Notes From Underground And The Double - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

that Sense Of The Meaninglessness Of Existence That Runs Through Much Of Twentieth-century Writing - From Conrad And Kafka, To Beckett And Beyond - Starts In Dostoyevsky's Work' Malcolm Bradburyalienated From Society And Paralysed By A Sense Of His Own Insignificance, The Anonymous Narrator Of Dostoyevsky's Notes From Underground Tells The Story Of His Tortured Life. With Bitter Irony, He Describes His Refusal To Become A Worker In The 'anthill' And His Gradual Withdrawal From Society. The Seemingly Ordinary World Of St Petersburg Takes On A Nightmarish Quality In The Double When A Government Clerk Encounters A Man Who Looks Exactly Like Him - His Double Perhaps, Or Possibly The Darker Side Of His Own Personality.