The Humiliated and Insulted (1861)

Humiliated and Insulted, The Insulted and Humiliated, The Insulted and the Injured, Injury and Insult
There are various problems with this novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, early and arguably his first true novel. That’s in part because it’s under influence of Charles Dickens, who Dostoevsky reportedly read in his years of exile. It’s his biggest to date, well over 300 pages by my estimate, managing multiple storylines with foreshadowing and cross-cutting. It’s still pretty crude and awkward, but it’s apparent he is absorbing and learning the craft. When I first saw the title I thought it was perfect for Dostoevsky, though it travels under various titles—some translators drop the “The,” which changes the sense too much for me. I’d even like another “the,” which appears in The Insulted and the Injured. But I prefer “Humiliated” and think it should go first. The Dickens influence is seen most clearly in the orphan girl Nellie, a 13-year-old suffering from epilepsy and homelessness, among other things. The first-person narrator is himself published, and now working on a second novel. His first novel roughly resembles Dostoevsky’s own first, Poor Folk. The best thing about The Humiliated and Insulted is probably Prince Valkovsky, who develops into one of Dostoevsky’s memorable villains. He’s even worse (or better), ultimately, than Foma Fomitch from the previous novel, The Village of Stepanchikovo. There’s a scene here that blew my mind in which this prince takes this narrator to supper and schools him on the depths of human depravity. Dostoevsky was particularly good at these evil souls. The reason I like the title as given above is because that’s how things generally go here. First these struggling poor folks are humiliated—given hopes for something, for example, that are subsequently dashed. Then followed by gratuitous insult, so it really stings. Again, this is what Dostoevsky can be particularly good at and he’s really coming into it here. The plots and subplots generally involve marriage and the grasping needs for money. An Englishman appears in Petersburg, as if to fix the Dickens influence. The structure, as I say, is somewhat awkward, but it is nonetheless compulsively readable, even as you can see the seams and how he is learning to write novels. It’s probably not necessary to read this for a better understanding of Dostoevsky, but it won’t hurt and it’s a good fix if you are jonesing for more of him.

In case the library is closed due to pandemic, which is over.