Notes from Underground is a world literature novella written by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky in 1864. The world literature & fiction classic focuses on the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator, generally referred to by critics as the Underground Man, who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg. The first part of the story is told in monologue form, or the underground man's diary, and attacks emerging Western philosophy, especially Nikolay Chernyshevsky's What Is to Be Done? The second part of the book is called Apropos of the Wet Snow, and describes certain events that, it seems, are destroying and sometimes renewing the underground man, who acts as a first person, unreliable narrator and anti-hero. Initially a Russian regional & cultural best seller, the world literature & fiction classic Notes from Underground is a worldwide best selling book that is often required textbook reading. Notes from Underground is a classic literature & fiction novella but it encompasses several other broad fiction genres such as history & criticism, and philosophy.