Notes from the Underground

Name: Notes from the Underground
Author: Unknown Author
ISBN: 9780099140115

by Unknown Author

160 pages2006Vintage ClassicsISBN 9780099140115

Fiction Classics

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About this book

Notes from Underground (pre-reform Russian: Записки изъ подполья; post-reform Russian: Записки из подполья, tr. Zapíski iz podpólʹya), also translated as Notes from the Underground or Letters from the Underworld, is an 1864 novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Notes is considered by many to be one of the first existentialist novels. It presents itself as an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator (generally referred to by critics as the Underground Man), who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg. The first part of the story is told in monologue form, or the underground man's diary, and attacks emerging Western philosophy, especially Nikolay Chernyshevsky's What Is to Be Done? The second part of the book is called "Apropos of the Wet Snow" and describes certain events that appear to be destroying and sometimes renewing the underground man, who acts as a first person, unreliable narrator and anti-hero.

Publication Details

Publisher: Vintage Classics
Published: 2006
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9780099140115
Language: en

About Unknown Author

Russian novelist Fyodor Mikhailovitch Dostoyevsky was a journalist and short-story writer, whose psychological penetration into the human soul profoundly influenced the 20th century novel. Dostoevsky's novels have much autobiographical elements, but ultimately they deal with moral and philosophical questions. He presented interacting characters with contrasting views or ideas about freedom of choice, Socialism, atheisms, good and evil, happiness and so forth. Dostoevsky's central obsession was God, whom his characters constantly search through painful errors and humiliations. ([Source][1]) Dostoyevsky's literary output explores human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. Considered by many as a founder or precursor of 20th-century existentialism, his *Notes from Underground* (1864), written in the embittered voice of the anonymous "underground man", was called by Walter Kaufmann the "best overture for existentialism ever written." A prominent figure in world literature, Dostoyevsky is often acknowledged by critics as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature. ([Source][2]) Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский (рус. дореф. Ѳедоръ Михайловичъ Достоевскій; 30 октября [11 ноября] 1821, Москва, Российская империя — 28 января [9 февраля] 1881, Санкт-Петербург, Российская империя) — русский писатель, мыслитель, философ и публицист. Член-корреспондент Петербургской АН с 1877 года. ([Source][3]) Как в начале, так и в продолжении своего литературного творчества после четырёх лет каторги и ссылки за участие в кружке Петрашевского Достоевский выступал в качестве новатора в русле традиций русского реализма, что не получило должной оценки современников при жизни писателя. ([Source][3]) После смерти Достоевский был признан классиком русской литературы и одним из лучших романистов мирового значения, считается первым представителем персонализма в России. Творчество русского писателя оказало воздействие