Fyodor Dostoevsky

Great Writers Datebook:  November 11

Brief biography of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, regarded one of the world’s greatest writers, famous for Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.  

"We are not long on this earth, we do many evil deeds and say many evil words. So let us all catch a favorable moment when we are all together to say a good word to each other."
- The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky

 

Russian novelist Dostoevsky (or Dostoyevsky) 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 Dostoyevsky

 

Fyodor Dostoyevsky 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 bout 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.

Dostoyevsky 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 on the murder of their evil father.  


The Brothers Karamazov


The Brothers Karamazov is the final novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. A deep thinker, he spent nearly two years writing it. The Brothers Karamazov was published as a serial in The Russian Messenger from January 1879 to November 1880. The author died less than four months after its publication.

The Brothers Karamazov is a passionate philosophical novel set in 19th-century Russia, that enters deeply into the ethical debates of God, free will, and morality. It is a murder mystery, spiritual drama of moral struggles concerning faith, doubt, judgment, and reason, set against a modernizing Russia, with a plot which revolves around the subject of patricide. It is an exploration of rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” - Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons―the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy and young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture. Since its publication, it has been acclaimed as one of the supreme achievements in world literature.

Insights into Dostoevsky and His Legacy

Dostoyevsky’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 on his beliefs. He may have complained that he could not write a perfect novel like Tolstoy or Turgenev, and yet his talents, 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

Image Credit: 

Fyodor Dostoevsky (Dostoyevesky). Public Domain.

Resources:

Goring, Rosemary, Ed. Larousse Dictionary of Writers. New York: Larousse, 1994

McGovern, Una, Ed. Chambers Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers, 2002

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