Letters of Fyodor Michailovitch Dostoyevsky to his family and friends

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ethel Colburn Mayne (Translator)

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821 - 1881), is considered one of the greatest a Russian novelists of all time. His literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social, and spiritual world of 19th-century Russia, often being filled with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most celebrated works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). In total he wrote 11 novels, three novellas, 17 short stories, and numerous other works. There are some literary critics who rate him as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature.

His mother died when he was 15, and around the same time, he left school to enter a Military Engineering Institute. After graduating, he worked as an engineer and for a time enjoyed a opulent lifestyle, translating books to earn extra money. He wrote his first novel in the 1840s, Poor Folk, which gained him entry into St. Petersburg's literary circles. He was later arrested in 1849 for being part of a literary group that discussed banned books critical of Tsarist Russia. He was given the death sentence but it was commuted at the last moment. He spent four years in a Siberian prison camp. This was followed by six years of compulsory military service.

He was a unique and brilliant man whose life and energy comes through in his letters which he wrote to his close friends and family. These letters have become a classic and, along with his novels, have been translated into 170 languages.

Genres: Nonfiction, Russia, Literature, Classics, Biography, Russian Literature, Biography Memoir

363 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Alternate spelling, see main profile Fyodor Dostoevsky

Reviews

[Jonfaith · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is never clear to me. Is everything a coincidence or is it nothing?

My eschatology needs a tune-up.

Whatever the causal chain, I found myself listening to Eric Dolphy and Ben Webster while relishing these letters. All point back to a younger self, a hungrier Jon Faith. The letters themselves provide a comparable autobiography, but yet again this edition lacks quality annotation (that was my complaint with the collected letters of Simone de Beauvoir to J-P Sartre that I finished. The few footnotes referred to a film she had seen) but overall they delineate his youthful hubris, a burning desire to both create and change. The latter bit is tempered by his mock execution and exile to Siberia. The Dostoevsky that emerges is a bit of a holier-than-thou conservative kook. He ultimately goes abroad with his wife and they find themselves stuck for lack of cash. His time at the gaming tables didn't help. The reactions to both Turgenev and Tolstoy follow nearly opposite arcs over time. Whether Dostoevsky is soliciting a loan or commenting on the oppressive Italian summer, these letters are amazing. They are well worth anyone's time.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

"To be a human being among people and to remain one forever, no matter in what circumstances, not to grow despondent and not to lose heart - that's what life is all about, that's its task."

[Moderated]

Hamlet ! Hamlet ! When I think of his moving wild speech, in which resounds the groaning of the whole numbed universe, there breaks from my soul not one reproach, not one sigh. . . . That soul is then so utterly oppressed by woe that it fears to grasp the woe entire, lest so it lacerate itself.

I have a new plan : to go mad.

Brother, it is so sad to live without hope I When I look forward I shudder at the future. I move in a cold arctic atmosphere, wherein no sunlight ever pierces.

[Karim Aboelela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m happy this book exists, loved it!

[Jaye Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. What a hidden gem.

[violeta · Rating 4 out of 5]

gorgeous intricate writing and then day to day casualties

TOOK ME SO FUCKING LONG TO TEAD