Notes from Underground (Summarized Edition)

Published in 1864, Notes from Underground is a taut two-part novella that assaults the era's rational egoism and utilitarian optimism. In Part One, the unnamed Underground Man delivers a jagged, self-lacerating monologue, wielding paradox against deterministic science and social engineering. Part Two, Apropos of the Wet Snow, stages his ideas as lived humiliation: petty clashes with former schoolm...