Read Notes from Underground in Daily Email Installments
A retired St. Petersburg civil servant — forty, friendless, and ferociously articulate — turns to the reader to explain why he will not be cured. Published in 1864 and often called the first existentialist novel, Dostoevsky's short masterpiece moves in two parts: a philosophical confession from the “underground,” then the mortifying misadventures that sent him there.
One installment a day: 71 days — about ten weeks. Pause, rewind, or stop anytime.
Start reading — freeWhy read Notes from Underground?
Notes from Underground is the best short introduction to Dostoevsky — all the psychological intensity of the big novels at a tenth of the length. Its narrator is the original unreliable modern voice: self-aware, self-sabotaging, and impossible to stop reading.
The book runs in two halves. Part One is a philosophical monologue against rationalism, utopia, and your own best interests; Part Two is the story — a dinner party crashed, an insult avenged over years, an act of cruelty the narrator can neither justify nor forget. In installments, the ranting voice becomes a strange daily companion.
We serialize the classic Constance Garnett translation, chunked at chapter boundaries — never mid-thought — with a “Previously” recap on every installment so the thread never drops.
What an installment looks like
I am a sick man. … I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. However, I know nothing at all about my disease, and do not know for certain what ails me. I don’t consult a doctor for it, and never have, though I have a respect for medicine and doctors. Besides, I am extremely superstitious, sufficiently so to respect medicine, anyway (I am well-educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am superstitious). No, I refuse to consult a doctor from spite. That you probably will not understand. Well, I understand it, though. Of course, I can’t explain who it is precisely that I am mortifying in this case by my spite: I am perfectly well aware that I cannot “pay out” the doctors by not consulting them; I know better than anyone that by all this I am only injuring myself and no one else. But still, if I don’t consult a doctor it is from spite. My liver is bad, well—let it get worse!
I have been going on like that for a long time—twenty years. Now I am forty. I used to be in the government service, but am no longer. I was a spiteful official. I was rude and took pleasure in being so. I did not take bribes, you see, so I was bound to find a recompense in that, at least. (A poor jest, but I will not scratch it out. I wrote it thinking it would sound very witty; but now that I have seen myself that I only wanted to show off in a despicable way, I will not scratch it out on purpose!)
Questions
How long does it take to read Notes from Underground?
About three and a quarter hours straight through (44,165 words). By email, it's 71 daily installments of 2–3 minutes each — finished in about ten weeks.
Is Notes from Underground a good first Dostoevsky?
Yes — it's short, it's the seedbed of the themes in Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, and its voice is unforgettable. If you eventually want the big novels, this is the on-ramp.
Which translation is this?
Constance Garnett's classic public-domain translation, in the carefully typeset Standard Ebooks edition. Garnett is how generations of English readers first met Dostoevsky.
Isn't it depressing?
It's funnier than its reputation — bitterly, deliberately funny. The narrator knows exactly how ridiculous he is, and telling you is the point.
How does it arrive?
One email a day at the hour you pick, with a one-line recap of the previous installment at the top. Free. Unsubscribe or pause anytime.
Pick your delivery hour, confirm your email, and installment 1 of 71 arrives with the next send. Free, and unsubscribe anytime.
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