Name: The Double
Rating: 3.8 (40 reviews)
ISBN: 9780486295725

Fyodor Dostoevsky

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.

The Double

Constantly rebuffed from the social circles he aspires to frequent, the timid clerk Golyadkin is confronted by the sudden appearance of his double, a more brazen, confident and socially successful version of himself, who abuses and victimizes the original. As he is increasingly persecuted, Golyadkin finds his social, romantic and professional life unravelling, in a spiral that leads to a catastrophic denouement. The Double, Dostoevsky's second published work of fiction, which foreshadows in its themes many of his mature novels, is the surreal and hallucinatory tale of an unfortunate anti-hero, at once chilling in its depiction of the dark sides of human nature and exuberantly comical.

could never get bored of this. chose to write about this for my extended essay and every time i reread it i find something new like oh wow

salma

Karpe Diez

Simillitudinile dintre cele doua personaje sunt doar de suprafata. Diferentele de comportament si motivationale sunt cele care il aduc in pragul exasperarii pe eroul principal. Mai ales cand actiunile Dublului incep sa creeze interferente dramatice in existenta "titularului", dandu-i-o cu totul peste cap.<br />Personajul este un functionar de birou cu o existenta penibil de stearsa. El trece treptat si cu pasi inceti prin diverse etape de framantari dureroase in care ia decizii, le revoca, incearca sa se lase in voia destinului, se atarna de speranta, si, finalmente, se supune resemnat deznadejdii.<br /><br />Geniul lui Dostoievksy sta in aceasta descriere fin detaliata de situatii mai presus decat actiunea aleasa in sine. Sunt nenumarate situatii in care nu esti sigur, ca cititor, daca sa razi sau sa te intristezi de ridicolul si neputinta personajului.

'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.

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 !

The Double

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