“Notes from Underground” is one of the books written by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In some translations, the title of the book can appear as “Letters from the Underworld”, since there isn’t one title defined as official.
Published for the first time in 1864, the is the 7th book of the writer, and the 3rd he has published after he left the exile in Siberia. The time of the writing and publication have a strong influence in the content of the book; besides the fact that Dostoyevsky was getting adapted to his life in freedom, with few resources and without perspectives of development of a solid career, the author had also to deal with a problematic familiar situation, since his first wife was very ill at the time, and ended up dying shortly after. This way, it is clear that the gloominess and darkness that characterize the story are mostly due to the personal situation of Dostoyevsky.
In “Notes from Underground” the reader is introduced to a monologue that continues throughout the entire book, narrated in the first person by a man whose name is never revealed, and who is commonly referred to as the “underground man”; this character, a retired civilian worker, can be perceived as an anti-hero, an individual with a dubious character, that drags with himself a huge moral weight, and who his constricted by the accepted norms of the society.
As is characteristic in many of Dostoyevsky’s books, the profound reflection about the inevitable social involvement of each individual plays a major part in the development of the story, and many other questions related to the intimate and psychological features of people are raised, which makes “Notes from Underground” one of the first existentialist books. The story is divided into two parts, being the first mainly dedicated to the main character and his thoughts about himself and the world in general, with a pronounced depressed, negative and hopeless tone; on the second part, the memories take part of the story, and the narrator tells the reader some stories from his past.
Even though it is a relatively small book, “Notes from Underground” is considered one of Dostoyevsky’s best works, with an approach that already contains in itself the unique style that would characterize his work, simultaneously dark and realist, making an unparalleled comparison between the human mind and social problems; in fact, many considered that this “underground man” is a first version, or the inspiration to Rodion Raskolnikov, the main character of “Crime and Punishment”, normally seen and the masterpiece of the Russian writer.
