Notes from Underground: A New Translation

The Underground Man has retreated from society suffering from a surfeit of consciousness: He’s painfully aware of every slight, every contradiction in his own character, and every gap between belief and action. His resentments are petty, but fierce, and his intelligence is formidable.

A searing diatribe against determinism and utopian utilitarianism, Notes from Underground is Dostoevsky at his most volatile and polemical. It remains the essential Dostoevsky for readers who haven’t yet met him—and his most durably haunting work for those who have.

Michael Katz’s widely praised translations of Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and The Idiot have established him as this generation’s preeminent English-language translator of Dostoevsky. With a sharp ear for the sarcastic humor coursing through the Underground Man’s harangues, Katz has a brisk, readable style that makes this classic work hit contemporary readers with new and urgent force.