre actions, their mood swings from one extreme to the next within a sentence, and, above all, the grotesque that this novel is saturated with to such an extent, I am almost tempted to call it a farce.

Above all, if one were to think about it in context of modern Russia, one would be shocked at how nothing has changed in more than a century.

If, when you pick up a book, you seek entertainment - don't pick up this book. If, however, you like to embark on self-exploration rollercoaster rides, then, by all means, buckle up!

Rating:
Summary: My least favorite Dostoevsky work
Review: In my opinion this is definately the worst of Dostoevsky's five mature novels. There are a propondurance of translations of every other Dostoevsky work, but to my knowledge, there is only one English translation available of this one. I think that that accurately portrays the way this work has been viewed by the top translators.
On the plus side, this book does offer a convincing portrait of an adolescent; full of ideals and naivety. Dostoevsky succeeds in his task of painting an accurate image of a raw youth, but fails to develop the other characters. You won't find any Raskolnikov, Mishkin, Stavrogin, or any Karamazovs in this work. I read this book not long ago and even the main characters name escapes me. I found both the writing and the storyline insipid and boring, and was surprised that this is the same author who wrote Crime and Punishment. This was the fourth major novel Dostoevsky wrote, just after The Demons and before Karamazov, but it doesn't show the brillance of either.
Take my advice, skip it.

Rating:
Summary: It's all that, but no bag of chips
Review: The Adolescent (also known as A Raw Youth) is the least well-known of the five long novels written by Dostoevsky from 1866 to 1880. Briefly, it deals with a 19-year old illegitimate youth, Arkady Dolgoruky, who comes to Petersburg to join his family, which he barely knows because he was shipped off to boarding school throughout his childhood. In the brief time during which the action takes place, he becomes embroiled in the intrigues surrounding his family and its close acquaintances, culminating in a blackmail scandal surrounding a letter which the young widow Katerina Akhmakov (with whom both Arkady and his father Andrei Versilov are in love) had written a couple years earlier which expresses her interest in having her wealthy, aging, and mildly senile father declared insane--she is expected to be disinherited if her father finds out about the letter.

The greatest strength of the novel, to my mind, lies in its intriguing characters. In particular, both Arkady and Versilov are rather deeply probed, and instead of hastily fitting into certain types as can often be seen in Dostoevsky's work, they both emerge as extremely complicated individuals pulled by multiple conflicting forces, and their confusion about themselves and the world around them is a superb reflection of the confusing atmosphere that prevailed in Russia in the 1870s (and in Arkady's case, also the confusion inevitable for a 19 year-old young man with no strong roots). In addition, the cast of female characters is probably as strong and diverse as I've seen any of Dostoevsky's works (with the possible exception of The Idiot), and the saintly old Makar (Arkady's mother's husband and hence his legal father) is an excellent precursor to Zosima from The Brothers Karamazov.

The plot, though, leaves a bit to be desired, and that's probably why The Adolescent is less noted than its sister novels. Part of the problem, I suppose, is that the fate of a letter is not quite as interesting a thing to center a novel around as murder (as in Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov), radical political mayhem (as in The Possessed), or a meek hero's Christian love for humanity (as in The Idiot and, to an extent, Karamazov again). Also, Dostoevsky inserts a few too many somewhat implausible plot twists (in particular, characters randomly run into each other in the street so often that you'd think Petersburg was no bigger than a small village), and the whole plot, especially the ending, is really quite melodramatic.

The weak plot doesn't prevent The Adolescent from being a very engrossing novel (and as an aside I might mention that translator Andrew MacAndrew's introduction is the best introductory essay I've read to any of Dostoevsky's works). If you're a Dostoevsky fan, consider it required reading; if you're not, you'll probably still enjoy it, but I'd say that The Brothers Karamazov and The Idiot share most of its strengths and have more to offer overall, so you should read those first.

Rating:
Summary: a pleasant surprise
Review: The Adolescent by Dostoevsky was an extrodianrily tedious and dull work of fiction that showed little characteristics present in most adolescents. The protagasnist, Arkady Dolguruky, if you could even call him such was a loathsome and somewhat aggrevating character who was cold and unrealistic. He lived in a delirium where life was perfect and he wanted everythin g to just go his own way. Arkady posses the mentality of a two year old, ill tempered and immature. He carried with him a self centered aura that pushed everyone away from him. Arkady was a comtempuous human being who was only interested in bettering himself and fleeing from the problems that he was forced to face.
In the story, Arkady is a miserable human bing who uses long and tedious monologues to describe the most monotonous aspects of daily life. Dostevesky could turn brushing your teeth into a five page long dialogue. Arkady uses any excuse he can to fail and run away. All of his problems are blamed on the antagonist, his father, Versilov. Arkady thinks everything that ever went wrong in his life was a result of his flawed father. Arkady has no respect for the man who reared him and financially supported him in his schooling and other foolish endeavors.
The ambivilance of Arkady's family is the only true source of conflict that i can find hidden amongst Dostevesky's lenghty sentences that have no purpose other than to fill up space between when Arkady and Vesilov fight once more. they argue about the most minute details. There is not much more to the book than the arguments between father and son which can become quite tedious after two or three based on the same idea. the entire plot revolved around these two characters but a few others came and went. There was the typical quiet, beaten down mother, the annoying siblings, and the overbearing friend, and then those other friends who stabbed the two main characters in the back. It was like an extremly long and bad episode of the Real World.
The Adolescent was not a book i would recommend to anyone unless they had a lot of time on their hands. It lacked substance and creativity. It was overall a very dull book that agitated the reader to the point of burning the book.

Rating:
Summary: Story takes time to develop, but overall worthwhile
Review: The reviews I've read for this novel are all worth reading, but I want to put my two cents in regardless.

In MacAndrew's introduction (worthwhile reading) the notion of "the double" is discussed, and while MacAndrew himself notes the tendency of some to overuse this notion in Dostoyevsky's books, this is one novel in which the concept is prominent.

The double (or as described in the intro and in the novel by the protagonist's father Versilov, a loss and splitting of one's identities) manifests itself throughout the novel. The protagonist Arkady, his father Versilov, and would-be brother in law Sergei Sokolsky all deal with conflicts between two elements of their personalities, all three reaching moments of delirium and/or "brain fever". This internal conflict among the three characters creates the most drastic turns in the plot among a supporting cast of interesting, but relatively constant, characters.

In fact, Arkady's brain fever was the best part of the novel as far as the story goes. Earlier parts of the book did not seem to move the plot along, which, as discussed by other reviewers, deals with a document in Arkady's possession that could effect his father, his half-sister, the woman he loves, and a slightly senile old man who's discovery (or non-discovery) of said document could change the lives of all involved. The brain fever changes things greatly though, especially as it signals the introduction of the blackmailer Lambert, as well as Arkady's legal father, the simple yet insightful serf Makar. In this second half, we see what Arkady will (or won't(?)) do with the controversial document.

The novel is basically divided in these two parts, as the first part sets the stage, and the second part (post brain fever) sets all the pieces in motion. One sees the conflicts of the characters manifest themselves fully in the later parts of the novel, and while some of the earlier parts were a bit of a trial to get through, they were worth it for the later developments.

Overall, this is a worthwhile novel, but the earlier half is a bit dull, albeit important for the later parts to be fully appreciated. This is definitely a novel Dostoyevsky fans would enjoy, but if you haven't read any of his books before, I would suggest Crime and Punishment or the Brothers Karamazov before this novel.

Rating:
Summary: Story takes time to develop, but overall worthwhile
Review: The reviews I've read for this novel are all worth reading, but I want to put my two cents in regardless.

In MacAndrew's introduction (worthwhile reading) the notion of "the double" is discussed, and while MacAndrew himself notes the tendency of some to overuse this notion in Dostoyevsky's books, this is one novel in which the concept is prominent.

The double (or as described in the intro and in the novel by the protagonist's father Versilov, a loss and splitting of one's identities) manifests itself throughout the novel. The protagonist Arkady, his father Versilov, and would-be brother in law Sergei Sokolsky all deal with conflicts between two elements of their personalities, all three reaching moments of delirium and/or "brain fever". This internal conflict among the three characters creates the most drastic turns in the plot among a supporting cast of interesting, but relatively constant, characters.

In fact, Arkady's brain fever was the best part of the novel as far as the story goes. Earlier parts of the book did not seem to move the plot along, which, as discussed by other reviewers, deals with a document in Arkady's possession that could effect his father, his half-sister, the woman he loves, and a slightly senile old man who's discovery (or non-discovery) of said document could change the lives of all involved. The brain fever changes things greatly though, especially as it signals the introduction of the blackmailer Lambert, as well as Arkady's legal father, the simple yet insightful serf Makar. In this second half, we see what Arkady will (or won't(?)) do with the controversial document.

The novel is basically divided in these two parts, as the first part sets the stage, and the second part (post brain fever) sets all the pieces in motion. One sees the conflicts of the characters manifest themselves fully in the later parts of the novel, and while some of the earlier parts were a bit of a trial to get through, they were worth it for the later developments.

Overall, this is a worthwhile novel, but the earlier half is a bit dull, albeit important for the later parts to be fully appreciated. This is definitely a novel Dostoyevsky fans would enjoy, but if you haven't read any of his books before, I would suggest Crime and Punishment or the Brothers Karamazov before this novel.

Rating:
Summary: One of dostoevsky's best!
Review: This book is certainly one of dostoevsky's best. I have read this in a fairly late time in my life (aged 21) but still managed to identify rather easily and completely with the young protoganist (19 years old). The movie contains some very suspensful scenes and a very suspenseful intriguing plot, even more than in the other great dostoevsky novels. it had been said that 'idiot' had enough plots for 4 books, 'devils' had enough plots for 7 and 'the adolescent' for 9 or 10. They say Dostoevsky tried to form in this book the literary figure of chaos, which he managed alright! The book is still very intriguing, only the plots are a bit to messy, which leaves less place for dostoevsky's philosophy than in his other great masterpieces such as 'Idiot', 'Devils', and 'Brothers Karamazov' or even 'Crime and punishment' or 'Notes from underground'. Containing a very apt description of an adolescent soul, this book was indeed 80 years ahead of the 'cathcer in the rye' as some people claimed, and for me Arkady Dulgoruky is probably an even more interesting character than Holden Cauldfield. Also containing some very interesting, abstract discourses, and very moving rurals tales (as expected from dostoevsky). If you love Dostoevsky you can't go wrong with this one, it contains all the factors that made him my favorite writer - but if you haven't read 'devils' 'Brothers Karamazov' or 'Idiot' : read them first as they are this book's superiors.

Rating:
Summary: a neglected gem
Review: Without doubt one of his great novels. It is the second time i've read it in quiet awhile and am struck by how modern it really is. The narrative structure of using Arkady as the story teller helps explain the rushed, uneven and feverish pace at with the book unfolds: but it is an example of the blending of form and content. All Dostoevsky's great themes are here but on a smaller scale. The novel is a clear example of a great writer warming up to the themes and ideas that he was to explore fully in his next work and masterpiece, 'The Bros K.' 'The Adolescent' is an excellent introduction to the thematics and style of the world's greatest novelist