Notes from Underground
Overview
Notes from Underground (also translated in English
as Notes from the Underground or Letters from the Underworld, though "Notes from Underground" is the most literal translation) is an 1864 short novel
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Notes is considered by many to be the first existentialist
novel. 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.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as Notes from the Underground or Letters from the Underworld, though "Notes from Underground" is the most literal translation) is an 1864 short novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Notes is considered by many to be the first existentialist
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
novel. 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.
