Gloom with a View: The Miserable Genius of Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground

Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground is an unparalleled triumph of literary genius, a veritable tour-de-force that renders the ordinary, extraordinary. In this marvelously morose masterpiece, Dostoyevsky transforms the existential crisis of a middle-aged, maladjusted civil servant into an epic odyssey of self-deprecation and philosophical ponderings, peppered with the perfect balance of wry humour and existential dread. … Continue reading Gloom with a View: The Miserable Genius of Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground

Beyond Good & Evil: The Ultimate Self-Help Guide for the Übermensch Wannabe

It has taken me quite some time to journey through this book, and now it is festooned with a myriad of brightly coloured, pointy post-it notes. The pages resemble a chaotic saw-blade, each tab marking a moment of insight or intrigue, creating a whimsical and somewhat bewildering display. What follows, is the result of my … Continue reading Beyond Good & Evil: The Ultimate Self-Help Guide for the Übermensch Wannabe

Through the Peephole: Henri Barbusse’s The Inferno

Lately, I find myself immersed in a sea of existentialist musings, possibly reflecting my own melancholic state of mind and sombre outlook on life. And the work I'm about to detail is hard to pin down to exactly which literary genre this introspective fluff belongs to - Existentialist? Modernist? Philosophical Fiction? Psychological Fiction? Perhaps it … Continue reading Through the Peephole: Henri Barbusse’s The Inferno