Notes From Underground
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Bitter and unpleasant, the Underground Man lives alone in St. Petersburg. After working in the civil service for many years, he decides to write an account of his opinions on society as they have been shaped by his ordinary life. Although he is insightful and educated, the Underground Man’s ability and cunning have left him with an intense loathing of mankind, which he sets out to preserve in his manuscript.
In this two part novella, author Fyodor Dostoyevsky presents an opinion of man as an irrational and impossible being, always seeking satisfaction in the institutions of society yet without any hope for success. Notes from the Underground is considered by many to be the first example of existential fiction in which philosophy is presented from an individualized and highly humanized perspective.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821– 1881) was a Russian author and journalist whose novels, short stories and essays explore religious, philosophical and political aspects of the human condition, and are considered by many to be the most influential writing of the modern world, including his novella Notes from Underground, one of the earliest Existential texts. He spent a decade in the Tsarist penal system for reading banned books, including four years in a Siberian prison camp, but survived to become one of the most famous and highly regarded world writers.
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