Notes from the Underground — Fyodor Mihayloviç Dostoyevski

Dostoevsky s most revolutionary novel Notes from the Underground marks the dividing line between nineteenth and twentieth century fiction and between the visions of self each century embodied One of the most remarkable characters in literature the unnamed narrator is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence In full retreat from society he scrawls a passionate obsessive self contradictory narrative that serves as a devastating attack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

The author of the diary and the diary itself are of course imaginary Nevertheless it is clear that such persons as the writer of these notes not only may but positively must exist in our society when we consider the circumstances in the midst of which our society is formed I have tried to expose to the view of the public more distinctly than is commonly done one of the characters of the recent past He is one of the representatives of a generation still living In this fragment entitled Underground this person introduces himself and his views and as it were tries to explain the causes owing to which he has made his appearance and was bound to make his appearance in our midst In the second fragment there are added the actual notes of this person concerning certain events in his life AUTHOR S NOTE

The author of the diary and the diary itself are of course imaginary Nevertheless it is clear that such persons as the writer of these notes not only may but positively must exist in our society when we consider the circumstances in the midst of which our society is formed I have tried to expose to the view of the public more distinctly than is commonly done one of the characters of the recent past He is one of the representatives of a generation still living In this fragment entitled Underground this person introduces himself and his views and as it were tries to explain the causes owing to which he has made his appearance and was bound to make his appearance in our midst In the second fragment there are added the actual notes of this person concerning certain events in his life img src https s3 eu west 1 amazonaws com dia kitadagitim ckeditor_assets pictures 53 content_1_original_original jpg alt height 15 width 15 font size 1 color white font img

The author of the diary and the diary itself are of course imaginary Nevertheless it is clear that such persons as the writer of these notes not only may but positively must exist in our society when we consider the circumstances in the midst of which our society is formed I have tried to expose to the view of the public more distinctly than is commonly done one of the characters of the recent past He is one of the representatives of a generation still living In this fragment entitled Underground this person introduces himself and his views and as it were tries to explain the causes owing to which he has made his appearance and was bound to make his appearance in our midst In the second fragment there are added the actual notes of this person concerning certain events in his life