Notes from Underground (also translated in English as Notes from the Underground or Letters from the Underworld while Notes from Underground is the most literal translation) is a short novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, who is a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher,published in 1864. It is considered by many to be the world s first existentialist novel. It presents itself as an excerpt from 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 novel includes two parts: 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?