The basement

Dostoevsky wrote Notes from Underground in the winter of 1863-64, at a time when he was suffering from epileptic seizures and gambling debts. The novel is divided into two parts. The first part presents the thoughts of the protagonist, a former civil servant living in isolation in St. Petersburg, in a dismal and squalid room. He constantly criticizes his contemporaries and the society of his time, presenting himself as a wicked person, but at the same time confessing that he does this merely to boast. In the second part, the protagonist narrates certain events from his life, where his failure on both personal and professional levels is evident. The climax of the narratives comes with his meeting with the twenty-year-old prostitute Liza, whom he psychologically crushes, while she relies on him for her salvation. Notes from Underground was the first of Dostoevsky's works that Friedrich Nietzsche read, who, captivated, noted: "Dostoevsky is the only psychologist from whom I have something to learn...". A profound and subversive psychological drama, full of philosophical concerns and existential questions, which explores the dark aspects of human nature and the conflict of the individual with society.