The Adolescent

The Adolescent must, in my opinion, be acknowledged one of Dostoevsky's masterpieces. The Adolescent, Dostoevsky's second-to-last novel, stands on par with The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, Crime & Punishment, Devils, and Notes from Underground. It difficult for me to understand why some critics have dismissed The Adolescent as a substandard work, or, as is the case in some instances, why others have omitted entirely a discussion of the novel in their critical works. The plot centers around the narrator Arkady, who, having graduated from High-School, arrives in Petersburg to become acquainted for the first time with Petersburg society, as well as with his biological family, with whom he had had very little contact with since the days if his early childhood. Arkady is an illegitimate son: his father a nobleman; his mother a former household serf. Adding to the drama is the fact that when Arkady arrives in Petersburg he has with him a sought-after document that could be used to extort and control several important people. One such person is the beautiful and enchanting Katerina Nikolaevna, with whom Arkady and his father, Verislov are both madly in love. Similar to all of Dostoevsky's great novels, the greatness of The Adolescent is not in the actually plot, but rather, is a result of the deeply insightful, brutally honest and endlessly fascinating portrayal of man and society. The most noticeable difference in The Adolescent is the narrative form. The novel is written in the first-person, expressing the point of view of the Adolescent himself. Another difference in The Adolescent is that it does not contain the absolute forms of personality-types that are prominent in the other major novels. This is true more for Arkady than for Verislov. Instead one finds layered hybrids and a more ordinary As a result of these differences -- which, by the way, I consider to be a great strength of this novel -- one will find that the character of the adolescent (that is, of Arkady Makarovich Dolgoruky) offers the most in-depth, most layered, and above all the most realistic psychological portrait of Dostoevsky's entire literary output. In Arkady one finds traces of a number of Dostoevskian character-types, i.e.: the Underground Man, Prince Myshkin, and Aloysha Karamazov. Yet, unlike those characters, Arkady is a much more ordinary, familiar and altogether realistic character in terms of both his personality and the circumstances in which he is to observed. If you are new to Dostoevsky, I recommend starting with Crime and Punishment and then moving on to The Brothers Karamazov. If you enjoyed those books and find yourself left wanting more, then The Adolescent, in my opinion, would be a good place to turn and is sure to be an enjoyable and memorable reading experience.

If you asked someone to name Dostoevsky's major works of fiction they would probably give you the following list--Crime and Punishment, Brothers Karamazov, Notes From Underground, The Idiot, Devils. To all but the most informed The Adolescent would not be named. This should not be the case. The Adolescent follows in the same tradition as Dostoevsky's other great works and demands to be read just as they do. The book is told from the point of view of Arkady, a raw youth just finished with high school and coming to Petersburg to become better acquainted with his estranged family before he sets off on his young adult life. Arkady graduates gymnasium and has decided not to go to college. He has instead chosen to embark on plan to become the next 'Baron Rothschild'. Before he does that he returns to Petersburg to visit his family -- particularly his father. Arkady's mother was a surf, so he is considered illegitimate. He has disdain for his father, however, the one time they met he was drawn to the charismatic man. What follows in Petersburg is your typical Dostoevskian drama. Arkady falls in love, befriends a prince, grows close to his sister, learns a lot about his father, and plays high-stakes roulette. Perhaps most of all book is about Arkady's experience growing up, leaving the naivety of youth behind and learning about life through experience rather than through books. Other Dostoevskyan themes are explored here as well. The relationship between father and son; the conflict of idealist thought and human action; and of course, all the psychological subtlety one could ask for in a novel. A first person point of view is not without its advantages, but ultimately it proves to be a failed experiment. A first person narrative does not diminish Dostoevsky's brilliance as a psychologist. It limits his potential, however, by focusing on a single character. That might not be so bad, but it is, because Arkady's naivety and makes him somewhat unlikeable. In short, he's an unremarkable character doing unremarkable things.

If you judge this book on plot and style - you would probably be inclined to toss it after the first hundred pages. However, plot and style are not parts of what modern art is all about. Every reader is, essentially, a passive consumer, sometimes endowed with a degree of healthy curiosity. And every writer's goal today, in my opinion, is to penetrate deeply into the heart and mind of such a consumer, shake him up, wake him up from his slumber, and, if possible inspire him to "create". Not to the extent of turning him into a writer, but at least into a "co-creator", raise a storm in the reader's soul, so that both the writer and the reader now participate in building this amazing world that only a human mind can build.Dostoyevsky achieves this par excellence. The long and tedious phrases, the weird characters, their strange, bizarre actions, their mood swings from one extreme to the next within a sentence, and, above all, the grotesque that this novel is saturated with to such an extent, I am almost tempted to call it a farce.Above all, if one were to think about it in context of modern Russia, one would be shocked at how nothing has changed in more than a century.If, when you pick up a book, you seek entertainment - don't pick up this book. If, however, you like to embark on self-exploration rollercoaster rides, then, by all means, buckle up!

Without doubt one of his great novels. It is the second time i've read it in quiet awhile and am struck by how modern it really is. The narrative structure of using Arkady as the story teller helps explain the rushed, uneven and feverish pace at with the book unfolds: but it is an example of the blending of form and content. All Dostoevsky's great themes are here but on a smaller scale. The novel is a clear example of a great writer warming up to the themes and ideas that he was to explore fully in his next work and masterpiece, 'The Bros K.' 'The Adolescent' is an excellent introduction to the thematics and style of the world's greatest novelist

Written before The Brothers Karamazov in the later part of his life, this novel again demonstrates the Russian masters ability to meld heavy characterizations with the Dark vs. Light moral and spiritual conflict. Again somewhat autobiographical(as many readers are already aware of this pattern), the story concerns a 19 year old bastard son of a cultured nobleman and a simple peasant wife. Determined to break his awkward social position, since he is the son of an ambiguously respected man yet cannot carry his namesake, Arkady begins an intellectual and moral quest to discover more about himself, his dichotomic parents and the people most closely with which they are entangled. Yet beginning to burn beneath the surface are other queries as well: his attraction to an older woman whom he knows is maybe linked romantically to his father, his mysterious "other father"(his mothers' serf husband until her affair with Arkady's father ended that, yet he carries this man's name), and a dangerously rebellious group of young men that succeed in rousing his moral and intellectual curiosity. Beautifully complex in its many layers, I believe this particular novel of Dostoevsky most vividly displays the authors genius. He is an artist who can only be compared to the best the world has ever known. Russia's most prolific artist ever, PERIOD. Also, not to go unmentioned, Macandrews' translation is by far the best I've ever found for any of Dostoevskys work, PERIOD. If you have never gotten around to reading any of the many great 19th century Russian novels, I recommend this novel with the highest possible honors.