Dostoevsky's first novel. In the form of a series of letters. According to Wikipedia: "Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky (1821 – 1881) was a Russian fiction writer, essayist and philosopher whose works include Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoyevsky's literary output explores human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. Considered by many as a founder or precursor of 20th century existentialism, his Notes from Underground (1864), written in the embittered voice of the anonymous "underground man", was called by Walter Kaufmann the "best overture for existentialism ever written."