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The Eternal Husband and Other Stories
The Eternal Husband and Other Stories brings together five of Dostoevsky’s short masterpieces rendered into English by two of the most celebrated Dostoevsky translators of our time. Filled with many of the themes and concerns central to his great novels, these short works display the full range of Dostoevsky’s genius. The centerpiece of this collection, the short novel The Eternal Husband, describes the almost surreal meeting of a cuckolded widower and his dead wife’s lover. Dostoevsky’s dark brilliance and satiric vision infuse the other four tales with all-too-human characters, including a government official who shows up uninvited at an underling’s wedding to prove his humanity; a self-deceiving narrator who struggles futilely to understand his wife’s suicide; and a hack writer who attends a funeral and ends up talking with the dead.
The Eternal Husband and Other Stories is sterling Dostoevsky—a collection of emotional power and uncompromising insight into the human condition.
The Eternal Husband and Other Stories is sterling Dostoevsky—a collection of emotional power and uncompromising insight into the human condition.
349 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1890
About the author
Fyodor Dostoevsky
3,678 books58.3k followersWorks, such as the novels
Crime and Punishment
(1866),
The Idiot
(1869), and
The Brothers Karamazov
(1880), of Russian writer Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky or Dostoevski combine religious mysticism with profound psychological insight.
Very influential writings of Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin included Problems of Dostoyevsky's Works (1929),
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky composed short stories, essays, and journals. His literature explores humans in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century and engages with a variety of philosophies and themes. People most acclaimed his Demons (1872).
Many literary critics rate him of the greatest of world literature and consider multiple highly influential masterpieces. They consider his Notes from Underground of the first existentialist literature. He also well acts as a philosopher and theologian.
(Russian: Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский) (see also Fiodor Dostoïevski)
Very influential writings of Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin included Problems of Dostoyevsky's Works (1929),
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky composed short stories, essays, and journals. His literature explores humans in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century and engages with a variety of philosophies and themes. People most acclaimed his Demons (1872).
Many literary critics rate him of the greatest of world literature and consider multiple highly influential masterpieces. They consider his Notes from Underground of the first existentialist literature. He also well acts as a philosopher and theologian.
(Russian: Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский) (see also Fiodor Dostoïevski)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews
May 26, 2020
4.5*
Oh, Dostoyevsky. If ever I ascent to power, I’ll make him mandatory reading. No worries, just joking.
This collection, wonderfully translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, features two novellas, The Eternal Husband and The Meek One , as well as three short stories, A Nasty Anecdote , Bobok: Notes of a certain person , and The Dream of a Ridiculous Man: a fantastic story. The novellas are very strong, especially The Eternal Husband which tells the story of a man who encounters the husband of a deceased former lover. It’s a very good introduction to some of the themes that dominate Dostoesvky’s work: the problem of guilt, the consequences of one’s mistakes, and how to atone for them. The dynamic between the ex-lover and the husband is so compellingly written. It’s a love-hate relationship with erotic undertones and a hint of psychological thrill. It’s everything you d’want in a relationship between two characters.
The Meek One concerns yet another unhappy marriage which culminates in the suicide of the young wife. Told from the point of view of the husband, it’s a story that makes the reader ache for the characters. Dostoevsky is an expert at this kind of manipulation. One just wants to fold the characters in a blanket and assure them that everything is going to be alright. The tragedy of this story is that it perverts the trope of lack-of-communication-creating-misunderstandings. There’s a point where the husband does try – and even succeeds – to communicate with his wife, to explain his feelings, his reasons for his sternness towards her, but it is too late by then.
The short stories are a little less successful with the exception of Bobok: Notes of a Certain Person in which a living man visits a cemetery only to get a glimpse of how people live after death. It was funny, satirical and just slightly creepy. Although my least favourite, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man is a premature attempt at stream of consciousness which together with Bobok feels very modern. One can really understand the immense influence of Dostoevsky’s work as many of the techniques he employs were used and overused by subsequent writers. If you haven’t read Dostoesvky you really should, for crying out loud, this doesn’t even need saying.
Oh, Dostoyevsky. If ever I ascent to power, I’ll make him mandatory reading. No worries, just joking.
This collection, wonderfully translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, features two novellas, The Eternal Husband and The Meek One , as well as three short stories, A Nasty Anecdote , Bobok: Notes of a certain person , and The Dream of a Ridiculous Man: a fantastic story. The novellas are very strong, especially The Eternal Husband which tells the story of a man who encounters the husband of a deceased former lover. It’s a very good introduction to some of the themes that dominate Dostoesvky’s work: the problem of guilt, the consequences of one’s mistakes, and how to atone for them. The dynamic between the ex-lover and the husband is so compellingly written. It’s a love-hate relationship with erotic undertones and a hint of psychological thrill. It’s everything you d’want in a relationship between two characters.
The Meek One concerns yet another unhappy marriage which culminates in the suicide of the young wife. Told from the point of view of the husband, it’s a story that makes the reader ache for the characters. Dostoevsky is an expert at this kind of manipulation. One just wants to fold the characters in a blanket and assure them that everything is going to be alright. The tragedy of this story is that it perverts the trope of lack-of-communication-creating-misunderstandings. There’s a point where the husband does try – and even succeeds – to communicate with his wife, to explain his feelings, his reasons for his sternness towards her, but it is too late by then.
The short stories are a little less successful with the exception of Bobok: Notes of a Certain Person in which a living man visits a cemetery only to get a glimpse of how people live after death. It was funny, satirical and just slightly creepy. Although my least favourite, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man is a premature attempt at stream of consciousness which together with Bobok feels very modern. One can really understand the immense influence of Dostoevsky’s work as many of the techniques he employs were used and overused by subsequent writers. If you haven’t read Dostoesvky you really should, for crying out loud, this doesn’t even need saying.
November 15, 2022
“The most monstrous monster is the monster with noble feelings”
Dostoevsky,my man,I love you!, I just do,I can’t help it!!!
I loved all the other books I have read this month,but then I read Dostoevsky's work and it’s a different feeling altogether.
The rich landowner Velchaninov is worrying over a legal case concerning an estate. He's a hypochondriac,nervous type who is haunted by memories from his past.
The past is a collection of shameful misdeeds he is unable to recall with clarity .So he tells himself not to worry,but fails to do so.To make matters worse he sees a strange man with a crepe hat several times.He thinks the man is following him to spite him for some incomprehensible reason.He then dismisses the idea believing himself to be delirious.But then the man shows up at his doorstep,he is real and Velchaninov recognises the man to be “the husband(Pavlovich) of his ex-lover(Natalya)” and lo and behold the drama unfolds!.
The relationship dynamics between these two men is strange ,extraordinary and absurd ,only Dostoevsky can showcase psychologically complicated relationships in such a masterful way!!
Both men are equally twisted but in different ways. Velchaninov is a charmer,a ladies man with no purpose in life. Pavlovich,on the other hand cannot survive without a wife (his purpose) and hence he is ” the eternal husband”.The theme of the eternal husband is brilliantly explored.I never knew it could be so interesting!!.
The psychological duel between these two men is one of the best I have read in terms of mind games between characters.I don’t have to elaborate here,it’s Dostoevsky for God’s sake!!.The writing is top-notch, level with his greatest works, just pure genius.The plot structure and pacing are impeccable!.It’s gripping and unputdownable!!.There are some great plot twists here(never saw them coming!),never a dull moment.Such a powerful little novella!!. Some of the scenes here will be my all time favourites. Love the reference to “Notes from the underground”.
This totally belongs with his greatest,I truly believe that!.
The feeling of reading a Dostoevsky's work for the first time is just beyond words,the man blows me away every time!!.I only have 2 more left,Netochka Nezvanova and Adolescent.After that I shall spend the rest of my life re-reading this genius’s work!!
Dostoevsky,my man,I love you!, I just do,I can’t help it!!!
I loved all the other books I have read this month,but then I read Dostoevsky's work and it’s a different feeling altogether.
The rich landowner Velchaninov is worrying over a legal case concerning an estate. He's a hypochondriac,nervous type who is haunted by memories from his past.
The past is a collection of shameful misdeeds he is unable to recall with clarity .So he tells himself not to worry,but fails to do so.To make matters worse he sees a strange man with a crepe hat several times.He thinks the man is following him to spite him for some incomprehensible reason.He then dismisses the idea believing himself to be delirious.But then the man shows up at his doorstep,he is real and Velchaninov recognises the man to be “the husband(Pavlovich) of his ex-lover(Natalya)” and lo and behold the drama unfolds!.
The relationship dynamics between these two men is strange ,extraordinary and absurd ,only Dostoevsky can showcase psychologically complicated relationships in such a masterful way!!
Both men are equally twisted but in different ways. Velchaninov is a charmer,a ladies man with no purpose in life. Pavlovich,on the other hand cannot survive without a wife (his purpose) and hence he is ” the eternal husband”.The theme of the eternal husband is brilliantly explored.I never knew it could be so interesting!!.
The psychological duel between these two men is one of the best I have read in terms of mind games between characters.I don’t have to elaborate here,it’s Dostoevsky for God’s sake!!.The writing is top-notch, level with his greatest works, just pure genius.The plot structure and pacing are impeccable!.It’s gripping and unputdownable!!.There are some great plot twists here(never saw them coming!),never a dull moment.Such a powerful little novella!!. Some of the scenes here will be my all time favourites. Love the reference to “Notes from the underground”.
This totally belongs with his greatest,I truly believe that!.
The feeling of reading a Dostoevsky's work for the first time is just beyond words,the man blows me away every time!!.I only have 2 more left,Netochka Nezvanova and Adolescent.After that I shall spend the rest of my life re-reading this genius’s work!!
August 18, 2021
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.
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.
October 20, 2020
"The most monstrous monster is the monster with noble feelings."
This is a fine collection of Dosty's stories united perhaps by the common theme of 'good intentions gone awry', or better 'holy idiocy'. Of the stories collected here the best are "A Nasty Anecdote" (drunk boss shows up at employee's wedding to illustrate his 'humanity') and "The Eternal Husband" (years after the affair, guy meets the husband of the now-dead wife he slept with). These are pure Dosty and some of his best short works, alternately funny, bewildering, and dark. The other three stories "Bobok", "The Meek One", "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" are good, too, but only "Meek" would I recommend to the non-completist since it has shades of the "saved prostitute" from Notes from Underground and serves as a conduit through D-bag's literary gravitation.
This is a fine collection of Dosty's stories united perhaps by the common theme of 'good intentions gone awry', or better 'holy idiocy'. Of the stories collected here the best are "A Nasty Anecdote" (drunk boss shows up at employee's wedding to illustrate his 'humanity') and "The Eternal Husband" (years after the affair, guy meets the husband of the now-dead wife he slept with). These are pure Dosty and some of his best short works, alternately funny, bewildering, and dark. The other three stories "Bobok", "The Meek One", "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" are good, too, but only "Meek" would I recommend to the non-completist since it has shades of the "saved prostitute" from Notes from Underground and serves as a conduit through D-bag's literary gravitation.
February 20, 2019
One need not read extensively into Dostoevsky writings to understand that with every work he never fails to address his social climate.
The book is a collection of five different stories, which include: A Nasty Anecdote, The Eternal Husband, Bobok, The Meek One and The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man. Amongst the five, The Eternal Husband being my favorite amongst them.
In The Eternal Husband, there abound varying things that were dear to me but lay beyond my ability to express them (maybe on multiple reads I would be able to, or not!).
The Eternal Husband digs into the recesses of two unlikely characters, inextricably linked in a toxic knot. One an hypochondriac plagued with insomnia and a lawsuit, the other a capricious drunkard. Formerly, acquaintances at a time, now reconnected by a shared tragedy that would define their character.
The unique chemistry displayed by its central characters was vivid, tangible, it was as though I could feel them in a manner one feels an old friend after an aging absence. I read the story at a sitting. This sharply points to Dostoevsky's mastery of the intricacies and subtleties inherent in human dialogue.
I also observed in the story, deeply among other things; an aching sensation of loss, how we like to think we have control, the limits of forgiveness, how some hurtful things linger eternally, the mocking "green eyed monster."
Like the other stories, Bobok strikes as a satire. Here, we come to a writer in a society where art as it should be is not given its voice, inverted and distorted. A 'necessary' visit to a cemetery by the writer, and with some mumbo jumbo we see the dead speak, and he hearing. If we could hear the dead speak, few of the best things they could say are in Bobok.
Nasty Anecdote has a lot of drinking. The story shows the relationship between humaneness and heroism. Of all, Nasty Anecdote to me, was the least profound.
The Dreams Of A Ridiculous Man shows a critical look into why Man is where he is and what he needs to do to get back on his feet. With evident existentialism, the idea that Dostoevsky addresses his social climate is observed.
Above all, looking across these stories, I see from Dostoevsky, an ability of the most refined quality to analyse the intricacies present in a given situation, to dissect and reach viscerally, the innermost regions which characterise the external outlook of that situation and still keep its essence. The Meek One confirms this assertion.
The book is a collection of five different stories, which include: A Nasty Anecdote, The Eternal Husband, Bobok, The Meek One and The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man. Amongst the five, The Eternal Husband being my favorite amongst them.
In The Eternal Husband, there abound varying things that were dear to me but lay beyond my ability to express them (maybe on multiple reads I would be able to, or not!).
The Eternal Husband digs into the recesses of two unlikely characters, inextricably linked in a toxic knot. One an hypochondriac plagued with insomnia and a lawsuit, the other a capricious drunkard. Formerly, acquaintances at a time, now reconnected by a shared tragedy that would define their character.
The unique chemistry displayed by its central characters was vivid, tangible, it was as though I could feel them in a manner one feels an old friend after an aging absence. I read the story at a sitting. This sharply points to Dostoevsky's mastery of the intricacies and subtleties inherent in human dialogue.
I also observed in the story, deeply among other things; an aching sensation of loss, how we like to think we have control, the limits of forgiveness, how some hurtful things linger eternally, the mocking "green eyed monster."
Like the other stories, Bobok strikes as a satire. Here, we come to a writer in a society where art as it should be is not given its voice, inverted and distorted. A 'necessary' visit to a cemetery by the writer, and with some mumbo jumbo we see the dead speak, and he hearing. If we could hear the dead speak, few of the best things they could say are in Bobok.
Nasty Anecdote has a lot of drinking. The story shows the relationship between humaneness and heroism. Of all, Nasty Anecdote to me, was the least profound.
The Dreams Of A Ridiculous Man shows a critical look into why Man is where he is and what he needs to do to get back on his feet. With evident existentialism, the idea that Dostoevsky addresses his social climate is observed.
Above all, looking across these stories, I see from Dostoevsky, an ability of the most refined quality to analyse the intricacies present in a given situation, to dissect and reach viscerally, the innermost regions which characterise the external outlook of that situation and still keep its essence. The Meek One confirms this assertion.
July 31, 2008
The short stories in this book range from very dark to quite hilarious. "A Nasty Anecdote" describes a high-status man who tries to socialize with the "little people" to show them just how humane he is, but he fails and what Dostoevsky presents is an extremely awkward situation that almost hurts to read, yet is still very funny (kind of like the UK The Office, which is painfully and hilariously awkward).
"The Eternal Husband" is an amazing story. I was blown away. It is very intense; there are so many dark themes in this story. I didn't know what to think most of the time because I was so stunned and enthralled by the events. I highly recommend it. (But if you're happy and don't want to ruin your mood, don't read it.)
"Bobok" is a short story about a man who falls asleep in a cemetery and listens to dead people talking with each other. It's pretty amusing, which is a relief after the grim but gripping "Eternal Husband." "The Meek One" is also an excellent story that begins with the announcement of a woman's suicide, followed by her husband's emotional account of the events leading up to her death (this story is my second favorite in this book, with The Eternal Husband being the first).
Finally, the book ends with "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man," describing how a man who was about to commit suicide was changed by a dream he had. The story lost me about halfway through, but I think it's because I read it immediately after reading "The Meek One" and was worn out by the intensity of the previous story (but that's because I get way too involved in these tales). I recommend breaks between each of these stories so you can appreciate them fully without your mood and thoughts following one (they are all pretty gripping!) interfering your enjoyment of the next.
"The Eternal Husband" is an amazing story. I was blown away. It is very intense; there are so many dark themes in this story. I didn't know what to think most of the time because I was so stunned and enthralled by the events. I highly recommend it. (But if you're happy and don't want to ruin your mood, don't read it.)
"Bobok" is a short story about a man who falls asleep in a cemetery and listens to dead people talking with each other. It's pretty amusing, which is a relief after the grim but gripping "Eternal Husband." "The Meek One" is also an excellent story that begins with the announcement of a woman's suicide, followed by her husband's emotional account of the events leading up to her death (this story is my second favorite in this book, with The Eternal Husband being the first).
Finally, the book ends with "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man," describing how a man who was about to commit suicide was changed by a dream he had. The story lost me about halfway through, but I think it's because I read it immediately after reading "The Meek One" and was worn out by the intensity of the previous story (but that's because I get way too involved in these tales). I recommend breaks between each of these stories so you can appreciate them fully without your mood and thoughts following one (they are all pretty gripping!) interfering your enjoyment of the next.
Read
September 27, 2016This was my first effort at Dostoyevsky's shortest-length works, and it is a series of stories ranging from the rather dull to the sublime. The central novella, The Eternal Husband, didn't hold that much appeal to me, but some of the others -- Bobok, The Meek One, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man -- are solid gold in that best, most absurd and angry and funny way that Russians write. Stories that breathe flaming fumes.
March 25, 2009
The title story is a novella. That is the part I read. "The Eternal Husband" is the model for Saul Bellow's novel, THE VICTIM. Having read and liked THE VICTIM, I decided to read Dostoevsky's novella. I read it in the translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky. (That's the Bantam edition with the Magritte-like painting on the cover, with the man's back to us.) Dostoevsky's masterpiece is not only the model for Bellow's book, it is the blueprint. Bellow's genius was to introduce the theme of antisemitism into Dostoevsky's story of a Christian sinner and his Christian nemesis.
Even what I took to be an inserted set-piece in THE VICTIM reflects what amounts to a set-piece in THE ETERNAL HUSBAND. While Dostoevsky's scene advances the plot and the Bellow scene doesn't, both have a discussion of how to be human while producing art -- singing, in Dostoevsky's book and acting in Bellow's -- and both discussions are in scenes in both books showing the protagonist suddenly enjoying himself in lively company. Saul Bellow matched Dostoevsky almost point-for-point in THE VICTIM
Even what I took to be an inserted set-piece in THE VICTIM reflects what amounts to a set-piece in THE ETERNAL HUSBAND. While Dostoevsky's scene advances the plot and the Bellow scene doesn't, both have a discussion of how to be human while producing art -- singing, in Dostoevsky's book and acting in Bellow's -- and both discussions are in scenes in both books showing the protagonist suddenly enjoying himself in lively company. Saul Bellow matched Dostoevsky almost point-for-point in THE VICTIM
October 29, 2023
Five stories in all.
'The Eternal Husband,' my favorite one.
Philosophical, Satirical, Psychological.
Who better to write on these three pillars?
'The Eternal Husband,' my favorite one.
Philosophical, Satirical, Psychological.
Who better to write on these three pillars?
Want to read
February 25, 2024Contains 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 -
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 -
May 5, 2024
A collection of 5 short stories/novellas written by Dostoevsky:
A Nasty Anecdote - 5/5 absolutely loved this one, my favourite of the bunch, hilarity ensues when a functionary crashes his underlings wedding
The Eternal Husband - 4/5 the sad story of a cuckolded husband and his further humiliation in front the man that his wife slept with, a fair bit of tragedy but some comedy too
Bobok - 3/5 a very short story of a man hearing recently dead people arguing among themselves in a cemetery
The Meek One - 4/5 a husband recounts the sad tale of his relationship with the wife that had recently committed suicide. This is the darkest and most tragic of the stories
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man - 3/5 a man wants to kill himself but dreams of an ideal world where everyone is happy and loves each other
A Nasty Anecdote - 5/5 absolutely loved this one, my favourite of the bunch, hilarity ensues when a functionary crashes his underlings wedding
The Eternal Husband - 4/5 the sad story of a cuckolded husband and his further humiliation in front the man that his wife slept with, a fair bit of tragedy but some comedy too
Bobok - 3/5 a very short story of a man hearing recently dead people arguing among themselves in a cemetery
The Meek One - 4/5 a husband recounts the sad tale of his relationship with the wife that had recently committed suicide. This is the darkest and most tragic of the stories
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man - 3/5 a man wants to kill himself but dreams of an ideal world where everyone is happy and loves each other
March 5, 2010
A Nasty Anecdote, also known as An Unpleasant Predicament along with every other possible translation of the words, is not as pristine of plot as D's previous stories. The paralleled figures, Pralinsky and Pseldonymov, seem to be developed fully, but many of the detailed characters like Mlekopitaev remain offstage. The main idea behind the conflict of the story is brilliant, and apropos to the subject matter of the day. Alexander II had just freed Russia from serfdom, and the intelligentsia were discussing how to relate with their new free fellow citizens. In the story, Pralinsky argues for his superficial thoughts of "humaneness," which he acts upon, and by cutting the cords of class distinction too early, gets himself and everyone around him into trouble. His type is a dreaming everyman of extremes, with lofty ideals and (simultaneously) despicable egoism and pretension. Comic quality wins out in the end, though Pralinsky "doesn't hold out."
Note on this Bantam Classic copy of the PV translation: An important line is missing from the top of the final page 66 of A Nasty Anecdote. If I didn't have another translation available I would've been lost.
The Eternal Husband as a novella epitomizes Dostoevsky's versatility. Here, he takes a break from political, moral and societal causes, focusing on marriage and fidelity. A man, Velchaninov, lives in guilt and must come to terms with the consequences of his youth. He eventually comes around to earning the hero position in the work, while balancing his karma through various injustices instigated by the cuckolded husband of his past lover. This husband, Pavel Pavlovich, is a character with no nobility, who appears to learn nothing during the course of the plot. Only Velchaninov sees the horror of their actions on Liza and, to some degree, everyone else in the plot. Ironically, the paralleled characters use guilt on each other, trading it back and forth in every scene. There are very few women in the cast, amplifying the misguided decisions and responsibilities of the two men.
Bobok is a brief tale Dostoevsky published in the first season of his Diary of a Writer while he was editor of The Citizen. As an answer to criticism for his fantastic character types, Dostoevsky creates a gothic circus of absurd characters speaking from the grave. These "undead" happen to be upper class citizens with stereotypically vile and disgusting traits. (Their bodily decay can only be smelled by others, the more evil they are – the more they stink.) Much of the allegory here is obvious. The corpses prize their lascivious lifestyles and are not ashamed, as if the only change for them beyond the grave is the unfettering of social inhibitions. Perhaps Dostoevsky considered the new political movements of his day to be a sort of "death" to the upper class. If so, the voices he heard in the gradually-uncensored journals seemed to be the ugly, remorseless voices of the dead in graves. Further, if this allegory stands, the grave he was lying on (of the indignant yet equally repulsive General) represents The Citizen.
The Meek One (also translated A Gentle Creature) is a morose account of a man's response to his wife's suicide. After a simple author's intro (this story was published in his own journal A Writer's Diary), Dostoevsky uses first person narration to recount the events surrounding the marriage of a lonely pawnbroker and an impoverished orphan. Usually Dostoevsky's narrators look back on events with a calm understanding – as with Arkady in The Adolescent or Anton Lavrentevich in Demons – though their accounts are sometimes tarnished by their connection to other characters. In this story, Dostoevsky's narrator tortures his sweet wife with first a complete lack of emotional contact, then with his raving, desperate worship. By the end, the reader understands but the narrator still does not. This is a true denouement – a character doomed to deceive himself and repeat his blunders.
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man is the most fantastical and yet most plausible of Dostoevsky's stories by virtue of the dream structure. A suicidal existentialist dreams that he dies and is delivered to a perfect world, then unintentionally corrupts it. When he awakes, his faith in life is restored, he preaches the truth of his dream and is ridiculed for it. The genius in Dostoevsky's delivery of the message is his preparation of the perfect narrator – the self-proclaimed "ridiculous man" and his nihilist renunciation of life. His anguish at bringing sin to the dream utopia redeems him, and he even bizarrely offers himself to be crucified by the natives. I feel that this brief parable of Dostoevsky's is his clearest secular argument against utopianism in general – whether Fourierism or Marxism. It's a convincing one, though his narrator remains an "underground" type, regardless of his reversed solution. The implication here is that the much-debated topic cannot stand outside of the Christ idea.
Note on this Bantam Classic copy of the PV translation: An important line is missing from the top of the final page 66 of A Nasty Anecdote. If I didn't have another translation available I would've been lost.
The Eternal Husband as a novella epitomizes Dostoevsky's versatility. Here, he takes a break from political, moral and societal causes, focusing on marriage and fidelity. A man, Velchaninov, lives in guilt and must come to terms with the consequences of his youth. He eventually comes around to earning the hero position in the work, while balancing his karma through various injustices instigated by the cuckolded husband of his past lover. This husband, Pavel Pavlovich, is a character with no nobility, who appears to learn nothing during the course of the plot. Only Velchaninov sees the horror of their actions on Liza and, to some degree, everyone else in the plot. Ironically, the paralleled characters use guilt on each other, trading it back and forth in every scene. There are very few women in the cast, amplifying the misguided decisions and responsibilities of the two men.
Bobok is a brief tale Dostoevsky published in the first season of his Diary of a Writer while he was editor of The Citizen. As an answer to criticism for his fantastic character types, Dostoevsky creates a gothic circus of absurd characters speaking from the grave. These "undead" happen to be upper class citizens with stereotypically vile and disgusting traits. (Their bodily decay can only be smelled by others, the more evil they are – the more they stink.) Much of the allegory here is obvious. The corpses prize their lascivious lifestyles and are not ashamed, as if the only change for them beyond the grave is the unfettering of social inhibitions. Perhaps Dostoevsky considered the new political movements of his day to be a sort of "death" to the upper class. If so, the voices he heard in the gradually-uncensored journals seemed to be the ugly, remorseless voices of the dead in graves. Further, if this allegory stands, the grave he was lying on (of the indignant yet equally repulsive General) represents The Citizen.
The Meek One (also translated A Gentle Creature) is a morose account of a man's response to his wife's suicide. After a simple author's intro (this story was published in his own journal A Writer's Diary), Dostoevsky uses first person narration to recount the events surrounding the marriage of a lonely pawnbroker and an impoverished orphan. Usually Dostoevsky's narrators look back on events with a calm understanding – as with Arkady in The Adolescent or Anton Lavrentevich in Demons – though their accounts are sometimes tarnished by their connection to other characters. In this story, Dostoevsky's narrator tortures his sweet wife with first a complete lack of emotional contact, then with his raving, desperate worship. By the end, the reader understands but the narrator still does not. This is a true denouement – a character doomed to deceive himself and repeat his blunders.
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man is the most fantastical and yet most plausible of Dostoevsky's stories by virtue of the dream structure. A suicidal existentialist dreams that he dies and is delivered to a perfect world, then unintentionally corrupts it. When he awakes, his faith in life is restored, he preaches the truth of his dream and is ridiculed for it. The genius in Dostoevsky's delivery of the message is his preparation of the perfect narrator – the self-proclaimed "ridiculous man" and his nihilist renunciation of life. His anguish at bringing sin to the dream utopia redeems him, and he even bizarrely offers himself to be crucified by the natives. I feel that this brief parable of Dostoevsky's is his clearest secular argument against utopianism in general – whether Fourierism or Marxism. It's a convincing one, though his narrator remains an "underground" type, regardless of his reversed solution. The implication here is that the much-debated topic cannot stand outside of the Christ idea.
July 28, 2024
Love love love. Hadn’t read Dostoevsky in a minute, so it was lovely to pick him up again. Same as always: uncomfortable scenes, nonsensical motivations, and spiteful narrators.
January 22, 2023
"Flowed from the heart and penetrated hearts."
September 26, 2014
Unfortunately, I had read three of the stories in this five-story collection already. Fortunately, the two I hadn't read were the best of the lot. "Eternal Husband" is really long enough to be considered a short novel, but I imagine it's the length of modern novels that lead to it being packaged with other stories to thicken the book spine.
"Eternal Husband" infuriated me at times. I admit it - I picked the book up because I liked the title. I wanted more husband-ing, but there are very few actual moments of being a husband, as the book opens with a single man meeting a widower. Plot twist -- though it takes him a while to realize it, our single man narrator was once the lover of the dead wife. The widower is the titular "eternal husband" and this is one of those Russian novels that makes sense when you get to the end. "Ok, that's why we read all that!" Y'know?
"The Meek One" is, in contrast, about a husband. The husband of a recent suicide gives a long monologue while standing wake over his dead wife. He describes how they met and how he courted her and how he fell in love with her -- skipping entirely over the wedding as no female author would -- their relationship is strange, he is strange, he's half mad, and the monolog is fragmented by his grief and self-contradictions in a way that feels honest.
"Eternal Husband" infuriated me at times. I admit it - I picked the book up because I liked the title. I wanted more husband-ing, but there are very few actual moments of being a husband, as the book opens with a single man meeting a widower. Plot twist -- though it takes him a while to realize it, our single man narrator was once the lover of the dead wife. The widower is the titular "eternal husband" and this is one of those Russian novels that makes sense when you get to the end. "Ok, that's why we read all that!" Y'know?
"The Meek One" is, in contrast, about a husband. The husband of a recent suicide gives a long monologue while standing wake over his dead wife. He describes how they met and how he courted her and how he fell in love with her -- skipping entirely over the wedding as no female author would -- their relationship is strange, he is strange, he's half mad, and the monolog is fragmented by his grief and self-contradictions in a way that feels honest.
August 16, 2021
Masterpiece
There maybe some better writers in the history of the world than Dostoyevsky, but after reading the stories of the Eternal Husband one wouldn't think so. He is in a league by himself, never to be duplicated, and impossible to be copied. No one should complete their life without reading all of his works.
There maybe some better writers in the history of the world than Dostoyevsky, but after reading the stories of the Eternal Husband one wouldn't think so. He is in a league by himself, never to be duplicated, and impossible to be copied. No one should complete their life without reading all of his works.
May 5, 2023
tbh i didn’t understand a lot of this book.
April 10, 2022
This hodge-podge book of short stories was alright. I like Dostoyevsky a good deal, but I'm not going to praise him to the moon like another sheep if the works don't stand out to me. There were definitely some interesting stories here, but they didn't standout too much. And some were just eh.
"The Eternal Husband" was solid. I really liked the subtlety and the back and forth underlying the conversations between the two central characters.
I also really enjoyed "A Nasty Anecdote". It was really interesting to explore how something simple as a crowd not being receptive to your tone and comportment etc. can really cause them to reject everything you're saying and treat you like a nothing, even though the message be something really special, selfless, avante-guarde, and revolutionary. These two stories are precisely what I expected, and though they weren't fantastic, they were certainly good.
"Bobok" we just won't talk about. Suffice it to say: "What the hell was that?"
"The Meek One" was interesting enough, and still different enough. I like how in some of these stories Dostoyevsky doesn't rely on any crazy plot-twists and things of that nature. It just feels true and natural, and he shows how you don't need to be s extravagant in your writing to have a good story and tell it well. Yes, there is a suicide in this one, but he doesn't throw it in your face as much as another author would. He doesn't milk the emotion out of you and portray his story as the highest tragedy. He tells a true accounting of his story, and it reads nicely. That being said, again, nothing revolutionary here.
"The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" was definitely a nice lesson and a pretty good entry. I still wasn't blown away, but this type of story is certainly up my alley. Main character has a revelationa fter he realizes there's more to life, upon realizing he's drawn to feelings of moral responsibility and regret, which brings him to a more purposeful life, culminating in a revelatory paradisal dream he has of what man could be, if only everyone loved each other like themself, and banished vice. He becomes a preacher, and there's a really nice quote towards the end of the story as well, that we can end with.
"They tease me now that it was just a dream. But does it make any difference whether it was a dream or not, if this dream proclaimed the Truth to me? For if you once knew the truth and saw it, then you know that it is the truth and there is and can be no other, whether you're asleep or alive. So let it be a dream, let it be, but this life, which you extol so much, I wanted to extinguish by suicide, while my dream, my dream-- oh, it pro claimed to me a new, great, renewed, strong life!
3.5 stars
"The Eternal Husband" was solid. I really liked the subtlety and the back and forth underlying the conversations between the two central characters.
I also really enjoyed "A Nasty Anecdote". It was really interesting to explore how something simple as a crowd not being receptive to your tone and comportment etc. can really cause them to reject everything you're saying and treat you like a nothing, even though the message be something really special, selfless, avante-guarde, and revolutionary. These two stories are precisely what I expected, and though they weren't fantastic, they were certainly good.
"Bobok" we just won't talk about. Suffice it to say: "What the hell was that?"
"The Meek One" was interesting enough, and still different enough. I like how in some of these stories Dostoyevsky doesn't rely on any crazy plot-twists and things of that nature. It just feels true and natural, and he shows how you don't need to be s extravagant in your writing to have a good story and tell it well. Yes, there is a suicide in this one, but he doesn't throw it in your face as much as another author would. He doesn't milk the emotion out of you and portray his story as the highest tragedy. He tells a true accounting of his story, and it reads nicely. That being said, again, nothing revolutionary here.
"The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" was definitely a nice lesson and a pretty good entry. I still wasn't blown away, but this type of story is certainly up my alley. Main character has a revelationa fter he realizes there's more to life, upon realizing he's drawn to feelings of moral responsibility and regret, which brings him to a more purposeful life, culminating in a revelatory paradisal dream he has of what man could be, if only everyone loved each other like themself, and banished vice. He becomes a preacher, and there's a really nice quote towards the end of the story as well, that we can end with.
"They tease me now that it was just a dream. But does it make any difference whether it was a dream or not, if this dream proclaimed the Truth to me? For if you once knew the truth and saw it, then you know that it is the truth and there is and can be no other, whether you're asleep or alive. So let it be a dream, let it be, but this life, which you extol so much, I wanted to extinguish by suicide, while my dream, my dream-- oh, it pro claimed to me a new, great, renewed, strong life!
3.5 stars
August 17, 2024
Okay so I purposely drew out my reading of this book, because I felt a reading slump coming and the last thing I wanted was to rush myself reading this one and then find myself mentally weary of reading afterwards. Without this precaution of slowly reading, I could’ve finished it in a day or two, but I don’t regret reading like this :P Also, I just finished my hyper-analytical read of The Idiot (don’t regret that at all though), and it felt very refereshing to just go with this book and have a relaxed read, as I haven’t done in a while. My annotations are also pretty empty, so I’m not posting them.
Dostoyevsky wrote The Eternal Husband shortly after he wrote The Idiot, and I can definitely see remnants of it in the love triangle, in the protagonists’s dreams and reveries, in the doubles, and in the scandalous gatherings. Of course, these have always been ‘Dostoyevskian’ features, and ones we’ve seen probably since The Insulted and Humiliated (which I also read). What’s different is that he wrote I&H before Notes From Underground, and wrote The Idiot and The Eternal Husband afterward. His works pre-Underground and post-Underground are just amazing; I’ve never said that explicitly before, because I assume every Dostoyevsky reader would know or at least notice that. But really, pre-underground there’s a sense of dreaminess to his works, like they are imitations of real life; and yes, all literature is (debatably) an imitation of life, but his post-Underground works are different. Owing to many of the events in Dostoyevsky’s life between writing Netochka Nezvanovna and TEH (The Eternal Husband), the light of his works drastically changed after emerging from undergroud. In I&H, the love triangle is shown to the reader already, but in The Idiot and similarly TEH, the love triangle is fleshed out and almost experienced by the reader. Sorry for talking about The Idiot so much here, but I find it pretty important as I see both works are extremely similar.
Aside from that, in TEH the reader will undoubtedly notice similarities from Dostoyevsky’s previous novels. There are loan scenes from Crime and Punishment, and the concepts are so similar to The Idiot — which is the reason why I mention the novel so much. It’s almost like TEH is a condensation of all the major post-underground works Dostoyevsky has written: I have already mentioned the love triangle, but aside from that, there is the double, and the dreaming. The concept of the double has long since been a Dosotyevskian feature; it firts showed up in his second work ever, titled ‘The Double.’ Like every Dosotyevskian feature, it has long since been developed but only fleshed out after a renewal from underground. It is a concept where the main character is ‘split’. In Russian philosophy, there is that idea of ‘oneness’ in humanity that is made known in every single dosto book after NFU. The Double took this metaphor to the extreme by literally splitting the protagonist. The rest of Dostoyevsky’s literature continues to use this but in not so literal a sense. For example, Raskolnikov’s own splitting of self (his name raskolnik literally means schismatic), as well as possibly Svidrigailov; Ippolit and Myshkin; Ivan and Smerdyakov. These people are all ‘divided’ in their humanity by pride and/or social statures, which, instead of moral values, possesses the protagonist; as how Golyadkin and his double showed us literally. In EH (Eternal Husband), our protagonists are doubles through their own pride, strange past, and their sunken positions from high society. Velchaninov and Trusotsky have a contrapuntal relationship (as all doubles have), and each disaster and each triumph of the novel are born out of them.
Now for dreams and reveries: they play a very important role in TEH. In Dostoyevskian works, these dreams and reveries are the two forms that take a hold of our ‘dreamer’ protagonist. The reveries are easier to discuss; they are, well, reveries that the dreamer has that are lofty and correct in aesthetics but are so idealistic that in the end, they and the dreamer fail and are devastated. Those are what Myshkin have, and the Dreamer from ‘White Nights’ have. Dreams, though, are more complicated — they’re like revelations. They reveal to the dreamer truths or even ‘futures’ (just ways of life, really) that shape how they act throughout the rest of the book, and without which, they would’ve had a moral stagnation and therefore a lull in the novel’s progression. Such is the dream of Myshkin when he fell asleep on the green bench after his terribly eventful birthday, and the revelation of Alyosha Karamazov when he is overcome with such joy and love that he bends down to kiss the ground on which he was kneeling, and the dream of Mitya Karamazov of the freezing babe; but dreams have their evil counterparts as well. These are the dreams of Raskolnikov (right before he met Svidrigaolov), and Vanya Karamazov (the devil), and Velchaninov from our novel TEH. Velchaninov has dreams terribly similar to Raskolnikov’s terrors, but the real pivotal dream Velchaninov has was the phantasmagoria he experienced when he first let Trusotsky sleep in his rooms, which I will not be detailing because I can’t really be bothered.
Finally, on the scandalous gatherings. In TEH, it was when Velchaninov was invited by Trusotsky to go to the Zakhlebinins. In there, it was meant to be Trusotsky’s spotlight, because Velchaninov was only to be there as an ‘accessory’ to make Trusotsky look good in front of his fiancé’s family; instead, Trusotsky untterly humiliates himself, the girls prank and ridicule him, he loses his fiancé, all the while Velchaninov is venerated by the family. So, that obviously caused Trusotsky to be furious, and no doubt contributed to his sudden urge to kill Velchaninov despite admitting that he really loved him. Scandalous gatherings are by the way, also pivotal points in Dostoyevskian works where the characters from absolutely improbable sides come together and meet, and the chapter no doubt ends in insanity, poor relations, and a catapult in plot speed. The examples are: Ippolit (his whole character is a scandalous gathering), the chapter ‘A Scandalous Gathering’ in TBK, and those tete-a-tete chapters of Demons. Unfortunately, I honestly don’t remember which chapter was the scandalous gathering of CNP, but I’m sure there was one; I just can’t pick it out. But you get my point.
Anyway TEH was such a fun read, honestly. And unexpectedly really hilarious. As far as the translation, I really like P&V for this one; although, yes, you do have to re-read sentences as they can be a bit clunky, but you’ll be doing this in the original Russian as well, and it takes nothing out of the experience since I think anyone reading Dostoyevsky will have both the patience and reading comprehension skills to deal with it, so it’s no biggy. Also, Velchaninov and Trusotsky honestly made out and that left the biggest impression on me. As a final note: If you’ve read even one Dostoyevsky work, especially The Idiot, then this’ll be wonderful; aside from being a purely fun read, it’s a great study on his style.
Dostoyevsky wrote The Eternal Husband shortly after he wrote The Idiot, and I can definitely see remnants of it in the love triangle, in the protagonists’s dreams and reveries, in the doubles, and in the scandalous gatherings. Of course, these have always been ‘Dostoyevskian’ features, and ones we’ve seen probably since The Insulted and Humiliated (which I also read). What’s different is that he wrote I&H before Notes From Underground, and wrote The Idiot and The Eternal Husband afterward. His works pre-Underground and post-Underground are just amazing; I’ve never said that explicitly before, because I assume every Dostoyevsky reader would know or at least notice that. But really, pre-underground there’s a sense of dreaminess to his works, like they are imitations of real life; and yes, all literature is (debatably) an imitation of life, but his post-Underground works are different. Owing to many of the events in Dostoyevsky’s life between writing Netochka Nezvanovna and TEH (The Eternal Husband), the light of his works drastically changed after emerging from undergroud. In I&H, the love triangle is shown to the reader already, but in The Idiot and similarly TEH, the love triangle is fleshed out and almost experienced by the reader. Sorry for talking about The Idiot so much here, but I find it pretty important as I see both works are extremely similar.
Aside from that, in TEH the reader will undoubtedly notice similarities from Dostoyevsky’s previous novels. There are loan scenes from Crime and Punishment, and the concepts are so similar to The Idiot — which is the reason why I mention the novel so much. It’s almost like TEH is a condensation of all the major post-underground works Dostoyevsky has written: I have already mentioned the love triangle, but aside from that, there is the double, and the dreaming. The concept of the double has long since been a Dosotyevskian feature; it firts showed up in his second work ever, titled ‘The Double.’ Like every Dosotyevskian feature, it has long since been developed but only fleshed out after a renewal from underground. It is a concept where the main character is ‘split’. In Russian philosophy, there is that idea of ‘oneness’ in humanity that is made known in every single dosto book after NFU. The Double took this metaphor to the extreme by literally splitting the protagonist. The rest of Dostoyevsky’s literature continues to use this but in not so literal a sense. For example, Raskolnikov’s own splitting of self (his name raskolnik literally means schismatic), as well as possibly Svidrigailov; Ippolit and Myshkin; Ivan and Smerdyakov. These people are all ‘divided’ in their humanity by pride and/or social statures, which, instead of moral values, possesses the protagonist; as how Golyadkin and his double showed us literally. In EH (Eternal Husband), our protagonists are doubles through their own pride, strange past, and their sunken positions from high society. Velchaninov and Trusotsky have a contrapuntal relationship (as all doubles have), and each disaster and each triumph of the novel are born out of them.
Now for dreams and reveries: they play a very important role in TEH. In Dostoyevskian works, these dreams and reveries are the two forms that take a hold of our ‘dreamer’ protagonist. The reveries are easier to discuss; they are, well, reveries that the dreamer has that are lofty and correct in aesthetics but are so idealistic that in the end, they and the dreamer fail and are devastated. Those are what Myshkin have, and the Dreamer from ‘White Nights’ have. Dreams, though, are more complicated — they’re like revelations. They reveal to the dreamer truths or even ‘futures’ (just ways of life, really) that shape how they act throughout the rest of the book, and without which, they would’ve had a moral stagnation and therefore a lull in the novel’s progression. Such is the dream of Myshkin when he fell asleep on the green bench after his terribly eventful birthday, and the revelation of Alyosha Karamazov when he is overcome with such joy and love that he bends down to kiss the ground on which he was kneeling, and the dream of Mitya Karamazov of the freezing babe; but dreams have their evil counterparts as well. These are the dreams of Raskolnikov (right before he met Svidrigaolov), and Vanya Karamazov (the devil), and Velchaninov from our novel TEH. Velchaninov has dreams terribly similar to Raskolnikov’s terrors, but the real pivotal dream Velchaninov has was the phantasmagoria he experienced when he first let Trusotsky sleep in his rooms, which I will not be detailing because I can’t really be bothered.
Finally, on the scandalous gatherings. In TEH, it was when Velchaninov was invited by Trusotsky to go to the Zakhlebinins. In there, it was meant to be Trusotsky’s spotlight, because Velchaninov was only to be there as an ‘accessory’ to make Trusotsky look good in front of his fiancé’s family; instead, Trusotsky untterly humiliates himself, the girls prank and ridicule him, he loses his fiancé, all the while Velchaninov is venerated by the family. So, that obviously caused Trusotsky to be furious, and no doubt contributed to his sudden urge to kill Velchaninov despite admitting that he really loved him. Scandalous gatherings are by the way, also pivotal points in Dostoyevskian works where the characters from absolutely improbable sides come together and meet, and the chapter no doubt ends in insanity, poor relations, and a catapult in plot speed. The examples are: Ippolit (his whole character is a scandalous gathering), the chapter ‘A Scandalous Gathering’ in TBK, and those tete-a-tete chapters of Demons. Unfortunately, I honestly don’t remember which chapter was the scandalous gathering of CNP, but I’m sure there was one; I just can’t pick it out. But you get my point.
Anyway TEH was such a fun read, honestly. And unexpectedly really hilarious. As far as the translation, I really like P&V for this one; although, yes, you do have to re-read sentences as they can be a bit clunky, but you’ll be doing this in the original Russian as well, and it takes nothing out of the experience since I think anyone reading Dostoyevsky will have both the patience and reading comprehension skills to deal with it, so it’s no biggy. Also, Velchaninov and Trusotsky honestly made out and that left the biggest impression on me. As a final note: If you’ve read even one Dostoyevsky work, especially The Idiot, then this’ll be wonderful; aside from being a purely fun read, it’s a great study on his style.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 23, 2020
From A Nasty Anecdote: “It is known that whole trains of thought sometimes pass instantly through our heads, in the form of certain feelings, without translation into human language, still less literary language. But we shall attempt to translate all these feelings of our hero’s and present the reader if only with the essence of these feelings, with what, so to speak, was most necessary and plausible in them. Because many of our feelings, when translated into ordinary language, will seem perfectly implausible. That is why they never come into the world, and yet everybody has them.”
June 27, 2022
This is a masterful collection of short stories by Dostoevsky. I enjoyed the breadth of narratives presented, with each story varying enough from the previous to hold my attention. While Eternal Husband was the most striking due to how fleshed out it is, every story in this book has a unique and memorable character. Each narrator has a flawed yet deeply relatable perspective that will hook you.
May 27, 2021
As with all the other works by Dostoevsky, I find it hard to stop reading before I finish the stories, but eventually I have to go to sleep. I'm reluctant to say too much because it would be a spoiler. I'll write more when I finish all the stories.
Read
December 25, 2020Some of these seemed to be first attempts at what later became novels. Put this down at some point & just never picked it up again.
March 3, 2021
Great novella. The triangle love that based on Dostoevsky's own experience.
A visitor a friend that you invited to stay at your home but he ends up having an affair with your wife, lowly eh?
A visitor a friend that you invited to stay at your home but he ends up having an affair with your wife, lowly eh?
August 9, 2021
Far from his best work, but solid nonetheless. Also: never read Richard Pevear's introductions; he almost always spoils the plot.
April 23, 2024
A Nasty Anecdote
This was a short story in which Dostoevsky makes fun of how difficult it is to put ideas into practice, regardless of how sensible, good-natured, “humane”, moral, and so on, these ideas are. However, I do not think that it is dismissive of people willing to put their ideas into practice but it shows what can happen as a result of those ideas being tyrannical modes of morality. The overarching lesson is that good intentions are not synonymous with good outcomes. I really enjoyed the amount of characters he gave background on for such a short story.
A quote
“Strangely, at times he was overcome by fits of some morbid conscientiousness and even a slight repentance of something.”
Eternal Husband
What a complex story that evokes an amalgamation of different emotions. It was instantly captivating. I think this is the quintessential Dostoevsky novel. It will have you on the edge of your seat when you think something will happen, it catches you off guard. One of the best examples of this is the conversations between Alexei Ivanovich Velchaninov and Pavel Pavlovich Trusotsky which never really seem to get THERE but have you waiting for the moment and when it does get THERE it is done in the most implicit but organic manner. Indignance and sadness.
A quote:
“Yes, loved me from spite.. that's the strongest love.” This quote showcases the complexity of human emotion Dostoevsky presents in this book.
Bobok
I am not a fan of magical realism but picture that you have a chance to eavesdrop on the afterlife and you take it. It is not what you expect.
A quote
“There is so much suffering and torment in life, and so little reward..” I like this quote because it seems taken out of a Woody Allen movie.
The Meek One
This is the best story narrated from the point of view of a villain. It is not clear at the start, while reading it, or even at the end that he is in fact a villain. I personally did not notice it till after I sat the book in front of me after having finished it and came to that conclusion. A conclusion that is brewing in the back of your head but you are unaware of. In short, it is the story of an antisocial man who drives his inappropriately younger wife to the point of suicide. He had such “noble” intentions while he was doing it too, so it has you confused but it is really a rationalization of incapapabilities. I will not share anymore besides that it was wonderfully crafted.
Two quotes:
“And since she was too chaste, too pure to consent to the kind of love a merchant needs, she didnt want to deceive me.”
“Only people and around them, silence- thats the earth!”
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
Starts off with one of the funniest quotes I have ever read… “Maybe from the age of seven I already knew that I was ridiculous. Then I went to school, then to university, and what- the more I studied, the more I learned I was ridiculous.” Fucking hilarious, had me laughing out loud in a coffee shop full of people making me look, incidentally, ridiculous. This extremely short story is a little over twenty pages. I firmly believe due to its short nature and incredible ethos and pathos but even better the dismissal of logos, it should be a must-read in every school. The main idea is hard to describe and there is some insight I have developed through it which is something along the lines of “knowledge is only attainable through stories which is how we have processed information for thousands of years”. To put the lesson to the best of my abilities would be that honor, TRUTH, and many notions that make us act ostensibly virtuously.
A quote:
“The consciousness of life is higher than life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness- that is what must be fought!... And I will. If only everyone wants it, everything can be set up at once.”
This was a short story in which Dostoevsky makes fun of how difficult it is to put ideas into practice, regardless of how sensible, good-natured, “humane”, moral, and so on, these ideas are. However, I do not think that it is dismissive of people willing to put their ideas into practice but it shows what can happen as a result of those ideas being tyrannical modes of morality. The overarching lesson is that good intentions are not synonymous with good outcomes. I really enjoyed the amount of characters he gave background on for such a short story.
A quote
“Strangely, at times he was overcome by fits of some morbid conscientiousness and even a slight repentance of something.”
Eternal Husband
What a complex story that evokes an amalgamation of different emotions. It was instantly captivating. I think this is the quintessential Dostoevsky novel. It will have you on the edge of your seat when you think something will happen, it catches you off guard. One of the best examples of this is the conversations between Alexei Ivanovich Velchaninov and Pavel Pavlovich Trusotsky which never really seem to get THERE but have you waiting for the moment and when it does get THERE it is done in the most implicit but organic manner. Indignance and sadness.
A quote:
“Yes, loved me from spite.. that's the strongest love.” This quote showcases the complexity of human emotion Dostoevsky presents in this book.
Bobok
I am not a fan of magical realism but picture that you have a chance to eavesdrop on the afterlife and you take it. It is not what you expect.
A quote
“There is so much suffering and torment in life, and so little reward..” I like this quote because it seems taken out of a Woody Allen movie.
The Meek One
This is the best story narrated from the point of view of a villain. It is not clear at the start, while reading it, or even at the end that he is in fact a villain. I personally did not notice it till after I sat the book in front of me after having finished it and came to that conclusion. A conclusion that is brewing in the back of your head but you are unaware of. In short, it is the story of an antisocial man who drives his inappropriately younger wife to the point of suicide. He had such “noble” intentions while he was doing it too, so it has you confused but it is really a rationalization of incapapabilities. I will not share anymore besides that it was wonderfully crafted.
Two quotes:
“And since she was too chaste, too pure to consent to the kind of love a merchant needs, she didnt want to deceive me.”
“Only people and around them, silence- thats the earth!”
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
Starts off with one of the funniest quotes I have ever read… “Maybe from the age of seven I already knew that I was ridiculous. Then I went to school, then to university, and what- the more I studied, the more I learned I was ridiculous.” Fucking hilarious, had me laughing out loud in a coffee shop full of people making me look, incidentally, ridiculous. This extremely short story is a little over twenty pages. I firmly believe due to its short nature and incredible ethos and pathos but even better the dismissal of logos, it should be a must-read in every school. The main idea is hard to describe and there is some insight I have developed through it which is something along the lines of “knowledge is only attainable through stories which is how we have processed information for thousands of years”. To put the lesson to the best of my abilities would be that honor, TRUTH, and many notions that make us act ostensibly virtuously.
A quote:
“The consciousness of life is higher than life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness- that is what must be fought!... And I will. If only everyone wants it, everything can be set up at once.”
September 20, 2020
A Nasty Anecdote ★★★★
The Eternal Husband ★★★★
Bobok ★★★
The Meek One ★★★★
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man ★★★★½
It might not contain Dostoevsky’s greatest works but this collection of short stories translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky keeps a high level of quality and thematic consistency throughout.
With A Nasty Anecdote, Dostoevsky attacks liberal hypocrisy with a satire about a general who, under the influence, crashes the wedding party of one of his clerks. It would surely be labelled as ‘cringe humour’ if published nowadays. The central story, The Eternal Husband, surprises by its changes of focus. Initially a story about a man’s struggles with a lawsuit, then about his hypochondria and paranoia, it finally unfolds as the main character becomes reacquainted with the husband of his former lover, and their behaviour towards each other gets more and more erratic.
There’s enough psychological insight in these stories as in any Dostoevsky novel and the irrational behaviour of the characters often approximates them to the narrator of Notes from the Underground. The story that most resembles Notes, though, is The Dream of a Ridiculous Man.
Although I by no means share the narrator's idea of a state of nature where humans are inherently good nor his realisation that “the main thing is [to] love others as [oneself]”, I still consider it the strongest story in the collection for capturing the feeling of existential angst that would be further explored in later existentialist works. It also features a powerful dream description that could possibly have influenced Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life.
The Eternal Husband ★★★★
Bobok ★★★
The Meek One ★★★★
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man ★★★★½
It might not contain Dostoevsky’s greatest works but this collection of short stories translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky keeps a high level of quality and thematic consistency throughout.
With A Nasty Anecdote, Dostoevsky attacks liberal hypocrisy with a satire about a general who, under the influence, crashes the wedding party of one of his clerks. It would surely be labelled as ‘cringe humour’ if published nowadays. The central story, The Eternal Husband, surprises by its changes of focus. Initially a story about a man’s struggles with a lawsuit, then about his hypochondria and paranoia, it finally unfolds as the main character becomes reacquainted with the husband of his former lover, and their behaviour towards each other gets more and more erratic.
“He was convinced that there existed a corresponding type of husband, whose sole purpose consisted of nothing but corresponding to this type of woman. In his opinion, the essence of such husbands lay in their being, so to speak, ‘eternal husbands’, or, better to say, in being only husbands in life and nothing else.”
There’s enough psychological insight in these stories as in any Dostoevsky novel and the irrational behaviour of the characters often approximates them to the narrator of Notes from the Underground. The story that most resembles Notes, though, is The Dream of a Ridiculous Man.
“Maybe because a dreadful anguish was growing in my soul over one circumstance which was infinitely higher than the whole of me: namely—the conviction was overtaking me that everywhere in the world it made no difference.”
Although I by no means share the narrator's idea of a state of nature where humans are inherently good nor his realisation that “the main thing is [to] love others as [oneself]”, I still consider it the strongest story in the collection for capturing the feeling of existential angst that would be further explored in later existentialist works. It also features a powerful dream description that could possibly have influenced Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life.
“For instance, there suddenly came to me a strange consideration, that if I had once lived on the moon or on Mars, and had committed some most shameful and dishonorable act there, such as can only be imagined, and had been abused and dishonored for it as one can only perhaps feel and imagine in a dream, a nightmare, and if, ending up later on earth, I continued to preserve an awareness of what I had done on the other planet, and knew at the same time that I would never ever return there, then, looking from the earth to the moon—would it make any difference to me, or not? Would I feel shame for that act, or not?”
July 28, 2019
These early stories are compelling on their own, but their main interest for readers of Dostoevsky will be the way they anticipate his later, more fully realized works – in particular Notes from the Underground, Crime & Punishment, and The Brothers Karamazov. Many of the classic Dostoevskyan themes can be found here, like the idea that human freedom (especially the freedom to be immoral or to debase oneself) exposes the lie behind utopian ideals, or that human suffering (especially the suffering of children) throws a wrench into religious beliefs about universal salvation and eternal harmony.
Even some of the individual scenes in these stories echo in his later work, and you can tell they haven’t quite been worked out yet – it’s like a practice run, Dostoevsky working up the nerve to push his scenarios to their ultimate extreme. A couple of characters have scary dreams, for instance, but none holds a candle to Svidrigailov’s “triple nightmare” in Crime & Punishment, or Ivan Karamazov’s dream conversation with the Devil. Dostoevsky also sharpens his mastery of the scandalous scene, the set piece that drags out an outrage past endurance. The opening story, “A Nasty Anecdote,” is about a wedding reception that gets progressively more outrageous through the night, and the title story, “The Eternal Husband,” features an extended scene of humiliation for a suitor at a family dinner. You can sense, in these scenes, Dostoevsky ramping himself up to the great scandalous feasts of his later novels – the Underground Man beclowning himself before his old schoolmates, Katerina Ivanovna’s frenzy at Marmeladov’s funeral dinner, and of course the Karamazovs running amok at Father Zosima’s monastery.
As always, Pevear and Volokhonsky’s translation is excellent, the gold standard. They’ve done a great service, bringing not only the great classics of the Russian canon but also lesser-known works like these to American readers.
Even some of the individual scenes in these stories echo in his later work, and you can tell they haven’t quite been worked out yet – it’s like a practice run, Dostoevsky working up the nerve to push his scenarios to their ultimate extreme. A couple of characters have scary dreams, for instance, but none holds a candle to Svidrigailov’s “triple nightmare” in Crime & Punishment, or Ivan Karamazov’s dream conversation with the Devil. Dostoevsky also sharpens his mastery of the scandalous scene, the set piece that drags out an outrage past endurance. The opening story, “A Nasty Anecdote,” is about a wedding reception that gets progressively more outrageous through the night, and the title story, “The Eternal Husband,” features an extended scene of humiliation for a suitor at a family dinner. You can sense, in these scenes, Dostoevsky ramping himself up to the great scandalous feasts of his later novels – the Underground Man beclowning himself before his old schoolmates, Katerina Ivanovna’s frenzy at Marmeladov’s funeral dinner, and of course the Karamazovs running amok at Father Zosima’s monastery.
As always, Pevear and Volokhonsky’s translation is excellent, the gold standard. They’ve done a great service, bringing not only the great classics of the Russian canon but also lesser-known works like these to American readers.
March 29, 2020
The first time I've read Dostoyevsky for many years. The first story in this collection, 'A Nasty Anecdote', is the best. Humiliation was a recurring theme for the author, and is very much the subject of this story, so it's quintessential Dostoyevsky. It's also a mini-masterpiece which will have you cringing in sympathetic embarrassment as the well-meaning protagonist makes a complete fool of himself in public in the worst way.
'The Eternal Husband' is a short novel with a strange and compelling story. I felt that parts of it were not really convincing, but it certainly kept me reading.
'Bobok' I hated. I could not understand what Dostoyevsky was trying to achieve with this and it didn't engage me at all, so I didn't finish it even though it's short.
'The Meek One' and 'The Dream of a Ridiculous Man' were both very interesting, especially the former, as the main character tries to come to terms with his own ill-judged behaviour in the wake of his wife's suicide.
The translations here read very well and, in fact, on this evidence, Dostoyevsky proves to be a surprisingly easy read. His themes are eternal so, with the exception of 'Bobok', I would say these are as relevant today as ever and, while this collection is a bit of a mixed bag, it did make me want to start reading Dostoyevsky again.
'The Eternal Husband' is a short novel with a strange and compelling story. I felt that parts of it were not really convincing, but it certainly kept me reading.
'Bobok' I hated. I could not understand what Dostoyevsky was trying to achieve with this and it didn't engage me at all, so I didn't finish it even though it's short.
'The Meek One' and 'The Dream of a Ridiculous Man' were both very interesting, especially the former, as the main character tries to come to terms with his own ill-judged behaviour in the wake of his wife's suicide.
The translations here read very well and, in fact, on this evidence, Dostoyevsky proves to be a surprisingly easy read. His themes are eternal so, with the exception of 'Bobok', I would say these are as relevant today as ever and, while this collection is a bit of a mixed bag, it did make me want to start reading Dostoyevsky again.
July 16, 2023
In "Tropic of Cancer," Henry Miller, in an aside, says that "The Eternal Husband" is perfection. My guess is that he wanted to show off his knowledge of Dostoevsky by pulling a deep cut out of his ass. The Eternal Husband, a novella-length short story is ok. It has some very fine comic moments, but too often Dostoevsky tries the reader's patience. Most of the other short stories in this collection are much better. These are later-era Dostoevsky, when his hits were much more frequent than his misses.
As a longtime government worker, I have a warm spot for "A Nasty Anecdote," in which a high-ranking government executive makes a drunken ass out of himself at the wedding of an underling. "Bobok," is a humorous look at the conversations of the mostly dead buried in a cemetery. "The Meek One" (also known in other translations as "A Gentle Creature") is a fascinating case study of a psychologically abusive marriage. "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" is a thought-experiment in the form of a "dream" that describes an alternate Earth that starts as a paradise, but is ultimately ruined by lies. As I've said many times in my reviews of Dostoevsky's work, at times he is astonishingly ahead of his time. But his tendency to dwell in miserable subjects can be a bit much for even his most ardent fans.
As a longtime government worker, I have a warm spot for "A Nasty Anecdote," in which a high-ranking government executive makes a drunken ass out of himself at the wedding of an underling. "Bobok," is a humorous look at the conversations of the mostly dead buried in a cemetery. "The Meek One" (also known in other translations as "A Gentle Creature") is a fascinating case study of a psychologically abusive marriage. "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" is a thought-experiment in the form of a "dream" that describes an alternate Earth that starts as a paradise, but is ultimately ruined by lies. As I've said many times in my reviews of Dostoevsky's work, at times he is astonishingly ahead of his time. But his tendency to dwell in miserable subjects can be a bit much for even his most ardent fans.
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