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Notes from Underground

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Notes from Underground

By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
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About this listen

"I am a sick man.... I am a spiteful man", a nameless voice cries out. And so, from underground, emerge the passionate confessions of a suffering man; the painful self-examination of a tormented soul; the bristling scorn of a lonely individual who has become one of the greatest anti-heroes in all literature.

In 1864, just prior to the years in which he wrote his greatest novels - Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed, and The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky penned the darkly fascinating Notes from Underground. Its nameless hero is a profoundly alienated individual in whose brooding self-analysis there is a search for the true and the good in a world of relative values and few absolutes. Moreover, the novel introduces themes - moral, religious, political, and social - that dominated Dostoevsky’s later works.

Those who are familiar with his works will immediately recognize the novel's richly complex philosophical, political, and psychological themes; those who are not will find the best introduction to Dostoevsky's grander masterpieces.

Public Domain (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing Classics Russian & Soviet World Literature Russia Inspiring
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bad performance
narrator did the book no justice and in fact failed to even distinguish the different characters

the audio was jumbled and confusing

badly done

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I listened to this while at work, I’m a painter.
I enjoyed the narration and his expressions and voice.

Great reading!

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Reader isn’t a good fit. Couldn’t get through the first few sentences, will look for better

I don’t like the reader

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I found this short story engaging, easy to listen to and enjoyable. I laughed out loud many times. Always enjoy Stefan Rudnicki too.

Thoroughly enjoyable

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A rather dark and deeply insightful view into the human condition that still holds true today. A classic masterpiece from Dostoevsky.

A classic

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Such an amazing book. You feel the authors feelings, a very honest confessions all the way from beginning to end. Recommend

Surprising and very good

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I loved this novella in the same way one loves the rain. It was real, it spoke so much truth, and it encapsulated the torturous beauty of the conscious mind. We are all slaves to our doubts and obsessions. Superior observations on the human condition and chronic social anxiety.

A passionate struggle...

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Dostoevsky portrays this man almost too well. To be bitter, ruminating on your negative thoughts and totally unable to see outside of your own selfish world view is taken to the absolute limit.. and yet he explores that piece of all of us that knows deep down, we are all at risk of abandoning moral duty, societal expectations and social norms. A fantastic, nihilistic and thought provoking short work by a literary genius.

Human Nature & Nihilism

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