Russian novelist Dostoevsky is regarded as one of the world’s greatest writers. He wrote about the nature of good and evil as he had experienced them in his own life. Aside from his masterpiece Crime and Punishment, his notable works include The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov and The Possessed.
Early Life of Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky was born on November 11, 1821 in Moscow, Russia. He was the son of an army surgeon who was also an alcoholic. He trained as a military engineer, but when he was about 22, he decided to earn money by writing. Growing up on the poor side of Moscow, he empathized with the poor, as his writings reflected. His first novel, Poor Folk, appeared when he was 25, and he was recognized as an important new writer.
Dostoevsky joined a socialist writers’ group that read and discussed banned books. In 1849, the group was arrested. He was nearly executed, but fortunately, at the last moment, the death sentence was changed. The experience of coming so close to death made a lasting impression on him, in which he largely wrote about murder and cruelty.
Dostoevsky Imprisonment and Religious Convictions
He spent the next eight years in Siberia, first in a prison camp, and eventually serving as a soldier. He was nearly 40 years old when he returned from Siberia. At this point in life, he became strongly religious and rejected socialism.
Dostoevsky’s Literary Works
Dostoevsky wrote The House of the Dead, a powerful novel about his prison experiences. Due to his gambling, he was constantly in debt and he spent time in Europe. On his return to Russia, he wrote prolifically mainly to clear his debts. He produced his first masterpiece, Crime and Punishment, at the age of 45. The story is about a student driven to madness with guilt after murdering an old woman because he thought she was inferior.
His other brilliant novels followed, including The Idiot, The Devils (a bitter attack on revolutionaries, and another famous and final novel, The Brothers Karamazov. The book explores the effect on four brothers of the murder of their evil father.
Insights into Dostoevsky and His Legacy
Dostoevsky’s unhappy and bitter experiences are much reflected in his novels. Aside from his miserable prison experiences in Siberia, his epilepsy and alcoholic father were also influential in his writings.
Of his masterpieces, Crime and Punishment overflows with insights into criminal psychology while Brothers Karamazov provides a compelling expression of his beliefs. In some ways, he acknowledged the influence of American horror writer Edgar Allan Poe.
Dostoevsky may have complained that he could not write a perfect novel like Tolstoy or Turgenev, and yet his talent, with immense life experiences, emotions and his works, continuously draw and stimulate his readers endlessly to the limits of what the human soul can take.
Books by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Poor Folk, 1846
- The Double, 1846
- Netochka Nezbanova, 1849
- The Uncle’s Dream, 1859
- The Friend of the Family, 1859
- The House of the Dead, 1860-1861
- Notes from the Underground, 1864
- Crime and Punishment, 1866
- The Gambler, 1866
- The Idiot, 1868
- The Eternal Husband, 1870
- The Possessed, 1872
- The Devils, 1872
- The Brothers Karamazov, 1880
- A Writer’s Diary, 1873-1881
Sources:
Goring, Rosemary, Ed. Larousse Dictionary of Writers. New York: Larousse, 1994.
Ousby, Ian. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Payne, Tom. The A-Z of Great Writers. London: Carlton, 1997.
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