a utopian image such as The Crystal Palace will always fail because of the underlying irrationality of humanity. Writing style Although the novella is written in first-person narrative, the "I" is never really discovered. The syntax can at times seem "multi-layered;" the subject and the verb are often at the very beginning of the sentence before the object goes into the depths of the narrator's thoughts. The narrator repeats many of his concepts. In chapter 11, the narrator refers to his inferiority to everyone around him and describes listening to people as like "listening through a crack under the floor." The word "underground" actually comes from a bad translation into English. A better translation would be a crawl space: a space under the floor that is not big enough for a human, but where rodents and bugs live. According to Russian folklore, it is also a place where evil spirits live. Legacy The challenge posed by the Underground Man towards the idea of an "enlightened" society laid the groundwork for later writing. The work has been described as "probably the most important single source of the modern dystopia." Notes from Underground has had an impact on various authors and works in the fields of philosophy, literature, and film, including: the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche The Metamorphosis (1915), a novella by Franz Kafka Invisible Man (1952), by Ralph Ellison Taxi Driver (1976), directed by Martin Scorsese Notes from Underground (1995), a film adaptation of Dostoevsky's novella, directed by Gary Walkow, with Henry Czerny and Sheryl Lee in the leading roles. Yeraltı (2012), directed by Zeki Demirkubuz Notes from Underground (2014), by Roger Scruton English translations Since Notes from Underground was first published in Russian, there have been a number of translations into English over the years, including: 1913. C. J. Hogarth. Letters from the Underworld. 1918. Constance Garnett. Revised by Ralph E. Matlaw, 1960. 1955. David Magarshack. Notes from the Underground. 1961. Andrew R. MacAndrew. 1969. Serge Shishkoff. 1972. Jessie Coulson. 1974. Mirra Ginsburg. 1989. Michael R. Katz. 1991. Jane Kentish. Notes from the Underground. 1994. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. 2009. Ronald Wilks 2009. Boris Jakim. 2010. Kyril Zinovieff and Jenny Hughes. 2014. Kirsten Lodge. Notes from the Underground. References External links Full text of Notes from Underground in the original Russian EDSITEment's Launchpad Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground The theory of self-interest in Notes from Underground 1864 Russian novels Novellas