Notes from the Underground

First published in 1864, "Notes from the Underground" is a novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky and widely believed to be one of the first works of existentialist literature. The narrative is presented as an extract from the memoirs of an embittered ex-civil servant residing in St. Petersburg. It contains two parts: the first, a monologue attacking emerging Western philosophy; the second, an account of various events that seem to be both destructive and restorative to our narrator and anti-hero.