“I am a sick man… I am a wicked man. I am an unattractive man.” That’s how the notes of a character who consciously left the world and went “underground” begin— a character who is unsympathetic, cruel, sharp-tongued, and embittered. From his underground, he sees humanity in a completely different way—as if from the other side. In the first part of the notes, he reflects on people and philosophy; in the second, he tells about his life—more precisely, about his “comings out from the underground.” About his run-ins with the world, about how he keeps losing to it, hurting both himself and the people unlucky enough to be near him.