About this title: A novel that marks not only the frontier between 19th- and 20th-century literature but the divide between two centuries' notion of the self. This highly philosophical work was the beginning of Dostoyevsky's serious literary career.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Paperback, old, small amount of underlining, binding partly separated at glued seam, some damp-rippling--acceptable student-copy. Paperback (US). Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Classic & Loveswept, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780553211443ISBN:0553211447
Description: Good. 158 pages, Mirra Ginsburg (translator), cover wear, otherwise tight and unmarked! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Dutton
Date Published: 1960
ISBN-13:9780525470502ISBN:0525470506
Description: Acceptable. Fair Condition. Considerable wear, but still very useable. Interior may have markings. May have bookstore-related stamps/stickers/marks. Multiple copies may be available. SHIPS W/IN 24 HOURS! FREE INSURANCE on all orders! E-mail notification! Careful, thorough packaging. Fast, personal service. No hassle, full refund return policy! COMBINE SHIPPING-TENS OF THOUSANDS OF OTHER BOOKS/CDs/MOVIES AVAILABLE! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"Overrated, antiquity. This is a short story, often published in collections. As a short story, it works. People dwell too much on too little content, as if it were some tight philosophical novel. The story presents some philosophies about life in the first part, and then a flashback to some embarrassing events in the narrator's past. Basically, this is worth reading if you want to see how existentialist novels developed throughout history, but any of the writers that came 50-100 years after Dostoevsky much surpass him and are much more worth your time."
"Within four or five pages I'd realised that I'd already read a book that was strongly influenced by this one: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Both feature protagonists at odds with the world, ignored and marginalised, both were bitter at a society that excluded them but that nevertheless defined them.
In the pathetic and neurotic narrator there is something of everyone, and it's a bit frightening. In the first part of the book (an apologia) Dostoevsky manages to create a character that is totally immoral but with qualities that are present in all of us. And in the second we see the fruits of those qualities taken to their extreme: vacilliation, desperation, wheedling and selfishness, a pathetic character whom we both despise and see ourselves in.
Much more relevant and readable than you'd expect a book written nearly 150 years ago to be."
"First half makes for one of the most interesting reads ever; second half is a close second. While I'm still not certain who or what exactly D. is deriding, it's for that reason that I would call it his best novel. (The allusions to christianity's superiority in his other works tend to annoy me when they occur.) It's entirely about being human, and rather less about being a good one (though people take too easily take pride in being bad ;-)). You could see Notes as the more interesting version of Crime & Punishment, since both novels in some ways deal with the same issues, even though the amount of extra ground covered in Notes makes it impossible to directly compare the two; and working from that assumption, I vastly prefer Dostoevsky's solution as presented in Notes over the one in Crime and Punishment, where his proselytizing gets in the way of his writing. In any case, it's one of the most refreshingly intellectually honest novels I've ever read."
"oh, dear. this is not a character that it is healthy to relate to, is it?? he is a scootch more pathetic than me, and more articulate, but his pettinesses are mine; his misanthropy is mine, his contradictions and weaknesses... i have to go hide now, i feel dirty and exposed..."
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