Tuesday Intros and Teaser Tuesdays - 'Notes from Underground' by Dostoyevsky

Notes from the UndergroundIt's Tuesday and that means we'll be teasing each other with our current reads! I will also be picking up my grades so please keep your fingers crossed for me! Tuesday Intros is hosted by Diane over at Bibliophile by the Sea and Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading. This week I'm using Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This is one of the books on my 100 Classics-list for the Classics Club and I took it out of the library yesterday.
In 1864, just prior to the years in which he wrote his greatest novels —Crime and PunishmentThe IdiotThe Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov — Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) penned the darkly fascinating Notes from the 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 Dostoyevsky's later works. Notes from the Underground, then, aside from its own compelling qualities, offers readers an ideal introduction to the creative imagination, profundity and uncanny psychological penetration of one of the most influential novelists of the nineteenth century. Constance Garnett's authoritative translation is reprinted here, with a new introduction.
Intro:
'I am a sick man... I am an angry man. I am an unatractive man. I think there is something wrong with my liver. But I don't understand the least thing about my illness, and I don't know for certain what part of me is affected. I am not having any treatment for it, and never have had, although I have a great respect for medicine and for doctors. I am besides extremely superstitious, if only in having such respect for medicine. (I am well educated enough not to be superstitious, but superstitious I am.) No, I refuse treatment out of spite. That is something you will probably not understand. Well, I understand it.' p.1
I like the sound of this beginning. Dostoyevsky seems absolutely unapologetic about his writing and his main character already sounds really fascinating.
TeaserTuesdays2014e
Teaser:
'Gentlemen, of course I'm joking, and I know I am not doing it very successfully, but you know you mustn't take everything I say for a joke. I may be joking with clenched teeth.' p.39
I definitely love this teaser. I like the interaction with the reader and I think most of us have joked through clenched teeth before!

So, what are you reading? Would you like to read Notes from Underground?

Comments

  1. Firstly, that cover is wow. The synopsis and teaser sound really interesting. Dostoyevsky sounds hilarious. My teaser is from Unhinged by A.G. Howard:
    http://welcome-to-zeds-thoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/teaser-tuesday-10th-feb-2015.html

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  2. I read this in college and remember really liking it. Hope you do too. My teaser & giveaway

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  3. Well, this poor man! LOL. Haven't read this one but would try it. Enjoy Juli

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  4. OOh interesting! Totally new to me! Hope you're enjoying it!

    Here's my Tuesday Post

    Have a GREAT day!

    Old Follower :)

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  5. I would definitely keep reading, I loved Crime and Punishment and I want to read more of his writing. Enjoy!

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  6. I'd definitely keep on reading - great intro! Crime and Punishment is on my Classics Club list.

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  7. I liked that intro, which surprised me! I'd keep reading...

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  8. I think all of us have read at least one of his books. Hope you are enjoying it.
    sherry @ fundinmental My TT

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  9. Haven't read this author...this could be a good one to start with.

    My post: http://www.bookclublibrarian.com/2015/02/first-chapter-first-paragraph-93.html

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  10. I always imagined Dosttoyevsky as being very dry and heavy, but this sounds quite interesting!

    My teaser this week is from a mid-grade/young adult historical fiction set in Biblical times: http://pdworkman.com/excerpt-from-lamp-of-darkness/

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  11. I've read Crime and Punishment but not this one. Sounds like maybe I should:)

    My TT - http://fuonlyknew.com/2015/02/10/teaser-tuesdays-101-night-carnival/

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  12. I had to rush over when I saw your TT was by Dostoyevsky. Great stuff.

    My TT this week is also a classic, but one from a French author:
    The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard by Anatole France at http://wp.me/pZnGI-j6

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  13. This is one from Dostoyevsky's work that I missed...having read all the others listed during my "Russian Novel Summer," midway through college.

    Thanks for the reminder that I need to pick this one up. And thanks for visiting my blog.

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  14. I have only ever read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and I loved it. Given that was back in high school, I often wonder what I would think of it now. I should give some of his other work a try too. This does sound good.

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  15. A good intro. I'm already curious about this nameless man. I'd like to keep reading.

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  16. I like that teaser, joking with clenched teeth, and the intro certainly has me interested too. Thanks for visiting my TT https://cleopatralovesbooks.wordpress.com/2015/02/10/teaser-tuesday-february-10/

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  17. Good teaser!

    http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2015/02/teaser-tuesday_10.html

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  18. I saw this on Amazon for free this past week. I wonder if it still is.... well, I am going to check.

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    1. It is, here is the link: http://www.amazon.ca/Notes-Underground-Fyodor-Dostoyevsky-ebook/dp/B0082Z4YIY/ref=sr_1_3_twi_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423606297&sr=8-3&keywords=notes+on+the+underground

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    2. Sorry, that was the Canadian Amazon. Here is US; http://www.amazon.com/Notes-Underground-Fyodor-Dostoyevsky-ebook/dp/B0082Z4YIY/ref=sr_1_3_twi_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423606396&sr=8-3&keywords=Notes+from+the+Underground

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    3. Ooh thanks for letting me know Freda :)

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  19. Well that's quite the beginning, reminds me a bit of my dad--he would never go to the doctor. Kelley at the road goes ever ever on

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  20. Through clenched teeth - love that imagery.

    Here's mine: http://awrenfro.com/2015/02/10/teaser-tuesday-the-shining-by-stephen-king-part-2/

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