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A Brief Guide to the Life and Work of Dostoevsky
Originally published in 1911 as a portion of the author’s larger “Essays on Russian Novelists,” this Kindle edition, equivalent in length to a physical book of approximately 30 pages, describes the life and work of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Sample passage:
Dostoevsky had a tremendous capacity for enthusiasm. As a boy, he was terribly shaken by the death of Pushkin, and he never lost his admiration for the founder of Russian literature. He read the great classics of antiquity and of modern Europe with wild excitement, and wrote burning eulogies in letters to his friends. The flame of his literary ambition was not quenched by the most abject poverty, nor by the death of those whom he loved most intensely. After his first wife died, he suffered agonies of grief, accentuated by wretched health, public neglect, and total lack of financial resources. But chill penury could not repress his noble rage. He was always planning and writing new novels, even when he had no place to lay his head. And the bodily distress of poverty did not cut him nearly so sharply as its shame. His letters prove clearly that at times he suffered in the same way as the pitiable hero of “Poor Folk.” That book was indeed a prophecy of the author’s own life.
It is impossible to exaggerate the difficulties under which he wrote his greatest novels. His wife and children were literally starving. He could not get money, and was continually harassed by creditors. During part of the time, while writing in the midst of hunger and freezing cold, he had an epileptic attack every ten days. His comment on all this is, “I am only preparing to live,” which is as heroic as John Paul Jones’ shout, “I have not yet begun to fight.”
About the author:
William Lyon Phelps (1865-1943) was an American author, critic, scholar, and lecturer. He was Professor of English at Yale University, and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Other works include “Essays on Modern Novelists” and “Essays on Books.”
Sample passage:
Dostoevsky had a tremendous capacity for enthusiasm. As a boy, he was terribly shaken by the death of Pushkin, and he never lost his admiration for the founder of Russian literature. He read the great classics of antiquity and of modern Europe with wild excitement, and wrote burning eulogies in letters to his friends. The flame of his literary ambition was not quenched by the most abject poverty, nor by the death of those whom he loved most intensely. After his first wife died, he suffered agonies of grief, accentuated by wretched health, public neglect, and total lack of financial resources. But chill penury could not repress his noble rage. He was always planning and writing new novels, even when he had no place to lay his head. And the bodily distress of poverty did not cut him nearly so sharply as its shame. His letters prove clearly that at times he suffered in the same way as the pitiable hero of “Poor Folk.” That book was indeed a prophecy of the author’s own life.
It is impossible to exaggerate the difficulties under which he wrote his greatest novels. His wife and children were literally starving. He could not get money, and was continually harassed by creditors. During part of the time, while writing in the midst of hunger and freezing cold, he had an epileptic attack every ten days. His comment on all this is, “I am only preparing to live,” which is as heroic as John Paul Jones’ shout, “I have not yet begun to fight.”
About the author:
William Lyon Phelps (1865-1943) was an American author, critic, scholar, and lecturer. He was Professor of English at Yale University, and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Other works include “Essays on Modern Novelists” and “Essays on Books.”
21 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 2, 2011
About the author
William Lyon Phelps
329 books9 followersProfessor of English at Yale University, 1892-1933.
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