Books

William Heinemann. London. 1918. First edition, UK. Includes Notes From Underground in Two Parts. No DW. The Novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky Volume X. Original red cloth gilt with decorations to spine. [ii], 283 pages + 16 page publisher's catalogue at rear. Spine and top edge of boards are sunned, very small vertical raised portion of cloth to lower quarter of front cover, rear endpaper creased. Attractive bookplate to front pastedown. Prelims, edges and margins of pages foxed. Pages very browned. Apart from these faults a clean and sound copy of a very scarce item.

Notes from Underground is a novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky that presents the interior monologue of a man living in St. Petersburg, Russia. The protagonist, often referred to as the underground man, retreats into a self-imposed isolation from society and articulates his world views through a series of contradictory and complex thoughts and ideas. The work is split into two parts, with the first titled 'Underground' and the second, 'A Propos of the Wet Snow.' It is often regarded as one of the first existentialist novels.