The narrator (person telling the story) is unnamed, and though he knows the coldness and darkness of the subjects he writes about, he writes warmly and inventively in a tone of serious comedy. Although the narrator is sometimes allowed to be , he also talks of himself as "I", says things that are not directly related to the plot, in a style that some people have criticized. It is possible that this writing style is because of the way Dostoevsky's books were written: in the day, he would hurriedly write down ideas in his notebook, and at night, his wife, Anna Snitkina Grigoryevna, who was a , would have them copied neatly out: