Notes from Underground and the Double (Paperback)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

ISBN 10: 0140455124 / ISBN 13: 9780140455120

Published by Penguin Books Ltd, London, 2009

About this Item

Paperback. In a new translation by Ronald WilksP#39;Notes from UndergroundP#39; (1864) is a study of a single character, P#39;the real man of the Russian majorityP#39;, and a revelation of DostoyevskyP#39;s own deepest beliefs. One of his best critics has said of the first part that it forms his P#39;most utterly naked pages. Never afterwards was he so fully and openly to reveal the inmost recesses, unmeant for display, of his heart.P#39; P#39;The DoubleP#39; (1846) is the nightmarish story of Mr Golyadkin, a man who is haunted or possessed by his own double. Is P#39;Mr GolyadkinjuniorP#39; really a double or simply a fearful side of his own nature? This uncertainty is what gives urgency and horror to a tale which may be read as a classic study of human breakdown. Alienated from society and paralysed by a sense of the author's own insignificance, this book tells the story of his tortured life. It describes his refusal to become a worker in the 'anthill' of society and his gradual withdrawal to an existence 'underground'. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780140455120

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Notes from Underground and the Double (Paperback)
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, London
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140455124
• ISBN 13: 9780140455120
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Two of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's shorter works, Notes from Underground and The Double, are combined here for an intensive exploration of human consciousness, translated by Ronald Wilks with an introduction by Robert Louis Jackson.

Alienated from society and paralyzed 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 irony, he describes his refusal to become a worker in the 'anthill' 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 looks exactly like him—his double, perhaps, or possibly the darker side of his own personality. Like Notes from Underground, this is a masterly tragicomic study of human consciousness.

Ronald Wilks's extraordinary new translation is accompanied here by an introduction by Robert Louis Jackson discussing these pivotal works in the context of Dostoyevsky's life and times. This edition also contains a chronology, bibliography, table of ranks and notes on each work.

About the Author

Moscow-born Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) served time in a convict prison for his political alliances, and in his later years his passion for gambling led him deeply into debt. His novels include The Devils and The Brothers Karamazov. Ronald Wilks has translated numerous volumes for the Classics, including most recently Chekhov's stories and forthcoming editions of Tolstoy's stories, and Gogol's stories and plays.