Russian Classics in Russian and English: Notes from Underground
by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alexander Vassiliev
Narrated by Alan Turton
Why Listen to This Audiobook?
Dostoevsky's most unhinged narrator rants directly into your ears — and somehow he's right about everything.
- Great if you want: philosophy delivered as confession, uncomfortable and unforgettable
- Listening experience: claustrophobic and cerebral — one voice, relentless interior monologue
- Narration: Alan Turton carries the spite and self-pity with controlled intensity
- Skip if: you need plot or action — this is pure psychological monologue
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About This Audiobook
Notes from Underground is Dostoevsky's 1864 novella — a bitter, brilliant, and profoundly uncomfortable monologue from a retired civil servant who has retreated from society to spite it. The Underground Man argues against rationalism, progress, and the idea that human beings can be reduced to self-interest — and he argues, without apparent irony, from a position of complete self-destruction. The book is often cited as the first modern existentialist novel and the foundation on which Dostoevsky built his major works.
Alan Turton narrates a text that demands a voice capable of sustaining the Underground Man's manic, self-contradicting intelligence over two hours without becoming exhausting. His performance captures the character's terrible wit and genuine suffering in equal measure. As a dual-language edition, the production offers a unique listening experience for students of Russian literature who want access to both the original and translation simultaneously.