Notes from the Underground

I am "a sick man . . . a wicked man . . . an unattractive man" I am corrupted by self-loathing and spite! "Notes from the Underground" is a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, delivered as a series of delusional memoirs of an angry and spiteful narrator. Often presented as Dostoevsky's most revolutionary novel, the social isolation and alienation of the character is depicted not only as rebellious, but as transformative as well. Misanthropy, disturbing episodes, existential squalor, and unpleasant interior portrayal turn the novel into a double-edged tool: both to humiliate and be humiliated; both to suffer and inflict suffering. The quite humane portrait of the character is also very disturbing – it is a person you can meet today at the station, in the queue behind you or sitting next to you on the bus. Fans of serious literature, the classics and of Dostoevsky will not be disappointed.