Bad ass Russian doing his thing.

Typically, story collections can be tricky to rate because the quality can vary from piece to piece. This one is less difficult: of the novella and its accompanying 4 stories, I enjoyed exactly 0 of them. There were moments of the main tale that gave me hope, but then it would return to its muddled storytelling and characterization. I think, given the revelations at its conclusion, that it would benefit from a reread, but I just didn't like it enough to want to commit to that. The other tales ran the gamut from exceedingly dull to flat out bad. It was still very recognizably Dostoevsky (or at least a convincing cover band), which worries me. Did I only love those other novels because I was a moody teen/ 20-something or was this collection just weak compared to the rest of his cannon?

The Russians continue to deliver. Crime and Punishment was a searing look into the uniquely human emotion of guilt. In this set of short novellas, Dostoevksy continues to search, extract and then dissect emotions further. Including shades of embarrassment, haughtiness, guilt (again) and revenge. It can all get quite raw and heavy, at places, but there are stories here I won't forget in a long while

Contains the stories:

A Nasty Anecdote -
The Eternal Husband -
Bobok -
The Meek One - 4/5 - a husband explains the decaying marriage that led his young wife to suicide
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man -

This is a definitive collection of Dostoevsky's shorter works. While there are only five stories contained here, the quality is consistently very high and includes some of his best works of short fiction. I might consider Bobok to be my favorite Dostoevsky short story. The centerpiece novella, The Eternal Husband, is perhaps the least compelling work on display, but is still very good. The Eternal Husband reads at a breakneck pace, uncommon for Dostoevsky, and feels like a play in prose form. While I struggle to attribute many greater themes to it, it is a page-turner. The other three stories are all classics as well.

pretty much all good. also mostly all lesser, derivative versions of the big novels, but lesser and derivative versions of those are better than most novels. the titular novel and dream of a ridiculous man were particularly good!

A Nasty Anecdote - it funny

The Eternal Husband - that's some good shit right there

Bobok - Ehhhhhhhh

The Meek One - it ok

The Dream of a Ridiculous Man - me likey

As is his style, Dostoevsky’s short stories range from humorous (Bobok) to grim realities of life (The Meek One).

1. A NASTY STORY (1862)

Funny and tragic! How stingy the protagonist is!
Setelah minum terlalu banyak dengan dua sesama pegawai negeri, Ivan Ilyich Pralinsky menguraikan filosofinya yang didasarkan pada kebaikan kepada mereka yang kurang mampu. Saat ia mau pulang, kereta kudanya serta kusirnya pergi. Maka ia marah dan berjalan kaki untuk pulang. Di perjalanan ia mendapati suatu pesta di rumah warga. Ia dapat informasi dari polisi bahwa itu perayaan pernikahan salah satu bawahan Ivan Ilyich - yaitu Pseldonymov. Pseldonymov itu muda, gajinya rendah, miskin dan pasrah orangnya. Menikah pun ia dijodohkan oleh ayah calon istri. Ayahnya yang sungguh kasar dan pelit.

Ivan Ilyich memutuskan untuk menerapkan filosofinya dan mengunjungi pesta itu. Sontak membuat tuan rumah dan tamunya kaget dan kecewa - tak terkecuali Pseldonymov. Serangkaian peristiwa semakin tidak pantas dan skandal terungkap. Pasangan yang baru menikah itu terlampau sedih. Ivan pingsan karena banyak minum hingga pegawai negeri itu ditidurkan di satu-satunya ranjang yang tersedia untuk pasangan yang baru menikah itu. Belum lagi Pseldonymov dan ibunya harus memikirkan biaya untuk merawat Ivan Ilyich yang pelit itu.


2. THE ETERNAL HUSBAND (1870)

Simple but complex!
Ini kisah sederhana tapi kompleks penjabarannya hingga membuat saya termenung-menung dan kagum atas kepiawaian dan ketelatenan Dostoyevsky dalam menuliskannya. Adalah berawal dari seorang pria pemilik tanah bernama Velchaninov. Menderita hipokondria, sedang menghadapi persidangan tentang tanah. Mendadak ia menerima kunjungan dari Pavel Pavlovich Trusotsky - seorang kenalan lama yang baru saja menjadi duda. Velchaninov teringat dulu telah berselingkuh dengan istri Trusotsky, Natalia. Dia lalu menyadari bahwa dia adalah ayah biologis dari Liza, putri Trusotsky yang berusia delapan tahun. Velchaninov, yang tidak ingin Liza dibesarkan oleh pecandu alkohol macam Trusotsky, membawa bocah itu ke keluarga asuh. Tapi Liza murung, sakit, dan meninggal di sana.

Trusotsky lalu ingin menikahi gadis muda Nadia dan mengajak Velchaninov untuk mengunjungi kediamannya dan membelikannya sebuah gelang. Trusotsky diejek oleh saudari-saudari Nadia dan dikurung selama bermain di kediaman gadis itu. Diam-diam Nadia memberikan gelang itu kembali kepada Velchaninov, memintanya untuk mengembalikannya lagi kepada Trusotsky dan mengatakan kepadanya bahwa dia tidak ingin menikah dengan Trutsotsky. Nadia lalu bertunangan dengan Alexander Lobov, seorang bocah lelaki berusia sembilan belas tahun.

Trusotsky lalu menghabiskan malam di kamar Velchaninov dan mencoba membunuhnya dengan pisau silet. Velchaninov berhasil membela diri, melukai tangan kirinya.

Beberapa waktu kemudian, setelah Velchaninov memenangkan persidangannya soal tanah, keduanya bertemu lagi di stasiun kereta api. Trusotsky menikah lagi, tetapi seorang perwira militer muda bepergian dengan dia dan istrinya. Istri baru Trusotsky mengundang Velchaninov untuk mengunjungi mereka, tetapi Trusotsky memintanya untuk mengabaikan undangan ini.

-A.S.

This is another one of those books that I ordered as a step forth in my attempt to complete Dostoyevsky's works. The name of the primary story was somewhat intriguing and Dostoyevsky is always a good bet. Hence I ordered it without much thought. The book turned out to have five short stories, two of which ("Bobok" and "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man") I had already covered in another compilation. The other three, I read with relish.

A very short note about Dostoyevsky's writing in this book : the translators has chosen a set of stories that focused on Dostoyevsky's idea of the "underground" man. Since I have read only the "underground" stories of Dostoyevsky, I am unable to comprehend a difference. But the stories do seem to have his usual essence (reading the introduction might make this point clearer).

The first story, "A Nasty Anecdote", talks of an "actual state councillor" Ivan Ilyich Pralinsky who holds the belief that humaneness can bring the people of Russia together and that is the only way diplomats can be popular among general folks. He debates this with a few friends over drinks and managing to get drunk, on his walk back home tries to make himself an object of an anecdote by going to attend the wedding celebrations of a junior in his department so that people could recount stories of how he "embraced morally" people below his rank. Things do not go as expected and at the end of a scandalous dinner, Ivan Pralinsky manages to make himself an object of a nasty anecdote instead.

The Eternal Husband is the story of the meeting of a cuckolded middle aged man and his wife's erstwhile lover. This lover, Velachinov, is the protagonist of this story and the other "eternal husband" looks up to him despite all the spite. It is mutual hatred and contention over their loved ones that leads to multiple meetings between the two. Each trying to justify himself to the other.

The third new story in this book : The Meek One, is the ramblings of a husband standing over the corpse of his wife who jumped out of the window. They are he ramblings that explain his distress at finding himself alone once more. He accuses himself; accuses her; looks for ways to justify her acts. But his pain is evident at the loss of one he loved and for whom he had agreed to change.

All three stories were very interesting. I specially liked "The Meek One" more than the others because of the rambling nature of the story. It was nothing more than the mindless babble of a widower. But it was very beautifully portrayed. I will resume my Dostoyevskian journey after a short break now.

Infinite layers - we'll see what crystallizes over time (for me rn: aesthetic depiction of masculine "wanting" - possession? identity? respect?)

My version is the 2000 updated Bantam edition with 328 pages.

I have to say that while I've read other classics, this was one of the most painful books I have ever suffered through. While there were some good points in particular stories, having at times almost three pages without a new paragraph break made for an very tiring read.

I was thinking about reading The Brothers Karamazov. But if it is anything like this book, I will likely pass.

Overall, I think you have to like the time period and the author to appreciate these works.