Notes from the Underground

Overview: Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays whose psychological penetration into the human soul had a profound influence on the 20th century novel. He is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoyevsky's literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th century Russian society. With the embittered voice of the anonymous "underground man", Dostoyevsky wrote Notes from Underground, which has been called the "best overture for existentialism ever written" by Walter Kaufmann. He is often acknowledged by critics as one of the greatest and most prominent psychologists in world literature.