Notes from the Underground

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

2010년 1월 · Cosimo, Inc.

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A philosophical debate about human nature and life in a technological civilization in the form of the diary of a fictional civil servant, this 1864 novel is considered the foundational work of existentialist literature. Punishing himself through his refusal to seek medical treatment for his pain, the embittered, nameless narrator engages in what appears to be an attempt to prove to himself that human happiness can never be possible because people are too stubbornly individualistic not to assert themselves, even in wicked ways. One of the must-reads from Russian novelist FYODOR MIKHAILOVICH DOSTOEVSKY (1821-1881), this trailblazing work of modern literature offers a vital basis for understanding much of contemporary philosophy and pop culture, from Jean-Paul Sartre and Friedrich Nietzsche to Taxi Driver and American Psycho, all of which have taken inspiration from this extraordinary work.

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One of the most powerful and significant authors in all modern fiction, Fyodor Dostoevsky was the son of a harsh and domineering army surgeon who was murdered by his own serfs (slaves), an event that was extremely important in shaping Dostoevsky's view of social and economic issues. He studied to be an engineer and began work as a draftsman. However, his first novel, Poor Folk (1846), was so well received that he abandoned engineering for writing. In 1849, Dostoevsky was arrested for being a part of a revolutionary group that owned an illegal printing press. He was sentenced to be executed, but the sentence was changed at the last minute, and he was sent to a prison camp in Siberia instead. By the time he was released in 1854, he had become a devout believer in both Christianity and Russia - although not in its ruler, the Czar. During the 1860's, Dostoevsky's personal life was in constant turmoil as the result of financial problems, a gambling addiction, and the deaths of his wife and brother. His second marriage in 1887 provided him with a stable home life and personal contentment, and during the years that followed he produced his great novels: Crime and Punishment (1886), the story of Rodya Raskolnikov, who kills two old women in the belief that he is beyond the bounds of good and evil; The Idiots (1868), the story of an epileptic who tragically affects the lives of those around him; The Possessed (1872), the story of the effect of revolutionary thought on the members of one Russian community; A Raw Youth (1875), which focuses on the disintegration and decay of family relationships and life; and The Brothers Karamazov (1880), which centers on the murder of Fyodor Karamazov and the effect the murder has on each of his four sons. These works have placed Dostoevsky in the front rank of the world's great novelists. Dostoevsky was an innovator, bringing new depth and meaning to the psychological novel and combining realism and philosophical speculation in his complex studies of the human condition.