Constance Garnett

Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Double centers on a government clerk who goes mad. It deals with the internal psychological struggle of its main character, Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, who repeatedly encounters someone who is his exact double in appearance but confident, aggressive, and extroverted, characteristics that are the polar opposites to those of the toadying "pushover" protagonist.

The Double

Most significant of the Russian novelist's early stories (1846) offers a straight-faced treatment of a hallucinatory theme. Golyadkin senior is a powerless target of persecution by Golyadkin junior, his double in almost every respect. Familiar Dostoyevskan themes of helplessness, victimization, scandal — beautifully handled in this small masterpiece.

didn’t anticipate to ever read something so absurd by dostoevsky but here we are

lily taggart

'All that he had dreaded and guessed at had now taken place in reality. He gasped for breath, his head went round. There was the stranger, sitting before him on his own bed, also wearing a hat and coat, faintly smiling' A lonely government clerk - shy, awkward, blundering - finds himself pursued by a mysterious stranger. Somehow he looks familiar. In fact, he realizes, he looks exactly like him. He even has the same name. But, unlike him, he is charming and confident. Soon the stranger starts insinuating himself into his life. He works at his office, stays at his apartment, ingratiates himself with his colleagues. No one seems surprised. Who is he? What does he want? Is he a double, or something darker altogether?

Sean Wilson

There's something strangely delightful about being inside the head of someone going mad, and having only the faintest idea of what's going on in the real world outside your head.

I don't know for sure what's really going on in this story and I love it.

very silly and has a really interesting meaning once you start connecting the dots. clever author!

Maya

Der Doppelgänger

maximilian becht

eliz

Romaissa Bellarbi 

The discovery of a mysterious doppelganger turns Goliadkin's life upside down in The Double, while the psychological novel The Gambler combines aspects of two obsessions: the love of a rejecting woman and the fever of gambling, in an omnibus edition containing new translations of two masterful short novels. Reprint.

The Double and the Gambler

Safiya 

Both novels are short and have the quintessential character of Dostoevsky's other long novels. I personally read these when I'm running out of time, or during a short trip !
And also their prices are cheaper !

Most significant of the Russian novelist's early stories (1846) offers straight-faced treatment of hallucinatory theme. Golyadkin senior is ruthlessly persecuted by Golyadkin junior, his double in almost every respect.

Sena

Very captivating and, personally, aggrivating.

Анастасия Розова

I'll be honest, I didn't really fully get it. Dostoyevsky might be a genius, but I'll have to wait till class to figure this one out.
For now, overall, it was just fine. Nothing too good, nothing too exciting. Dostoyevsky got quite a lot of criticism for this book and the author himself tried to rewrite this novella. So maybe it's supposed to feel like that: confusing and all over the place at times.

Draculelle

Rahma fathy

Hayaan Imam Rizvi

borani banjan

Laura Vroom

lily

Sasuga

Nikita 

Rana Saleh

Charlotte Dann

With keen psychological insight far ahead if its time, leading to wide misinterpretation among critics upon its first publication in 1846, Dostoevsky’s second novel is now recognized as one of his most important works and one that inspired literally hundreds of imitations. Unhappy with the negative reception for The Double. Dostoevsky re-wrote his original version of 1846 fifteen years later. Dostoevsky wrote, “This revision, provided with an introduction, will be the equivalent of a new novel. They will finally see what The Double is…In a word, I’m challenging everybody to a battle…Why should I lose a superb idea, a great type in its social importance, which I was the first to discover and of which I was the herald.†?

The Double

Reviews