Notes from Underground the Double: The Double (Penguin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Mixture of literary and philosophical value
Review: "The Double" is a delightful tale written very much in the manner of Gogol. In his "Lectures on Russian Literature," Nabokov says, "The very best thing he [Dostoyevsky] ever wrote seems to me to be 'The Double.' It is the story -- told very elaborately, in great, almost Joycean detail ..., and in a style intensely saturated with phonetic and rhythmical expressiveness -- of a government clerk who goes mad, obsessed by the idea that a fellow clerk has usurped his identity. It is a perfect work of art, that story ...." But Nabokov does not think so well of Dostoyevsky's other works. He finds his work wanting both in art and in genius. Dostoyevsky was too much influenced by mystery and sentimental novels.

Perhaps Nabokov's dismissal of "Notes from Underground" is appropriate from a purely literary point of view, but the novel is of interest from a philosophical point of view. In the first part of the novel, the narrator is speaking to an imaginary audience. The narrator is obsessed with free will and is at pains to argue against the Enlightenment view that freedom and happiness are complementary. He is spiteful, not from some personality disorder, but rather from his philosophy. The second part involves detailed, and at times humorous, remembered humiliations. And then the noble prostitute. As Nabokov says at this point, "The conversations are very garrulous and very poor, but please go on to the bitter end. Some of you may like it more than I do."

Rating:
Summary: Mixture of literary and philosophical value
Review: "The Double" is a delightful tale written very much in the manner of Gogol. In his "Lectures on Russian Literature," Nabokov says, "The very best thing he [Dostoyevsky] ever wrote seems to me to be 'The Double.' It is the story -- told very elaborately, in great, almost Joycean detail ..., and in a style intensely saturated with phonetic and rhythmical expressiveness -- of a government clerk who goes mad, obsessed by the idea that a fellow clerk has usurped his identity. It is a perfect work of art, that story ...." But Nabokov does not think so well of Dostoyevsky's other works. He finds his work wanting both in art and in genius. Dostoyevsky was too much influenced by mystery and sentimental novels.

Perhaps Nabokov's dismissal of "Notes from Underground" is appropriate from a purely literary point of view, but the novel is of interest from a philosophical point of view. In the first part of the novel, the narrator is speaking to an imaginary audience. The narrator is obsessed with free will and is at pains to argue against the Enlightenment view that freedom and happiness are complementary. He is spiteful, not from some personality disorder, but rather from his philosophy. The second part involves detailed, and at times humorous, remembered humiliations. And then the noble prostitute. As Nabokov says at this point, "The conversations are very garrulous and very poor, but please go on to the bitter end. Some of you may like it more than I do."

Rating:
Summary: A few comments and an interesting fact
Review: Dostoyevski's underground man character, although conceived in 1864, presages by more than 50 years the alienation and disaffection that became so widespread in the 20th century, especially in the so-called "lost generation" that grew up between the two world wars. As such, it became the pattern for generations of other literary anti-heroes whose existential angst was to reverberate through literature for the next hundred years and beyond. Overall, still a great classic and one whose philosophical and literary influences still resonate today.

Dostoyevsky is of interest for another reason that has only recently come to the attention of medical science. Based on the notes in his diaries, Dostoyevsky may have had the very unusual neurological condition known as temporal-lobe epilepsy. This form of epilepsy produces no motor convulsions or seizures as in the classical Jacksonian epilepsy that is so well known. Rather, the effects are on the person's mental and emotional state.

In his notebooks Dostoyevsky reported experiencing visions and emotional states of such an intense nature, saying that that were so ecstatic that one would be willing give up one's life to experience it one more time, that it seems likely he did indeed have this rare neurological syndrome. It can produce intensely vivid imagery and visions, and ecstatic and euphoric emotional states. However, in some cases, it also produces uncontrollable rage and violence, but it appears that Dostoyevsky had the more pleasant and benign form of this disease.

Having studied the excerpts from his diaries describing these experiences and compared them to contemporary patients who have been diagnosed with the disease, the evidence seems compelling to me too that he did indeed have this condition. How it ultimately affected his writing I don't know, but perhaps this will be something that will enable us to gain further insight into his writings in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Contrasting Tales
Review: The book comprises two novellas.

"Notes from the Underground" is a strange, puzzling tale, a confession of an unnamed character. He rails against traits in modern thought which attempt to rationale human existence - this, in his view, is essentially futile in that it cannot alter humankind's true nature. Yet the paradox is that if humans adhere to their true nature, then their atavistic brutality and destructiveness come to the fore. As if to illustrate this, in the second part of the novella, the character acts in a deliberately cruel manner to other characters in the novel. "Notes" is more of a philosophical piece than a novel of entertainment. Nonetheless, it's interesting in that it might at least partly open the way to interpretation of Dostoyevsky's later works.

"The Double" on the other hand, is pure entertainment. The official Golyadkin's life is destroyed gradually following the appearance of his double. The story is either a nightmare, or an puzzle (is there really a double, or does the double represent the other side of Golyadkin's nature?). "The Double" is written in a lively style (or it might be better to say is translated in a lively style) which makes it a pleasure to read. Yet, due to the fact that many other writers (such as RL Stevenson and Kafka) have explored similar themes, it might seem a little familiar.

G Rodgers

Rating:
Summary: Contrasting Tales
Review: The book comprises two novellas.

"Notes from the Underground" is a strange, puzzling tale, a confession of an unnamed character. He rails against traits in modern thought which attempt to rationale human existence - this, in his view, is essentially futile in that it cannot alter humankind's true nature. Yet the paradox is that if humans adhere to their true nature, then their atavistic brutality and destructiveness come to the fore. As if to illustrate this, in the second part of the novella, the character acts in a deliberately cruel manner to other characters in the novel. "Notes" is more of a philosophical piece than a novel of entertainment. Nonetheless, it's interesting in that it might at least partly open the way to interpretation of Dostoyevsky's later works.

"The Double" on the other hand, is pure entertainment. The official Golyadkin's life is destroyed gradually following the appearance of his double. The story is either a nightmare, or an puzzle (is there really a double, or does the double represent the other side of Golyadkin's nature?). "The Double" is written in a lively style (or it might be better to say is translated in a lively style) which makes it a pleasure to read. Yet, due to the fact that many other writers (such as RL Stevenson and Kafka) have explored similar themes, it might seem a little familiar.

G Rodgers