Notes from Underground

By Fyodor Dostoevsky

Part of the Wordsworth Classics series

Explore the dark corners of the human psyche through tales of isolation, depravity, and existential musings.

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720 pages

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Bookroo's summary

Dive into Dostoevsky's world where the Underground Man challenges societal norms with his twisted philosophy, and Ivan Ivanovitch eavesdrops on the dead's scandalous chatter. Witness a man's haunting realization of his role in his wife's tragic end. These stories unravel the complexities of the human mind, blending dark humor with profound insights. What drives these characters to the brink, and what truths lie beneath their actions? Discover the unsettling yet captivating exploration of spiritual stagnation and moral dilemmas.

From the publisher

With an Introduction and Notes by David Rampton, Department of English, University of Ottowa. Notes from Underground and Other Stories is a comprehensive collection of Dostoevsky’s short fiction. Many of these stories, like his great novels, reveal his special sympathy for the solitary and dispossessed, explore the same complex psychological issues and subtly combine rich characterization and philosophical meditations on the (often) dark areas of the human psyche, all conveyed in an idiosyncratic blend of deadly seriousness and wild humour. In Notes from Underground, the Underground Man casually dismantles utilitarianism and celebrates in its stead a perverse but vibrant masochism. A Christmas Tree and a Wedding recounts the successful pursuit of a young girl by a lecherous old man. In Bobok, one Ivan Ivanovitch listens in on corpses gossiping in a cemetery and ends up deploring their depravity. In A Gentle Spirit, the narrator describes his dawning recognition that he is responsible for his wife’s suicide. In short, as a commentator on spiritual stagnation, Dostoevsky has no equal.

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