The Double is a novella written by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published on January 30, 1846 in the Fatherland Notes. The Double centers on a government clerk who goes mad. It deals with the internal psychological struggle of its main character, Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, who repeatedly encounters someone who is his exact double in appearance but confident, aggressive, and extroverted, characteristics that are the polar opposites to those of the toadying "pushover" protagonist. The motif of the novella is a doppelgänger<br/>Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (November 11 [O.S. October 30] 1821–February 9 [O.S. January 28] 1881) is considered one of two greatest prose writers of Russian literature, alongside close contemporary Leo Tolstoy. Dostoevsky's works have had a profound and lasting effect on twentiethcentury thought and world literature.