Notes from Underground (also translated in English as Notes from the Underground or Letters from the Underworld while Notes from Underground is the most literal translation) is a short novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, who is a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher,published in 1864. It is considered by many to be the world's first existentialist novel. It presents itself as an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator (generally referred to by critics as the Underground Man) who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg. The novel includes two parts: The first part of the story is told in monologue form, or the underground man's diary, and attacks emerging Western philosophy, especially Nikolay Chernyshevsky's What Is to Be Done?
