Notes from Underground (Vintage Classics)

Rating:
Summary: a dark seed from which many dark trees have grown
Review: There is one thing that must be understood when reading this novel: The first novel Dostoevsky wrote after being send to prison in Siberia for four years (and another four years to work there) was "House of the Dead", an autobiographical book about his time in prison. That book is still very remniscent of his early work, it is a "social" book, that still believes in the essential goodness of the human soul. This one is the book he wrote after "House of the Dead" and it is clear that Dostoevsky doesn't believe in anything he used to believe in anymore. This is the one work of Dostoevsky that is truly a testimony to the bitterness he felt after his harsh life in Siberia. It's a "revaluation of all values". This is the voice of Dostoevsky himself, in my opinion, the voice of someone who's seen everything he so believed in shattered into pieces. Read the first part, where he repeatedly dismisses utilitarianism. He has broken with his socialist past, with his leftie friends like Belinsky. This novel is an outburst of rage against the lies he used to believe in before life broke him. Here, he doesn't seem to care about humanity anymore, or tries not to care anymore, anyway.
I know many people would say one shouldn't confuse this work with an autobiography, but the sentiments expressed by the underground man seem to me to be those of Dostoevsky himself. I think that is the secret, and when I found out this "secret" it send a chill down my spine, because I always thought Dostoevsky was a good christian who wanted to live like Alyosha or Myshkin.
After this book, he started writing different books again, in which redemption and goodness was possible. In my opinion, "Notes from the Underground" is an essential read if you want to understand the true nature of those later works, like "Karamazov" and "Crime & Punishment". You will hear the voice of the underground man again, in Iwan, and Raskolnikow. You will hear the true message, and not the christianity and humanism of characters like Father Zosima and Alyosha.

Rating:
Summary: An exceptional translation (& explanation)
Review: This is a difficult novel. Although it's not nearly as long as other works of Dostoyevsky's, it doesn't make it any easier. For this reason, I'm especially glad that I chose the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation. Not only is the book translated well, there are tons of explanitory notes that help clarify what's going on in the story, pick up on cultural and period references, as well as help show for what purpose the book was written in the first place. Without these helps, I think I wouldn't have come away from this book with nearly as much of an understanding of it, and my rating probably would have been more in the neighbourhood of a three. However, because I understand a lot more about what was going on, I was able to appreciate what Dostoyevsky was trying to say with this book.

Rating:
Summary: not what it looks like
Review: this is just another translation of the book. it is not a study guide

Rating:
Summary: Blown away! A new personal favorite.
Review: Wow, how can you read something like this and be expected to comment on it? Dostoevsky's Underground Man is a schrewd social critic, philosopher, and irrational egoist. His arguements for the merits of suffering are hillarious, introspective, and deeply honest. If you ever read any thing in your life, make it this book.