Notes from the Underground, and The Gambler (Oxford World's Classics)

This was my first time for The Gambler, my second for the more seminal Notes. The first I read out of a sense of duty and the second because of the many ideas found in the concept of the talking narration. Or I could say that I read them both so that I might be able to include the compilation as a book here. Most of Notes is not the dinner scene from “Concerning the Wet Snow” that I remember. That is too bad, because in my memory that had struck me as the heaviest philosophy and with the most concrete Russian imagery: the stain on the pants, the condescending party, the change of the start of the party, the preaching from the narrator about the lack of money, that attempt to take pride from poverty. It reminds me of Fyodor Karamazov in a way but to the opposite effect, a matter of who is being preached to. One great talent of Dostoevsky was the impassioned harangue. Notes is left being more of the prostitute Liza and the two plus two talk. As is always the case, Russian literature is all about appearances. I did think while reading of what Dostoevsky would be like if on choice occasions there was a soccer match or some mountain climbing. To borrow from the introduction, there was also the portrayal of a crime of passion. While Tolstoy’s characters slow down and recount in greater detail what may be happening step by step, it is Dostoevsky’s choice to black out the mind of somebody, somebody like Raskolnikov, who must act contrary to his principles because somebody else doesn’t have those same principles. This blacking out, however, never needs to happen in these two stories. In The Gambler, the gambler is not so addicted as the surprising Grandmother, who comically appears to put all of her money on zero and red in roulette while those family members who stand to inherit it when she dies nervously look on. She is comic in the most modern since first of all, that she barks orders to be carried around and becomes obsessive while losing. At the moment she appears to have wisdom about keeping her money safe, she appears more wise on the point that her money shouldn’t be passed on to begin with. She is comic as old characters are, that she always remembers something that the young think she doesn’t. Therefore there is so little tragedy when she loses. I did not detect tragedy otherwise even where it was intended. Here is one more, unfortunately, story that is a one trick pony. The Poles are crude and in the way, the woman is as hysterical as she is torn between two loves, and as sickly as she is hysterical, the French set the trends, and the Russians are backwards in their efforts to filter into European sensibilities. Everything is a confession. Nobody is honest in a group of three. Everyone is only honest toward the end, such as Mr. Astley in this case, the other side of the love triangle with Polina. Throwing in The General and the madams, I couldn’t exactly tell how many love triangles there were supposed to be, which may have been as intended. .

I really like it! the rate of sending is out of my expected. It's a wonderful book and I will have more!

exactly what i expected when ordered. the product came on time and there have been no complaints about it for any issues, so it's what i wanted!!!

favorite book of all time

. . . . Perhaps that is why they are classics!I'm going to start with comments on "Notes", and come back to "Gambler" later."Notes from the Underground" is very challenging; it is seen as an early Existentialist writing. I first read this in freshman English at college many years ago and could understand practically nothing in it. (It reminded me then--and still does!--of the ramblings of a high school friend.) As I read through it this time, I was still challenged by what Dostoevsky was saying. (I had read "The Brothers Karamazov" last year and made my way through it OK. Since "Notes" and "Gambler" was a gift from my son for Father's Day, I wanted to read it.)The ending sentences of "Notes" really struck me, and made the book worth reading:"We are stillborn and for a long time we have not been begotten by living fathers and this pleases us more and more. We are acquiring the taste. Before long we'll think up a way of somehow being begotten by an idea" (Part II, Chapter 10).We have gotten to this point in the modern and post-modern worlds. I see this as our formation as humans/humanity is broken. We don't know how to be human (which we learn from our parents in our families, now so broken). Now ideas form us, and they (often) have little or no reference or grounding in what it means to be human or to reality.I see the Christian experience as giving us this human formation and reality.I read (somewhere!) that Dostoevsky wanted to bring in Christ and the need to be rooted in him into "Notes" but didn't because he feared publication would have been delayed by censors. It is a great loss for the book. (I think the censors were from the Russian Orthodox Church who tried to ensure there was no heresy in writings.)(I'm taking a little time now before reading "Gambler" as I want to read something else first, but when I have done that, I will return with some thoughts on that, I hope.)7/29/19: I've now finisthed "The Gambler" and found it a bit easier to comprehend than "Notes." In this one, more of the narrative is between actual people, and not just in the head of the characters. There are some interesting character sketches here, reflecting the compulsions often faced by people. I'm not crazy about Existentialism, but these books are part of the Western canon and from that perspective are good to have read. I suspect that not everyone will agree with me on that!

good book!

Everything went according to schedule. The book did not have and marks and i received it earlier than the expected date.

its one of those books you'll love it or hate it - well actually it might just leave you feeling dissapointed - or really speak to you about some meaning of life

The Notes begins with rather bizarre, but the second section is more entertaining - and also enlightening in a rather Russian way! It does not seem to me, however, an existentialist work. The Gambler is a fine novella with diverse characters, and lots of gambling! Dostoevsky often ceded to the allure of the casino; so his depictions of the agony and ecstasy of are undoubtedly accurate.

Delivered in good time - what more do I need - Happy, good condition, good book.