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The Dream of a Ridiculous Man Kindle Edition

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 425 ratings

The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00FABXIB2
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 18, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 374 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 18 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 425 ratings

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Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (/ˌdɒstəˈjɛfski, ˌdʌs-/; Russian: Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский; IPA: [ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ dəstɐˈjɛfskʲɪj]; 11 November 1821 – 9 February 1881), sometimes transliterated Dostoevsky, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Dostoyevsky's literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmosphere of 19th-century Russia. Many of his works are marked by a preoccupation with Christianity, explored through the prism of the individual confronted with life's hardships and beauty.

He began writing in his 20s, and his first novel, Poor Folk, was published in 1846 when he was 25. His major works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). His output consists of 11 novels, three novellas, 17 short novels and numerous other works. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature. His 1864 novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature.

Born in Moscow in 1821, Dostoyevsky was introduced to literature at an early age through fairy tales and legends, and through books by Russian and foreign authors. His mother died in 1837, when he was 15, and around the same time he left school to enter the Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute. After graduating, he worked as an engineer and briefly enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, translating books to earn extra money. In the mid-1840s he wrote his first novel, Poor Folk, which gained him entry into St. Petersburg's literary circles.

In the following years, Dostoyevsky worked as a journalist, publishing and editing several magazines of his own and later A Writer's Diary, a collection of his writings. He began to travel around western Europe and developed a gambling addiction, which led to financial hardship. For a time, he had to beg for money, but he eventually became one of the most widely read and highly regarded Russian writers. His books have been translated into more than 170 languages. Dostoyevsky influenced a multitude of writers and philosophers, from Anton Chekhov and Ernest Hemingway to Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
425 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book easy to read and engaging. They appreciate the story with its implications and humor. The illustrations are beautiful and the details are startling. Overall, customers find the book a great and remarkable telling of the Earth.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

6 customers mention "Readability"6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and engaging. They say it's a good story about the Earth.

"Excellent, print on demand version! ++Huge LARGE print 🌞🌞🌞! Had, somehow, never come across this short...." Read more

"Kind of sad, kind of funny. A good read for a single sitting." Read more

"This is such a remarkable and beautiful telling of earth, a true paradise of before and what's become of it......" Read more

"...and sweet- sort of your typical Dostoevsky style rant and raving but very good." Read more

3 customers mention "Story quality"3 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the story. They find it wonderful with its implications and humor. The illustrations and bonus story are included for real value. Readers also mention that it's interesting to read about humanity being fractured by a ridiculous man.

"...Beautiful illustrations and a ‘bonus’ story included! Real Value...." Read more

"It was interesting to read a fractured of humanity in the hands of the ridiculous man standing in the corner and preaching about the universe and..." Read more

"A Wonderful Story w/ Implications Only Exceeded in Magnitude By Humor..." Read more

3 customers mention "Visual quality"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's visual quality. They find the illustrations beautiful and the story remarkable. The scale and detail are impressive.

"...Had, somehow, never come across this short. Beautiful illustrations and a ‘bonus’ story included! Real Value...." Read more

"...His novels are unmatched in scale and the detail is startling. He is amongst the world's greatest novelists...." Read more

"This is such a remarkable and beautiful telling of earth, a true paradise of before and what's become of it......" Read more

Bad Printing
1 out of 5 stars
Bad Printing
The typeface is so comically overlarge that the text becomes obscured in the center. Unless you don't mind folding and breaking the spine in order to read this, I'd suggest looking for another printing elsewhere.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2019
    Excellent, print on demand version!
    ++Huge LARGE print 🌞🌞🌞!

    Had, somehow, never come across this short. Beautiful illustrations and a ‘bonus’ story included! Real Value. All of our actions, thoughts and dreams both affect and effect each of the others in our world🌍. John 3:16 is an expression of Agape on a scale worthy of a Κόσμος ! (μετάνοια)

    “When you have come to the edge of the abyss and can no longer bear it, take a few steps back, and have a cup of tea ☕️.” -Elder Sophrony of Essex

    Camus was a great advocate of Dostoyevsky and ‘the myth of Sisyphus’ is something of a diptych for this ‘Dream’. Also ‘Nihilism’ by Fr Seraphim Rose (St Herman’s) Faith, Hope & Love remain......

    Grace and Peace to you!
    🔥Hold to the beautiful, the True & the Good ☦️.....
    5 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2024
    It was interesting to read a fractured of humanity in the hands of the ridiculous man standing in the corner and preaching about the universe and earth.
  • Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2010
    "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" is one of Dostoevsky's best, most original, and most influential short stories. It epitomizes several of his defining preoccupations - alienation, Christian charity, etc. - and is a preeminent example of his characteristic psychological realism. A first-person tour de force, it shows yet again that no one matches him for psychological verisimilitude. It is also heavy on his core philosophical concerns and, perhaps most notably, pioneered important concepts that had not even been defined, namely psychoanalysis and solipsism. One can easily see why Freud frequently cited Dostoevsky, as this story essentially prefigured much of his work on dreams by several decades. Fantastic as the story is in some ways - recalling the wilder flights of Paradise Lost and arguably even being almost a science fiction precursor -, it is one of Dostoevsky's most moving and deeply human works. Anyone interested in him must read it. However, the fact that it is available in many collections -- such as The Best Short Stories of Dostoevsky -- makes a standalone very hard to justify.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2010
    Let's just say that Dostoyevsky is always getting at the big picture, whatever subtleties he might employ. Here, it could only be possible to dismiss the scale of this story as 'minor' as critics often will if the fictional events are seen as too fantastic and exaggerated, or, if you will, ridiculous. And of course it is precisely this condition of being ridiculous that not only has the narrator come to terms with, but has even understood to be his salvation as and not just his downfall. As for the 'dream.' That is the question. As is the relevance of whether or not this story is a work of fiction, as is the relevance of if Jonah was really in the belly of a whale. All of these distinctions becoming irrelevant is precisely where Dostoyevsky is taking the reader. Because--if it has been imagined, if it exists in figuration, story, and most especially, if one can get the logic to work, it is real and there is only one layer of reality. Truth on the other hand is an altogether a different matter.

    I believe that this book brings one so close to the core of Dostoevsky's brilliance that it is a treasure. And hopefully you will buy this story and agree and hold on to this as a treasure. The short works of authors are often overlooked. Consider Tolstoi. I believe the only thing he wrote in the 20th Cent. (death thereafter) was a five page story, 'Alyosha the Pot.' Also there is 'The Death of Ivan Illych.' And of course Tolstoi was always on some gigantic mission like writing war and peace. But I'll tell you, I'd trade either of those stories, yes, even the 5 page Alyosha the Pot for its stunning poetic beauty & do without War & Peace.

    Now with Dostoyevsky I am not that extreme. His novels are unmatched in scale and the detail is startling. He is amongst the world's greatest novelists. Yet, to look over his short stories, and I do mean very many more beyond Notes From the Underground, is missing out and creates an incomplete perspective on the man's abilities as a writer. As for the translation, it is the good-old ever-faithful Constant Garnett that is still redeeming us from ignorance of Russian Literature though many things have be re-translated. By the way, She did a wonderful job! The language is perfect!
    11 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2019
    A decent audible
  • Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2022
    Kind of sad, kind of funny. A good read for a single sitting.
    One person found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2022
    This is such a remarkable and beautiful telling of earth, a true paradise of before and what's become of it......
  • Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2024
    The typeface is so comically overlarge that the text becomes obscured in the center. Unless you don't mind folding and breaking the spine in order to read this, I'd suggest looking for another printing elsewhere.
    Customer image
    1.0 out of 5 stars Bad Printing
    Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2024
    The typeface is so comically overlarge that the text becomes obscured in the center. Unless you don't mind folding and breaking the spine in order to read this, I'd suggest looking for another printing elsewhere.
    Images in this review
    Customer image
    Customer image

Top reviews from other countries

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  • Richard Giraud
    1.0 out of 5 stars Hardcover version includes a Korean cookbook
    Reviewed in Canada on April 5, 2022
    Received the hardcover version, which is approximately 100 pages, the first 80 being "The Super Easy Vegan Korean Cookbook", with the Dream of a Ridiculous Man making up the last 20 pages or so. Not sure how that came to be. This isn't the kind of mistake I would expect in a $30 book.
  • Paulo Magalhães
    4.0 out of 5 stars Fácil
    Reviewed in Brazil on January 30, 2022
    Fácil
  • Habib saleh
    5.0 out of 5 stars I love it
    Reviewed in Germany on February 10, 2024
    My favourite book 📖
  • Aakash Gyan
    5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful
    Reviewed in India on May 10, 2020
    An idea of a utopian society develops to the writer after a dream he witnessed or reality , and what he discovers is the "love" will lead you to a better world and it's not just self love but a selfless love .
  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars I go back to this little story often.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 18, 2019
    When it comes down to psychological and spiritual matters, Dostoevsky is the man. His polysemous musings really reflect an ongoing process of meditation on imposing questions as opposed to pre-formulated narrative.

    Every time you go back to one of his works you discover another level of meaning or another nuance or a new perspective on his delicate juxtaposition of ideas, he’s such a rewarding author to read.

    In terms of the specifics of this book it’s one I’d recommend people who have never read Dostoevsky to start with; it’s a very short story and very characteristic of his overall style- if a little more optimistic than the general tone of his works.

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