Fyodor Dostoevsky
1) The Double
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Advised by his doctor to become more sociable, Golyadkin, a low-level bureaucrat, arrives uninvited at a birthday party his office manager is having for his daughter. After a number of socially awkward and increasingly uncomfortable moments, Golyadkin is asked to leave and flees the party. While making his way home through a snowstorm, an extraordinary thing happens: Golyadkin meets his double.
At first the two are friendly, but it quickly becomes...
2) The Gambler
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First published in Russian in 1866, "The Gambler", by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, is a gripping narrative of the dangers of gambling. As was common with Dostoyevsky's other writings, he draws upon his own life in a semi-autobiographical way. Dostoyevksy himself suffered from a compulsion to gambling and had to complete "The Gambler" under a strict deadline to pay off his own debts. These first-hand experiences bring a depth of realism to the novel and to...
3) Poor Folk
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Financial difficulties resulting from an extravagant lifestyle and excessive gambling led Fyodor Dostoevsky to pen his first novel "Poor Folk". First published in 1846, "Poor Folk" is the story of impoverished cousins Varvara Dobroselova and Makar Devushkin. The two live in run-down apartments across the street from each other in St. Petersburg. Through a series of letters to each other we learn of the suffering, humiliation, and isolation that results...
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"¿Por qué hay que leer Crimen y castigo ?
Pues porque Crimen y castigo es el producto de un genio cuyo mundo gira entre la muerte y la locura, porque Dostoievski era un tío que retornaba vivo de aquellos tenebrosos mundos (sus ataques) directamente para escribir historias que también puedan ser devoradas por la juventud del siglo XXI. Y porque Fiódor Mijáilovich Dostoievski ha sido el escritor que ha compuesto los análisis psicológicos más...
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First published in 1862 after Dostoyevsky's imprisonment in a Siberian labor camp, "The House of the Dead" is a collection of memoirs, related by themes, that portrays the horrific life of convicts. The author drew on his own experiences in prison to depict the squalor, destitution, and severity of a Siberian camp with remorseless detail. Dostoyevsky reveals the characters of many of the other convicts, which includes the depravity many have come...
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The Grand Inquisitor is a poem (a story within a story) inside Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov (1879-1880). It is recited by Ivan Karamazov, who questions the possibility of a personal and benevolent God, to his brother Alexei (Alyosha), a novice monk. "The Grand Inquisitor" is an important part of the novel and one of the best-known passages in modern literature because of its ideas about human nature and freedom, and its fundamental...
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The Possessed is a novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, first published in the journal The Russian Messenger in 1871—2. It is considered one of the four masterworks written by Dostoyevsky after his return from Siberian exile, along with Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). Demons is a social and political satire, a psychological drama, and large scale tragedy. Joyce Carol Oates has described it as "Dostoyevsky's...
8) Demons
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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 "Demons" lies Dostoyevsky's desire to protest the...
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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...
10) An Honest Thief
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky "An Honest Thief" is an 1848 short story that famously tells the tale of Emelyan Ilyitch, the tragic drunk. It begins with our narrator conversing with Astafy Ivanovich, an aged soldier and temporary lodger. An unfortunate coat theft leaves Astafy dismayed one day, and a conversation is struck up between the two, who seem to share the same dislike for thieves in general. One night, however, Astafy recounts to the narrator a story...
11) White Nights
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Our narrator loves St. Petersburg at night time. He no longer feels comfortable during the day because all of the people he was used to seeing are not there. He drew his emotions from there. If they were happy, he was happy. If they were despondent, he was despondent. He felt alone when seeing new faces. He also knew the houses. As he strolled down the streets they would talk to him and tell him how they were being renovated or painted a new colour
...12) The Adolescent
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"The Adolescent" is Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1875 novel which tells the story of the life of a 19-year-old intellectual, Arkady Dolgoruky, and his conflict with his father. Arkady is the illegitimate child of the controversial and womanizing landowner Versilov and was raised by one of Versilov's serf, the pious Makar Dolgoruky. The novel's primary tension arises between Arkady and Versilov, when Arkady becomes an adult and joins Versilov's family in St....
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Accusé de subversion politique, Dostoïevski fut à l'âge de vingt-huit ans condamné aux travaux forcés dans un bagne de Sibérie. Il fit dans ces Souvenirs le récit de cette terrible expérience dans la maison des morts qui allait transformer sa vision du monde et du peuple russe et le « ressusciter ».
« Je me sentais un peu souffrant ces jours-ci, et je lisais la Maison des morts. Je n'en avais gardé qu'un souvenir incertain et j'ai...
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"A Gentle Creature" is an 1876 short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Inspired by a real story of a seamstress who committed suicide in 1876, it chronicles the relationship between a girl and a pawnbroker whose shop she visits frequently. When a 16-year-old girl frequently pawns her belongings so that she can advertise as a governess in the newspaper, her dire financial situation is made apparent to the shop owner and narrator, who resolves to give her...
15) Uncle's Dream
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The story "Uncle's Dream" was written by Dostoyevsky after a five-year exile in Siberia and covers the tale of a provincial family desperate to better itself through a marriage of their daughter to a senile prince. The old man is hoodwinked and almost forced into a wedding that is expected to last for a short period before he dies and leaves his fortune to the young girl. There are complications however with the young girl Zina already in love with...
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It must have happened on Christmas Eve in some great town in a time of terrible frost. I have a vision of a boy, a little boy, six years old or even younger. This boy woke up that morning in a cold damp cellar. He was dressed in a sort of little dressing-gown and was shivering with cold. There was a cloud of white steam from his breath, and sitting on a box in the corner, he blew the steam out of his mouth and amused himself in his dullness watching...
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This volume contains Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1877 short story "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man". It begins with a man walking St. Petersburg's streets while musing upon how ridiculous his life is, as well as its distinct lack of meaning or purpose. This train of thought leads him to the idea of suicide, which he resolves to commit using a previously-acquired gun. However, a chance encounter with a distressed little girl in the street derails his drastic...
19) El jugador
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No hay nada de glamour en las salas de juego de la inquietante ciudad-balneario de Ruletenburgo, ni elegantes caballeros de modales refinados, ni vaporosas damas de belleza sin igual. Ni siquiera el brillo del oro apilado. Sólo hay chusma continental: haraganes y golfillas, representantes de la sinvergonzonería europea de alta alcurnia de la época. El ansia por conseguir dinero fácil se disfraza de noble desdén... hasta que la turbación generada...
20) Poor People
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Varvara Dobroselova and Makar Devushkin are second cousins twice-removed and live across from each other on the same street in terrible apartments. The novel follows their lives, their relationship with rich people, and poverty in general. A deep but odd friendship develops between them until Dobroselova loses her interest in literature, and later in communicating with Devushkin after a rich widower Mr. Bykov proposes to her.