Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Author profile

born

November 11, 1821 in Moscow, Russian Federation

died

February 09, 1881

gender

male

website

http://www.fmdostoyevsky.com/

genre

Literature & Fiction

influences

Victor Hugo, Goethe, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Balzac, Dickens

About this author

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Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky (Russian: Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский) was a Russian novelist, journalist, and short-story writer whose psychological penetration into the human soul had a profound influence on the 20th century novel.

Dostoevsky was the second son of a former army doctor. He was educated at home and at a private school. Shortly after the death of his mother in 1837 he was sent to St. Petersburg, where he entered the Army Engineering College. In 1839 Dostoevsky's father died probably of apoplexy but there were strong rumors that he was murdered by his own serfs. Dostoevsky graduated as a military engineer, but resigned in 1844 to devote himself to writing. His first novel, Poor Folk appeared in 1846.

In 1846 he joined a group...more Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky (Russian: Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский) was a Russian novelist, journalist, and short-story writer whose psychological penetration into the human soul had a profound influence on the 20th century novel.

Dostoevsky was the second son of a former army doctor. He was educated at home and at a private school. Shortly after the death of his mother in 1837 he was sent to St. Petersburg, where he entered the Army Engineering College. In 1839 Dostoevsky's father died probably of apoplexy but there were strong rumors that he was murdered by his own serfs. Dostoevsky graduated as a military engineer, but resigned in 1844 to devote himself to writing. His first novel, Poor Folk appeared in 1846.

In 1846 he joined a group of utopian socialists. He was arrested in 1849 and sentenced to death, commuted to imprisonment in Siberia. Dostoevsky spent four years in hard labor and four years as a soldier in Semipalatinsk.

Dostoevsky returned to St. Petersburg in 1854 as a writer with a religious mission and published three works that derive in different ways from his Siberia experiences: The House of the Dead , (1860) a fictional account of prison life, The Insulted and Injured, which reflects the author's refutation of naive Utopianism in the face of evil, and Winter Notes on Summer Impressions, his account of a trip to Western Europe.

In 1857 Dostoevsky married Maria Isaev, a 29-year old widow. He resigned from the army two years later. Between the years 1861 and 1863 he served as editor of the monthly periodical Time, which was later suppressed because of an article on the Polish uprising.

In 1864-65 his wife and brother died and he was burdened with debts, and his situation was made even worse by gambling. From the turmoil of the 1860s emerged Notes from the Underground, a psychological study of an outsider, which marked a watershed in Dostoevsky's artistic development.

In 1867 Dostoevsky married Anna Snitkin, his 22-year old stenographer, who seems to have understood her husband's manias and rages. They traveled abroad and returned in 1871. By the time of The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80), Dostoevsky was recognized in his own country as one of its great writers.(less)

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Books by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Average rating: 4.13 · 280,785 ratings · 15,234 reviews · 289 distinct works

	Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Alex Jennings (Narrator), David McDuff (Translator) 4.09 avg rating — 110,607 ratings — published 1866 — 645 editions	My rating:
	The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Richard Pevear (Translator), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translator) 4.25 avg rating — 48,204 ratings — published 1879 — 429 editions	My rating:
	Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Andrew R. MacAndrew (Translator, Afterword), Ben Marcus (Goodreads Author) (Introduction) 4.08 avg rating — 23,911 ratings — published 1864 — 28 editions	My rating:
	The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Constance Garnett (Translator), Joseph Frank (Introduction) 4.09 avg rating — 22,477 ratings — published 1868 — 331 editions	My rating:
	Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Richard Pevear (Translator), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translator) 4.19 avg rating — 5,997 ratings — published 1872 — 21 editions	My rating:
	The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Constance Garnett (Translator), Gary Saul Morson (Editor) 3.84 avg rating — 5,911 ratings — published 1867 — 252 editions	My rating:
	Notes from Underground & The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Jesse Coulson (Translator, Introduction) 4.15 avg rating — 2,209 ratings — published 1864 — 13 editions	My rating:
	White Nights 4.02 avg rating — 2,572 ratings — published 1848 — 52 editions	My rating:
	The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Dover Thrift Editions 3.93 avg rating — 2,548 ratings — published 1860 — 103 editions	My rating:
	The Best Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, David Magarshack (Translator) 4.23 avg rating — 1,314 ratings — published 1955 — 11 editions	My rating:

More books by Fyodor Dostoyevsky…

Series by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

الجريمة والعقاب (1 book)
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, شوقي حداد (Translator)

4.83 avg rating — 6 ratings

الجريمة والعقاب (1 book)
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, شوقي حداد (Translator)

5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings

Quotes by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

tags: hell , love , suffering

1,227 people liked it

“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

tags: lies , love , respect , self-deception , truth

1,133 people liked it

“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

1,065 people liked it

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