Notes from Underground, the Double, and Other Stories

Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky is best known for his psychological works of fiction. His characters and plots all carry psychosomatic troubles and problems that help make the stories more relatable to the reader. "Notes from Underground, The Double and Other Stories" combines some of Dostoyevsky's shorter works, though they certainly do not lack for depth. "Notes from Underground" is widely known as the first existential novel because of the raving, maniacal, and incoherent ramblings of its demented narrator. At the time, the Soviets despised the novel because of its critical nature toward a utopian society. This criticism was pointed at the government's attempts to create a Marxist society. Dostoyevsky believed that humans, even if they had perfection, would never be happy; this thought inspired many Western philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Friedrich Nietzsche. The other stories included in the collection all follow the same style: "The Double," "White Nights," "The Meek Ones," and "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" all follow loners in St. Petersburg as they slowly grow insane from isolation. These men fear rejection from their peers and contemporaries, so they distance themselves to the point of madness. However, these men are also ashamed of themselves for their inability to function within Russian society. The collection "Notes from Underground, The Double and Other Stories" is a must-read for anyone interested in psychological fiction or in the history of Russian literature.