Notes from Underground Book Summary

'Notes from Underground' plunges readers into the tormented psyche of an unnamed narrator, a bitter and isolated former civil servant living in St. Petersburg. Through his confessional and often contradictory thoughts, he explores themes of existentialism, free will, and the nature of society, challenging the ideals of rational egoism. As he navigates memories of his past and interactions with others, readers witness his profound disdain for the world and yet an intense longing for connection. This novella is a deep dive into the struggles of human consciousness, provoking reflection on one's own existence. Dostoevsky's masterful prose and psychological insight make 'Notes from Underground' not just a story but an unsettling journey into the depths of the human soul.

By Fyodor Dostoevsky

Published: 1994

"I am a sick man... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. There is hardly a single respectable quality in my character."

Book Review of Notes from Underground

Award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky give us a brilliantly faithful rendition of this classic novel, in all its tragedy and tormented comedy. In this second edition, they have updated their translation in honor of the 200th anniversary of Dostoevsky’s birth. One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the unnamed narrator of Dostoevsky's most revolutionary novel is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In full retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory narrative that serves as a devastating attack on social utopianism and an assertion of man’s essentially irrational nature.

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I am a sick man... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. There is hardly a single respectable quality in my character.

Notes from Underground

By Fyodor Dostoevsky