Showing results by author "Fyodor Dostoyevsky" in All Categories

Notes from the Underground is a revolutionary novel by Dostoevsky. The unnamed narrator is a former government official who has retreated into an underground existence. In complete withdrawal from society, he writes a passionate screed which attacks social utopianism.

The Grand Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a powerful standalone parable from The Brothers Karamazov that explores the tension between freedom and authority, faith and reason, love and control.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky was born in Moscow on 11th November, 1821 to distinguished multi-ethnic parents from a Lithuanian background. His childhood years were at the family home in hospital grounds which also contained an orphanage, an insane asylum and a cemetery for criminals. The young Fyodor often disobeyed his father by talking to the ill in the hospital gardens. In 1846 he published his first novel ‘Poor Cow’ to great literary acclaim. As he began his next work he was arrested and incarcerated for treason and participation in the political and literary Petrashevsky Circle.

From Tolstoy's introspective reflections on the passage of time in Boyhood, Childhood, Youth to Dostoevsky’s exploration of ideological turmoil in Demons, these stories present the raw complexities of personal and societal transformation. Dombey and Son captures Dickens' powerful critique of Victorian society, while Shirley examines the life of a strong, independent woman challenging the conventions of her era.

Although titled The Possessed in the initial English translation, Dostoyevsky scholars and later translations favour the titles The Devils or Demons. An extremely political book, Demons is a testimonial of life in Imperial Russia in the late 19th century. As the revolutionary democrats begin to rise in Russia, different ideologies begin to collide. Dostoyevsky casts a critical eye on both the radical idealists, portraying their ideas and ideological foundation as demonic, and the conservative establishment's ineptitude in dealing with those ideas and their social consequences. This form of ...

Prince Lev Myshkin, a compassionate, epileptic nobleman, returns to Russia, perceived as naïve. He meets Rogozhin, consumed by obsession for the enigmatic Nastasya Filippovna, entangled in a toxic dynamic with suitor Ganya. At a volatile gathering, Nastasya spurns Ganya’s greed and Rogozhin’s lust, fleeing with Myshkin. Though moved by her anguish, Myshkin’s empathy contrasts Rogozhin’s volatile desire. Nastasya abandons the prince, reigniting Rogozhin’s dangerous fixation. Amid St. Petersburg’s moral decay, Myshkin’s innocence highlights societal corruption, while love, ...

In Parts 3-4 of The Idiot, Prince Myshkin returns to St. Petersburg. At a gathering, Ippolit’s confessional letter reveals existential despair. Aglaya Epanchin’s affection complicates Myshkin’s bond with tormented Nastasya Filippovna, pursued obsessively by Rogozhin. A confrontation between Aglaya and Nastasya leads Nastasya to flee with Rogozhin, ending in her murder. Rogozhin’s guilt shatters Myshkin, who descends into madness, reflecting destructive passions and societal decay. Dostoevsky examines the impossibility of pure goodness amidst corruption. Summary by John McCormick

Included: The Apparition Of Mrs. Veal by Daniel Defoe, Alice Addertongue by Benjamin Franklin, The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, Prosper Mérimée by Mateo Falcone, Napoleon And The Spectre by Charlotte Bronte, The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley, Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dr. Heidegger's Experiment by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask Of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe, An Honest Thief by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Frog by Edgar Allan Poe, The Knitted Collar by Mary Anne Hoare.

When the aging Russian Prince Prince K. arrives in the town of Mordasov, Marya Alexandrovna Moskaleva, a doyenne of local society life, takes him under her protection with the aim of engineering his marriage with her 23-year-old daughter Zina. Yet with many rivals for the hands of both parties, events are not guaranteed to run smoothly. A rare foray into comedy by the giant of Russian literature, this tale still possesses all the hallmarks of Dostoevsky's psychological and philosophical writing.

Upon its first publication in 1846, Poor Folk was an immediate critical triumph. Composed entirely of an exchange of letters between a middle-aged copy clerk and a young seamstress who live on opposite sides of a Petersburg tenement courtyard, the novel explores the emotional and psychological effects of a threatening urban environment on the psyches of poor people struggling to survive.

This audiobook, read by Audie award-winning narrators, includes unabridged recordings of an extensive range of Fyodor Dostotevsky's short stories.

While contemplating his life and deeming himself ridiculous, a man on the verge of suicide is interrupted by a young girl begging for his help. In his dark mood, he brushes her away, but when he returns home to commit the act he cannot move past his feelings of guilt over his treatment of the girl.

In June 1862, Dostoevsky left St. Petersburg on his first excursion to Western Europe. Ostensibly making the trip to consult Western specialists about his epilepsy, he also wished to see the source of the Western ideas he believed were corrupting Russia. Over the course of his journey he visited a number of major cities, including Berlin, Paris, London, Florence, Milan, and Vienna. His impressions on what he saw, Winter Notes on Summer Impressions, were first published in the February 1863 issue of "Vremya" (Time), the periodical he edited, and are collected here.

Accused of political subversion as a young man, Dostoyevsky was sentenced to four years of hard labor at a Siberian prison camp — a horrifying experience from which he developed this astounding semi-autobiographical memoir of a man condemned to ten years of servitude for murdering his wife. A haunting and remarkable work filled with wonder and resignation, The House of the Dead ranks among the Russian novelist's greatest masterpieces. Of this powerful autobiographical novel, Tolstoy wrote, "I know no better book in all modern literature.

The young Sergei is summoned from St Petersburg by his uncle, the retired colonel Yegor Rostanev, to the remote country estate of Stepanchikovo. Rostanev’s household, populated by a medley of remarkable characters, is dominated by the figure of Foma Opiskin, a devious, manipulative hanger-on who has everyone in thrall and plots to marry the colonel to the woman of his choice, Tatyana Ivanovna. When Opiskin finds that his plans are being thwarted, a confrontation with Rostanev ensues, and all hell is let loose.

The Eternal Husband opens with a man who answers a late-night knock on the door to find himself in a tense and puzzling confrontation with the husband of a former lover—but it isn’t clear if the husband knows about the affair. What follows is one of the most beautiful and piercing considerations ever written about the dualities of love: a dazzling psychological duel between the two men over knowledge they may or may not share, bringing them both to a shattering conclusion.

"Crime and Punishment" is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published in the literary journal "The Russian Messenger" in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. It is the second of Dostoyevsky's full-length novels following his return from ten years of exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is considered the first great novel of his "mature" period of writing. "Crime and Punishment" focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in St. Petersburg who formulates and ...

Returning to Russia from a sanitarium in Switzerland, the Christ-like epileptic Prince Myshkin finds himself enmeshed in a tangle of love, torn between two women—the notorious kept woman Nastasya and the pure Aglaia—both involved, in turn, with the corrupt, money-hungry Ganya. Blackmail, betrayal, and murder follow in the footsteps of his dangerous and all-consuming journey.

Notes from Underground (also translated as Notes from the Underground or Letters from the Underworld) is a novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky, first published in the journal Epoch in 1864. It is a first-person narrative in the form of a "confession": the work was originally announced by Dostoevsky in Epoch under the title "A Confession". The novella presents itself as an excerpt from the memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator (generally referred to by critics as the Underground Man), who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a psychological novel that explores the moral struggles of Raskolnikov, a poor ex-student in St. Petersburg. He commits a brutal murder, believing that certain individuals have the right to transgress moral laws for a greater good. However, after the crime, he is consumed by guilt and paranoia, leading to mental and emotional torment. The novel delves into themes of guilt, redemption, morality, and the complexities of human nature. Dostoevsky's work remains a profound examination of the consequences of crime and the search for meaning in suffering.(...