Notes from Underground (Vintage Classics)

Good story. Seems like a great introduction to Dostoevsky

Great book - check your ego. I think this version is a good translation, but then again I guess I wouldn’t know for sure.

Good book

Needed for a class. Still a good read

Dostoevsky's most psychologically concentrated work in a beautifully produced edition. The Underground Man's relentless self-examination still reads as startlingly modern — the internal contradictions, the resentment, the paralysis of over-analysis feel as relevant now as when it was written. The Vintage Classics formatting is clean and the translation reads fluidly without losing the original's edge. A short book that rewards slow reading and multiple returns to it.

Very satisfied. Only a few problems is there is a lot of annotations (thankfully in pencil) I was unaware about and something happened to the spine but I’m not too worried about that.

Near the end, after so much madness and insanity, Dostoevsky breaks above it for a moment and gives a beautiful, insightful, precious description of a father, mother and child: "The first married love will pass, true, but then an even better love will come. Then their souls will grow close; they'll decide all their doings together; they’ll have no secrets from each other. And when children arrive, then all of it, even the hardest times, will look like happiness; one need only love and have courage. Now even work brings joy, now even if you must occasionally deny yourself bread for the children's sake, still there is joy. For they will love you for it later; so you're laying aside for yourself. The children are growing - you feel you're an example to them, a support for them; that even when you die, they’ll bear your thoughts and feelings upon themselves as they received them from you, they'll take on your image and likeness. So it is a great duty. How can a father and mother fail to grow closer? People say it's hard having children. Who says so? It's a heavenly happiness! Do you love little children, Liza? I love them terribly. You know - there's this rosy little boy sucking at your breast, now what husband's heart could turn against his wife, looking at her sitting with his child! The baby is rosy, plump, pampered, sprawling; his little hands and feet are pudgy, his nails are so clean and small, so small it's funny to see; his eyes seem to understand everything already. He's sucking and clutching at your breast with his little hand, The father comes up - he'll tear himself away from the breast, bend back, look at his father, laughing - as if it really were God knows how funny - and then again, again start sucking. Or else he’ll up and bite his mother’s breast, if he’s already cutting teeth, while giving her a sidelong look: ‘See how I bit you!’ Isn’t this the whole of happiness, when they’re all three together, husband, wife, and child? A lot can be forgiven for those moments. No, Liza, one must first learn how to live, and only then accuse others!"

Great translation and a fun read

Book came in perfect condition. Loved it

Fram sidan av boken fick lite böj men tror de har med leveransen att göra med, annars helt perfekt!

I read this for my book club: this excellent translation is sending me back to all of the Russian greats, as long as they're translated by these two!

Good version of the book.

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