Reviews

The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoevsky

jsay96's review

challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

tifaenjoyer's review

funny inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

beatrice_apetrei's review

5.0

“How can you tell a man there’s nothing to do? I can’t imagine a situation in which there could ever be nothing to do! Do it for mankind and don’t worry about the rest. There’s so much to do that a lifetime won’t be enough, if you look around attentively.”
Because, my dear Dostoyevsky, you mirrored once more my thoughts and feelings!

mothbaby's review

challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

it's juSt dolgoruky 😡😡😡

nicod's review

reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

lemondropshot's review

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

sharonb's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I struggled with this. I love Dostoyevsky, but this is not one of my favourites. The only book by D written in first person. I don't mind first-person POV, but a 19 year old adolescent was a bit all over the place.  That said, I preferred the character of Arkady more than most of the others. D certainly got into the mind/psychology of an adolescent.  I was reading this at the same time as two other books, so it seemed to take forever.

I think maybe I should have concentrated on this book alone and not read others. It did get better when I was reading larger portions in a sitting, but I had breaks of several days at times, which may have disrupted the flow. I probably need to re read it or at least the versilov explanation from the last few chapters, but realistically, I don't know when/if I will do that.

ellephuonglinhnguyen's review against another edition

4.0

Unable to restrain myself, I have sat down to record this history of my first steps on life's career, though I could have done as well without it. One thing I know for certain: never again will I sit down to write my autobiography, even if I live to be a hundred. You have to be all too basely in love with yourself to write about yourself without shame. My only excuse is that I'm not writing for the same reason everyone else writes, that is, for the sake of the reader's praises. If I have suddenly decided to record word for word all that has happened to me since last year, then I have decided it as the result of an inner need: so struck I am by everything that has happened. I am recording only the events, avoiding with all my might everything extraneous, and above all—literary beauties. A literary man writes for thirty years and in the end doesn't know at all why he has written for so many years. I am not a literary man, do not want to be a literary man, and would consider it base and indecent to drag the insides of my soul and a beautiful description of my feelings to their literary marketplace. I anticipate with vexation, however, that it seems impossible to do entirely without the description of feelings and without reflections (maybe even banal ones): so corrupting is the effect of any literary occupation on a man, even if it is undertaken only for oneself. The reflections may even be very banal, because something you value yourself will quite possibly have no value in a stranger's eyes. But this is all an aside. Anyhow, here is my preface; there won't be anything more of its kind. To business; though there's nothing trickier than getting down to some sort of business—maybe even any sort. 

unrealpunk's review against another edition

4.25

The Adolescent is a good book, but I can definitely understand why this is the most overlooked of Dostoevsky's five great novels.  It doesn't have the momentous events and indelible characters, nor the suspense and pathos of the other four.  There's a definite narrative lull, you might even say stagnation, in the middle of the book, when every scene seems to read the same as the one that came before.  Things start improving when Makar shows up, and in the end everything comes together, but unlike the other novels, nothing truly moved me (although I definitely feel bad for this poor kid Arkady) or brought me to tears.  And I laughed out loud a few times but it never had me screaming.

lguz's review

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25