Cover: Standard Ebooks edition cover · CC0 public domain dedication · source
Notes from Underground
Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1821–1881
A nameless, spiteful, brilliant former civil servant in St Petersburg attacks the idea that people act in their own rational interest — two times two makes four, he says, is the beginning of death. The perfect antidote to any book on this list that makes change sound simple.
- First published
- 1864
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Reading time
- About 3 hours
- Translation
- Constance Garnett
Reading time: 44,211 words in Project Gutenberg text #600, read at 238 words per minute.
Russian original 1864. Constance Garnett's translation, 1918 — not Ralph Matlaw's later revision of it.
- free will
- spite
- reason
- self-consciousness
- contradiction
Where to read it
- Read free — Standard EbooksPublic domain text, carefully proofread and produced. · checked 11 Oct 2026(opens in a new tab)
- Read free — Project GutenbergPublic domain in the USA; check your local law outside it. · checked 11 Oct 2026(opens in a new tab)
Copyright
- Kenya
- Public domain (translator d. 1946)
- United States
- Public domain (published 1918)
NOESIS hosts no book files. Links lead to the sources named.
Questions for discussion
The underground man would rather suffer than be predictable. Do you recognise him?
How would he answer As a Man Thinketh?
Is the book a confession, a satire or a warning?
Member reviews
No member has reviewed this book yet. Reviews come only from members, and a moderator reads each one before it appears.