Introduction


Fyodor Dostoevsky
Nobody did suffering better than Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky—and with good reason. Raised by an alcoholic father and a sick mother, Dostoevsky had to contend with severe epilepsy at an early age. As a young man, he was exiled to Siberia, where he lived a torturous existence for five years. Yet he emerged from his imprisonment having undergone a kind of religious conversion and having developed a more conservative worldview. As a result, most of his great works were written in the last two decades of his life: Notes From Underground, Crime and Punishment, and The Idiot. Completed less than a year before his death, The Brothers Karamazov was Dostoevsky’s final novel. In it, he explores the murder of a father, the collapse of faith, and the (im)possibility of truth—suffering indeed.

Essential Facts

  1. Dostoevsky is considered one of the founding fathers of existentialism, and his 1864 novel Notes From Underground is seminal to the movement.
  2. Writers as diverse (and important!) as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Ernest Hemingway have been influenced by Dostoevsky’s work.
  3. Dostoevsky was a relative contemporary, but not a colleague, of the other great nineteenth-century Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy. Scholars continue to debate the level of influence each exerted upon the other’s work.
  4. Dostoevsky is often compared to the great Russian composer Tchaikovsky, particularly because of their mutual ability to evoke great anguish. Despite the emotional parallels in their work, the two men only met once.
  5. Shortly before his death, Dostoevsky famously gave a speech at the unveiling of a monument to Alexander Pushkin, a Russian author whose writing deeply affected Dostoevsky.
 

Recommended Resources

  1. Crime and Punishment eText
  2. Crime and Punishment Study Guide (eNotes)
  3. Fyodor Dostoevsky - Critical Survey of Long Fiction
  4. Fyodor Dostoevsky - Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century
  5. The Brothers Karamazov Study Guide (eNotes)

All Resources

Display as: Categories, List
  1. A Raw Youth - Literary Characters
  2. Author Profile
  3. Crime and Punishment (1935)
  4. Crime and Punishment (1970)
  5. Crime and Punishment - American History Through Literature
  6. Crime and Punishment - Book Review
  7. Crime and Punishment - Literary Characters
  8. Crime and Punishment - Literary Places
  9. Crime and Punishment - Masterplots
  10. Crime and Punishment eText
  11. Crime and Punishment Lesson Plans
  12. Crime and Punishment Study Guide (eNotes)
  13. Critical Survey of Short Fiction
  14. Cyclopedia of World Authors
  15. Dostoevsky Short Story Criticism
  16. Fyodor Dostoevski - Identities and Issues in Literature
  17. Fyodor Dostoevski - Mystery and Detective Fiction
  18. Fyodor Dostoevski Censorship
  19. Fyodor Dostoevsky - Critical Survey of Long Fiction
  20. Fyodor Dostoevsky - Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century
  21. Letters from the Underworld - Book Review
  22. Letters from the Underworld - Identities and Issues
  23. Letters from the Underworld - Literary Characters
  24. Netochka Nezvanova - Literary Characters
  25. Notes From the Underground Short Story Criticism
  26. Notes from Underground (1995)
  27. Notes From Underground Lesson Plans
  28. Notes From Underground Study Guide (eNotes)
  29. Poor Folk - Literary Characters
  30. Poor Folk - Literary Places
  31. The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
  32. The Brothers Karamazov - Book Review
  33. The Brothers Karamazov - Literary Characters
  34. The Brothers Karamazov - Literary Places
  35. The Brothers Karamazov - Masterplots
  36. The Brothers Karamazov Study Guide (eNotes)
  37. The Double - Literary Characters
  38. The Gambler - Literary Characters
  39. The Gambler - Literary Places
  40. The Grand Inquisitor Study Guide (eNotes)
  41. The House of the Dead - Literary Characters
  42. The Idiot - Book Review
  43. The Idiot - Literary Characters
  44. The Idiot - Literary Places
  45. The Idiot Criticism
  46. The Insulted and the Injured - Literary Characters
  47. The Oxford Companion to English Literature Article on Fyodor Dostoevsky
  48. The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare Article on Fyodor Dostoevsky
  49. The Possessed (1988)
  50. The Possessed - Book Review
  51. The Possessed - Literary Characters
  52. The Possessed - Literary Places
  53. The Possessed - Masterplots
  54. The Possessed Study Guide (quickNotes)