In the form of a monologue-confession, Notes from Underground" is the story of a prostitute's failed redemption and, at the same time, a tormented investigation into the unconscious - the "underground" - and the impossibility of fully understanding one's own essence and that of others. The protagonist is one of the so-called "superfluous men," a man who merely takes note of the immense wealth hidden within himself and draws no practical consequences, suffering from his own failure. He is an individual lost between the anguished search for truth and an unbridgeable distance from reality. The book's extraordinary style - brilliantly violating literary conventions in ways never before attempted - shocked its first readers and still shocks many Russians today.