Novel
The Double
Двойник
Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1846
Synopsis
Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, a minor St Petersburg civil servant of the rank of titular counsellor, consults his doctor, Dr Rutenspitz, who is worried about his condition and advises him to keep cheerful company. Golyadkin goes uninvited to the birthday party of Klara Olsufyevna, the daughter of his department head, and is thrown out. Returning home in the snowstorm, he meets a man who looks exactly like him: his double, who soon appears even in his office.
Context
The text appeared on 30 January 1846 in the “Annals of the Fatherland”, under the subtitle “A Petersburg Poem”; Dostoevsky gave a revised version in 1866. Actes Sud publishes the French translation by André Markowicz, who places the hero between his lodgings on the rue des Six-Boutiques and his ministry. In English, the novel has had several translations, from Constance Garnett to Hugh Aplin, including Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
Who it is for
A short novel that can be read in a few evenings, for those who like tales of anxiety and urban fantasy.
Prizes and reception
According to Actes Sud, the reader never knows whether the hero is going mad or whether the double really exists.