Notes from a Dead House

De: Fyodor Dostoevsky

Narrado por: Stefan Rudnicki

Duración: 13 h y 33 m

Resumen del Editor

From renowned translators Richard Pevear and Lindsay Volokhonsky comes a new translation - certain to become the definitive version - of the first great prison memoir, a fictionalized account of Fyodor Dostoevsky's life-changing penal servitude in Siberia.

Sentenced to death for advocating socialism in 1849, Dostoevsky served a commuted sentence of four years of hard labor. The account he wrote afterward (sometimes translated as The House of the Dead) is filled with vivid details of brutal punishments, shocking conditions, and the psychological effects of the loss of freedom and hope but also of the feuds and betrayals, the moments of comedy, and the acts of kindness he observed.

As a nobleman and a political prisoner, Dostoevsky was despised by most of his fellow convicts, and his first-person narrator - a nobleman who has killed his wife - experiences a similar struggle to adapt. He also undergoes a transformation over the course of his ordeal, as he discovers that even among the most debased criminals there are strong and beautiful souls. Notes from a Dead House reveals the prison as a tragedy both for the inmates and for Russia. It endures as a monumental meditation on freedom.

©2015 Originally published in Russian in 1862. Translation © 2015 by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Foreword © 2015 by Richard Pevear (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

In a class with few others....maybe Victor Franke

This is superb work...D manages to write with great humor realism distance yet at times great warmth and always astonishing perception of human nature. I keptfeelinghe was writing about allhumanlife......a transformational masterpiece.

A different Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky presents us with a humane portrait of prison life. These are criminals, some of the worst kind, but they are human and have formed a community of their own.

Foundational Classic

Classic account of the prison system in 19th century Russia. This story provided a glimpse of the horrific and yet human side of prisons in Siberia. One of Dostoyevsky's better novels. Being a man like Dickens with firsthand knowledge of prison life, the narrative was convincing and insightful. The narrator, Stefan Rudnicki, is as good as it gets. Discovered him when listening to the gigantic Story of Civilization series.

I will listen again (and again)

Now I know where he got the inspiration for so many amazing characters in his phenomenal novels.

Such detail!

A cultural journey in time: Very entertaining! The narrator was absolutely excellent with his accent! Highly recommend.

Important for Reading Dostoevsky

In contrast to others, this would be the first book by Dostoevsky I would recommend reading; it provides context both to his life and his work.

Fantastic read

This is a famous classic and i had read it before. I very much enjoyed the narration. Will definitely look for more books by this narrator.

Really enjoyed!

Dostoevsky was a marvelous writer! The translation was amazing, too! Really, really great I loved listening while traveling!

FYODORange is the New Black

What I have said of servitude, I again say of imprisonment, we are all prisoners. What is our life but a prison? We are all imprisoned in an island. The world itself to some men is a prison, our narrow seas as so many ditches, and when they have compassed the globe of the earth, they would fain go see what is done in the moon."

- Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy: S2.3.4

Not top half Dostoevsky, but a must read still. This book (and Dostoevsky's four years in Siberia) are an obvious rough draft to his later GREAT novels ('Crime & Punishment', 'The Brothers Karamazov', etc). Even without the early draft qualities of this novel, 'Notes from a Dead House' is important. This is novel the godfather of all prison memoirs/novels. Orange might be the new black, but the Big D was there first. Actually, it is probably worth a few minutes exploring the similarities between OITNB and 'Notes from a Dead House'. Both explore how prison impacts those who are sent there, the way people survive, the things that drive people mad inside, the things that are core about being human within an environment meant to limit the very essence of humanness, how punishment is relative, etc, and ad nauseam.

I think the brilliance of prison writing is the way it can be used as a microcosm of life. We are all trapped by something. Nihil enim refert, rerum sis servus an hominum (“It matters little whether we are enslaved by men or things.”). We are all controlled by something, tortured by someone, addicted to vice, sin, or our own fears. Exploring the idea of prison and prisoners can open us up to not just the difficulties we all face, but the way(s) we can survive life's fetters, our body's constraints, the darkness of this mortal coil. Dostoevsky give us hints. Dreams, hope, faith, purpose and relationships all allowed him to survive his four years in Siberia. Those same characteristics increase the odds that not only will we survive our incarceration on this Earth, but we might even grow fond of it and find beauty and love in the process.

Excellent prison description

It isn't the strongest Dostoyevsky novel but it is an interesting read. Like most Dostoyevsky it takes a time for him to build his world and interjected in between anecdotes are poetic passages.