Notes from Underground; The Double

By Fyodor Dostoevsky and Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky

Book Overview

'It is best to do nothing The best thing is conscious inertia So long live the underground 'Alienated from society and paralysed by a sense of his own insignificance, the anonymous narrator of Dostoyevsky's groundbreaking Notes from Underground tells the story of his tortured life. With bitter sarcasm, he describes his refusal to become a worker in the 'ant-hill' of society and his gradual withdrawal to an existence 'underground'. The seemingly ordinary world of St Petersburg takes on a nightmarish quality in The Double when a government clerk encounters a man who exactly resembles him - his double perhaps, or possibly the darker side of his own personality. Like Notes from Underground, this is a masterly study of human consciousness.Jessie Coulson's introduction discusses the stories' critical reception and the themes they share with Dostoyevksy's great novels.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140442529
• ISBN13: 9780140442526
• Release Date: July 1972
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A master of discerning the heart

These are two great stories to introduce you to Fyodor Dostoyevsky. They are shorter and more accessible to a beginner reader. I cannot recommend them enough.