Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Список книг автора Fyodor DostoyevskyNotes From Underground, The Double, and Other Stories
Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky is best known for his psychological works of fiction. His characters and plots all carry psychosomatic troubles and problems that help make the stories more relatable to the reader. «Notes from Underground, The Double and Other Stories» combines some of Dostoyevsky's shorter works, though they certainly do not lack for depth. «Notes from Underground» is widely known as the first existential novel because of the raving, maniacal, and incoherent ramblings of its demented narrator. At the time, the Soviets despised the novel because of its critical nature toward a utopian society. This criticism was pointed at the government's attempts to create a Marxist society. Dostoyevsky believed that humans, even if they had perfection, would never be happy; this thought inspired many Western philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Friedrich Nietzsche. The other stories included in the collection all follow the same style: «The Double,» «White Nights,» «The Meek Ones,» and «The Dream of a Ridiculous Man» all follow loners in St. Petersburg as they slowly grow insane from isolation. These men fear rejection from their peers and contemporaries, so they distance themselves to the point of madness. However, these men are also ashamed of themselves for their inability to function within Russian society. The collection «Notes from Underground, The Double and Other Stories» is a must-read for anyone interested in psychological fiction or in the history of Russian literature.
Notes From Underground
A predecessor to such monumental works as «Crime and Punishment» and «The Brothers Karamazov», «Notes From Underground» represents a turning point in Dostoyevsky's writing towards the more political side. In this work we follow the unnamed narrator of the story, who disillusioned by the oppression and corruption of the society in which he lives withdraws from that society into the underground. A dark and politically charged novel, «Notes From Underground» shows Dostoyevsky at his best.
White Nights and Other Stories
After a brief military career, the illustrious Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky quickly turned to writing as a profession with the publication of his first novel, Poor Folk, in 1846. This novel sparked a literary career that would eventually cement Dostoyevsky's reputation as one of the greatest novelists of the nineteenth century. Early participation in a literary/political group landed the writer in exile in Siberia for nearly a decade, an experience which had a profound influence on Dostoyevsky's understanding of fate, the suffering of human beings, and resulted in a powerful religious conversion experience. Dostoyevsky's works are marked by his penetrating exploration of psychology and morality, which are today cited as highly 'existentialist.' This edition contains White Nights, one of Dostoyevsky's best-known short stories and an excellent introduction to his works. Also included are the following stories: Notes From Underground, A Faint Heart, A Christmas Tree and a Wedding, Polzunkov, A Little Hero, and Mr. Prohartchin.
Poor Folk
"Poor Folk", one of Dostoyevsky's greatest narratives is the story of two lower class people who fall in love. However, because of their extreme poverty they are too poor to even marry. Dostoyevsky's «Poor Folk» is an epistolary novel, or one told through a series of letters between the characters. It is gripping in its portrayal of the suffering, humiliation, and isolation that the poorest members of any society are forced to endure. A triumph of Russian literature, «Poor Folk» is a shining example of Dostoyevsky's narrative genius and its relative brevity makes it one of the author's more accessible works.
Crime and Punishment
"Crime and Punishment" is one of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's most famous novels. First published in 1866, it is the story of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, an impoverished St. Petersburg ex-student who plots to kill an elderly money-lender, Alëna, and profit from her wealth. The murder however does not go as planned and Raskolnikov must suffer the disastrous moral and psychic consequences of his actions. As is common with Dostoyevsky's work, the author brilliantly explores the psychology of his characters, specifically Raskolnikov and what drives him to kill. «Crime and Punishment» is a literary masterpiece and quite simply one of the greatest novels ever written.
The Grand Inquisitor
Considered to be one of the most crucial passages and subplots to Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel «The Brothers Karamazov», this story is a parable told by Ivan to his younger brother Alyosha, a novice monk, about the return of Christ during the time of the Spanish Inquisition. When Christ begins performing miracles, he is soon arrested by those of the Inquisition. «The Grand Inquisitor» has influenced many literary and popular culture works as an exemplary philosophical and religious work in its own right and the themes presented in the parable are a driving force for the character development of Ivan and Alyosha throughout the rest of «The Brothers Karamazov».
The Possessed (The Devils)
One of Dostoyevsky's most famous novels, this 1872 work utilizes five main characters and their philosophical ideas to describe the political chaos of Imperial Russia in the nineteenth century. Based on an actual event involving the murder of a revolutionary by his comrades, this novel depicts a band of ruthless radicals attempting to incite revolt in their small, rural community. At the center of «The Possessed» lies Dostoyevsky's desire to protest the enthusiasm for revolution he saw all around him, as well as the conservative establishment's inability to cope with those revolutionary ideas or their consequences. The author considered utopias unobtainable, and he depicts the radicals and the ideas they represent with a frightening savage intensity, as if they were possessed by demons rather than those unrealistic ideas. Perhaps the greatest political novel ever written, Dostoyevsky's «The Possessed» fully displays his devastating condemnation of human manipulation through brilliant characterization, as well as his keen and seemingly clairvoyant insight into the hearts of men.
The Gambler
"The Gambler" is a gripping narrative of the dangers of an addiction to gambling. As was common with Dostoyevsky's writing he draws upon his own life in a semi-autobiographical way in «The Gambler». Dostoyevksy himself suffered from a compulsion to gambling and those first-hand experiences bring a depth of realism to «The Gambler» and to his portrayal of the main character, Alexis Ivanovitch, a young man addicted to gambling. «The Gambler» is an insightful look at the compulsive nature of the gambling addict and the tragic consequences of such an addiction.
The Landlady
After a brief military career, the illustrious Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky quickly turned to writing as a profession, sparking a literary career that would eventually cement Dostoyevsky’s reputation as one of the greatest novelists of the nineteenth century. Early participation in a literary political group landed the writer in exile in Siberia for nearly a decade, an experience which had a profound influence on Dostoyevsky’s understanding of fate, the suffering of human beings, and which resulted in a powerful religious conversion. Dostoyevsky’s works are marked by his penetrating exploration of psychology and morality, which are today cited as highly existentialist. Originally published in the Russian Literary magazine “Notes of the Fatherland” in the fall of 1847, Dostoyevsky’s “The Landlady” is a novella which stands apart in its uniqueness from the author’s other works. It tells the story of Vasily Mikhailovich Ordynov, an aimless young man who wanders aimlessly in despair over his life through the streets of Saint Petersburg. When Vasily enters a church he notices an old man, Ilia Murin, with his young wife, Katerina. He quickly becomes infatuated with the woman and contrives a set of circumstances which bring him to lodge at their home. There he begins to uncover the strange and suspicious circumstances of the couple’s past.
The Idiot
"The Idiot" is Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1868 novel which tells the story of Prince Lyov Nikolayevich Myshkin who, after a long absence, returns to Russia from Switzerland where he sought treatment for his epilepsy. The story is primarily a tragic tale of the struggle for the love of a woman, Nastasya Filippovna, between Myshkin and Rogozhin, a dark and impassioned man that the Prince meets on the train to St. Petersburg. «The Idiot» is a classic tale of the conflict between good and evil. On the one hand Prince Myshkin represents Dostoyevksy's attempt to portray a Christ-like «positively good man» which is sharply contrasted with not only the dark and roguish character of Rogozhin but also with the nature of Russian upper-class society depicted in the novel.