Notes from Underground
A nameless retired official of forty addresses imaginary readers from his “underground” in Saint Petersburg. The first part is a monologue against rational egoism, utopian planning and the idea that people always pursue their own advantage; the second recalls humiliating episodes from his youth, ending with his cruelty toward Liza.
Understanding the text
Published in 1864 in Epoch, the journal Dostoevsky ran with his brother, the work answers Chernyshevsky’s What Is to Be Done? and its image of a Crystal Palace. Dostoevsky complained that the censors had cut a passage that drew from all this the need for faith and Christ, so the printed text is partly truncated.
Key points
- 01
Spite
The narrator’s self-lacerating lucidity shows how reflection can turn into paralysis, resentment and a strange pleasure in humiliation.
- 02
Caprice
Against reasoned self-interest he defends free, even irrational wanting as the one advantage that no system can include.
- 03
Liza
The second part tests the monologue against an encounter in which the narrator wounds the person who offers him real compassion.
Explore the ideas in depth
Freedom against the Crystal Palace
Follow the underground man’s case against rational egoism and ask whether the freedom he defends amounts to more than spite.
Situating the text
Published in 1864 in Epoch, the journal Dostoevsky ran with his brother, the work answers Chernyshevsky’s What Is to Be Done? and its image of a Crystal Palace. Dostoevsky complained that the censors had cut a passage that drew from all this the need for faith and Christ, so the printed text is partly truncated. A nameless retired official of forty addresses imaginary readers from his “underground” in Saint Petersburg. The first part is a monologue against rational egoism, utopian planning and the idea that people always pursue their own advantage; the second recalls humiliating episodes from his youth, ending with his cruelty toward Liza.
Following the arguments
Spite : The narrator’s self-lacerating lucidity shows how reflection can turn into paralysis, resentment and a strange pleasure in humiliation. Caprice : Against reasoned self-interest he defends free, even irrational wanting as the one advantage that no system can include. Liza : The second part tests the monologue against an encounter in which the narrator wounds the person who offers him real compassion.
Continuing the reading
Read the first part slowly, noting where the narrator contradicts himself, then ask whether the second part confirms or undermines his arguments. Published in 1864 in Epoch, the journal Dostoevsky ran with his brother, the work answers Chernyshevsky’s What Is to Be Done? and its image of a Crystal Palace. Dostoevsky complained that the censors had cut a passage that drew from all this the need for faith and Christ, so the printed text is partly truncated.
Questions to carry into your reading
- Why does the narrator call heightened consciousness a disease, and does his own monologue bear that out?
- What does the episode with Liza reveal about the freedom defended in the first part?
Underground freedom resists every calculation, but cut off from other people it collapses into spite and self-torment.
How to read it
Read the first part slowly, noting where the narrator contradicts himself, then ask whether the second part confirms or undermines his arguments.
Editions & sources
Summaries and key points are original editorial interpretations. They accompany reading the work and do not replace an edition of the text. Editorial method ↗