Notes from the Underground

Notes from the Underground is recounted from the perspective of an unnamed narrator who describes himself as sick, spiteful, and unattractive. His thoughts and his moods veer unpredictably as he reflects on the folly of idealism and the reality of human squalor and degradation.

The psychological power of the book is deeply rooted in the conflicts and contradictions that afflict the narrator—many of which seem to have afflicted Dostoevsky himself. Once attracted to idealistic and utopian no...