Notes From Underground -Resources, Translations & Reading Schedule

[Silver]

Please discuss any background and resource material about the author or the book which you think will be helpful to the book discussion.

You may also discuss variations in different translations.

Reading Schedule:

Part 1 Jan 15-Jan 21
Part 2 Jan 22-Jan 31

[Bigollo]

Margaret had a question:

“A question about our upcoming reading of Underground...I see that the translation listed is by Andrew R. MacAndrew. I have a different translation (Garnett), does this matter?”


Translations may differ quite a bit in terms of what impression they might leave on a reader. This book was read in another group a couple of months ago. One reader shared that she picked an audio version with a different translation having previously read the book multiple times, and the effect was amazing. She felt like she was listening to a different book. I’m sure she didn’t mean that literally, but I’m sure that the impression can be that different.

But I don’t think a translation version should matter in terms of understanding and participating in this discussion.

And I’m sure the readers of this book in this group will be using different translations:).

[Silver]

I agree with the above statement. With another group I am involved in we were reading short stories by Chekhov and I had a different translation than one of the other members and there were some differences in certain phrases, and word choices, but the over all meaning and context of the book is the same.

It can even be interesting to discuss different translations and seeing how different authors interpret the text can add a new level of understanding.

I also just want to add that when I read Notes From Underground it was the Andrew R. MacAndrew translations and though I have not read any other versions to compare it to, when I read I loved it, and so I would say that it is a very good translation.

[Bigollo]

On the background.

From some sources around this book I picked up some info that I share in the following.

Notes from Underground was written as an artistic response to another book – ‘What Is to Be Done’ by N.G.Chernyshevsky (published in 1863).
As they say, ‘What Is to Be Done’ is more ideological than artistic piece that expresses basics of a popular at that time ideology among some young intellectuals.

This ideology could be thought as mixed heritage from French Enlightenment, English Utilitarianism, something else, and spiced with a sort of nihilism.

Roughly speaking, inspired by natural science successes of 18 and 19 centuries, these people maintained that since man is a product of nature, his needs and desires are rational and hence, could be taken into account with a certain scientific (mathematical) theory along with the conditions man is currently in, and the theory will explain/predict the mood and behavior of man. Further, we can change human conditions, consulting with the theory, in such a way that all misery and vice will stop popping into existence and man will be rendered happy. Heaven on Earth! Let’s just do it!

The major character, the Underground Man, is not given a name in the book. Let’s call him U Man. (Maybe a piece of him lives in each of us:). Part I is basically a monologue of U Man, in which his imaginary opponents are those gentlemen mentioned above.

But. Since the book is a piece of art, it can be enjoyed without knowledge of any background, TMHO. The book is much more than just a response to a certain ideology.
But. In a certain respect, and for some readers the background can be helpful. That’s why I just shared what I’ve learned.

[Bigollo]

As for the title,

In the Forward to my copy of the book, the translator Richard Pevear writes,

“The nature of Chernyshevsky’s hero and his ideas [see message 4 above about Chernyshevsky and his novel ‘What Is to Be Done’] may be deduced from the following passage:

‘Yes, I will always do what I want. I will never sacrifice anything, not even a whim, for the sake of something I do not desire. What I want, with all my heart, is to make people happy. In this lies my happiness. Mine! Can you hear that, you, in your underground hole?’

This is the voice of the healthy rational egoist, the ingenuous man of action. Dostoyevsky took up the challenge.”