Russian Classics in Russian and English: Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Dual-Language Book) (Russian Edition)

I wasn’t a fan of how indirect this translation is. I was trying to use it to further help me learn Russian, but I had to put it aside because it took to many liberties with the English version... sure, it reads better, but, for me at least, that’s not really the point.

My beloved Dostoevsky printed on a high quality paper accompanied by a wonderful translation! This novel is a "prelude to existentialism" as Nietzsche put it. And not just a prelude, but the very core of it, I would dare to add. One of the aspects of the book: Free will that strives to assert its own right to be free to such an extent that it acts contrary to the reason and to its own detriment just because it wants to assert its absolute right to freedom. And much more ... ! Highly recommend.

It helped me a lot understanding of the Nuances. Very good translation

This is a real bargain. I have found dual language books to be a wonderful way to learn to read Russian. Dostoevsky would be very very difficult with just a dictionary. For this purpose one does not need a highly literary translation, just an accurate one. Speaking Russian is of course a different problem.

I used this text for a Russian literature class. It presents the work side-by-side, english/russian, so you can compare the english text to the russian. This works very well and gives the student more opportunity to compare languages. The translation was decent and generally made for a good package.

good

Recipient love it.

For post i termediate students of russian /English who like to improve on their reading ability and quikly, dual stories arethe answer. I dont have to recourse to a reference dictionary each time i encounter a difficult word. Just look the opposite page, the same location, use a marker, and thats it. Formidable way of learning,had it been accompanied by russian audo recital of the text, it would have been equivalent to a whole course.

I decided to buy this book after watching the series of wonderful lectures on Russian literature by Professor Irwin Weil, who had recorded a series of lectures with TTC, entitled "TTC: Classics of Russian Literature". A highly recommended series of lectures. However, I did not enjoy this particular book as much as some of the other works by Dostoevsky. I suspect that it may in part be due to the peculiarities of the translation itself which, at times, almost appeared to be machine translation. In other words, highly stilted and almost literal. Thankfully, I am learning Russian so I should be able to read the original portion of the book soon. Even going past the less than satisfactory English translation, the book is divided into two main parts, and I personally preferred the second part over the first. The first part is quite unbearably tedious and winding whereas the latter half of the book gets more into a wonderful examination of human nature and interaction. At times it was even a bit scary to draw parallels with one's own life.I deducted a star only for the fact that the translation (especially in the first half of the book) seemed rather mechanical and uninspired. The second half more than compensates for it though. Definitely recommended, but more for learners of Russian rather than serious students of literature, who would be well advised to read a better translation instead.