Notes From Underground – Confirmed

You aren't supposed to like the narrator, but you may find yourself recognizing his anxieties and contradictions.

Dostoevsky wrote the book as a rebuttal to Nikolai Chernyshevsky’s What Is to Be Done? , which argued that humans could be guided by rational self-interest. Notes From Underground

Set sixteen years earlier, it follows his disastrous social interactions, including a humiliating dinner with former schoolmates and a complex encounter with a prostitute named Liza. You aren't supposed to like the narrator, but

The Underground Man is a quintessential anti-hero—spiteful, vain, and unreliable, yet painfully relatable in his inner turmoil. ⚡ Cultural Legacy it follows his disastrous social interactions

Its influence can be seen in works ranging from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man to Martin Scorsese’s film Taxi Driver .