Classic Novels Library

Notes from the Underground

Notes from the Underground

by Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881

BookID: 600

Language:English

Reading Level:Reading ease score: 78.9 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.

Copyright Status:Public domain in the USA.

Political fictionRussia -- History -- 1801-1917 -- FictionRussia -- Officials and employees -- Fiction

Description

"Notes from the Underground" by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a novella published in 1864. This confession-style narrative follows a bitter, isolated former civil servant in St. Petersburg known as the Underground Man. Through philosophical monologues and personal anecdotes, he attacks determinism and utopian ideals, arguing that humans need suffering and irrationality to maintain freedom. He obsesses over past humiliations and social encounters, embracing spite and inaction while despising the rational self-interest that he believes has trapped him in unhappiness. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Class:PG: Language and Literatures: Slavic (including Russian), Languages and Literature

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