The Double cover art

The Double

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Double

By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £13.25

Buy Now for £13.25

About this listen

First published in 1846, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novella The Double is a classic doppelganger story and the second major work published by the author. It is the story of Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, a government clerk who believes that a fellow clerk has taken over his identity and is determined to bring about his ruin. Considered the most Gogolesque of Dostoyevsky's works, the novella brilliantly depicts Golyadkin's descent into madness in a way that is hauntingly poetic. The Double illustrates Dostoyevsky's uncanny ability at capturing the complexity of human emotion, especially the darker side of the human psyche.

Public Domain (P)2012 AudioGO Anthologies & Short Stories Classics Fiction Short Stories
All stars
Most relevant
I can see why Nabokov liked this above all of FD’s books, it is the only one that comes close to being similar to Nabokov’s own social satire, portrayed through a richly ambiguous and comic character.

Dostoyevsky’s most Nabokovian novel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I found this story to be a strange and uncomfortable experience, but also interesting due to it being a different experience. It portrayed the madness very convincingly.

Strange and unusual story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Worth every second. Dostoevsky paints his characters so vividly, no movie could compare. The hero is unsettled in an excruciating way which is fascinating

Brilliant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Amazingly accurate description of a person descending into paranoid schizophrenia at a time when such matters were very poorly understood.

Genius

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Having always struggled with the Russian names when reading Dostoevsky this audio version is the perfect solution. This is an amazing story which feels totally contemporary in its exploration of identity, mental health and fragile nature of our lives and grip on reality. At time very disturbing it also has the dark humour of Kafka or Ionesco. I loved the reader and the clarity of the recording. 5 stars all round.

This feels so contemporary.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews