Notes from Underground
1864
Philosophical fiction
A short, savage novella narrated by a bitter, self-loathing retired civil servant — the original Underground Man — who picks apart Enlightenment rationalism and the idea that human beings, given the right utopia, would behave rationally at all. The first half is a monologue of philosophical spite; the second is a humiliating set of memories that proves the point. Widely read as a prelude to the longer novels and a foundational text for existentialism.