Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) was one of the greatest Russian novelists to ever live. There are so few authors, as Dostoyevsky was, who have had such a great impact on 20th century western literature. His works analyze social, moral, political, and psychological aspects of mankind.

Dostoyevsky was born in Moscow in 1821. Much of Dostoyevsky's life experiences, especially early on, provided much influence for his writings. Dostoyevsky's determination to become a writer was stimulated by the literary upbringing by his parents and excellent education through private schools (Frank 4). Dostoyevsky made up his mind to become a writer soon after finishing from the School of Military Engineering in Saint Petersburg in 1843. Dostoyevsky's father wished Dostoyevsky would become a military man. His father was murdered by his own serfs in 1839 in Tula (Eiermann). Dostoyevsky counted on his writing to be the source of his income for the remainder of his life.

Dostoyevsky's first work, Poor Folk, was published in 1846. The novel was a success and marked the beginning of his remarkable career. The late 1840's was also a trying time for Dostoyevsky. He became involved with a secret, idealistic young group, known as the Petrashevsky Circle, whose main goal was to stir up a peasant revolution to abolish serfdom, no matter what the cost in blood (Frank 5). For his involvement in this group, Tsar Nicholas I sent him to prison and then harsh exile in Siberia. He barely eluded execution. The sentence was changed at the last minute. While in prison, Dostoyevsky also began experiencing intense epileptic seizures, possibly from the stress of prison life (Strange). He "obta...

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...t. It engrosses many societal themes-rational vs. irrational, love vs. hate, faith vs. unfaith, etc- and is a struggle between a father and his four sons (Eirmann).

Fyodor Dostoyevsky died in 1881 at fifty-nine years old. His work has had such a profound insight into the human soul, that his influence is seen all over the literary world.

Works Cited

Christiaan Strange's Dostoevsky Research Station. 2000

http://www.kiosek.com/dostoevsky/contents.html

"Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Mikhaylovich," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2001.

http://www.encarta.msn.com/

Eirmann, Katharina. Pleasures of the Mind: Dostoyevsky. 2000

http://www.members.aol.com/KatharenaE/private/Philo/Dostoy/DLife.html

Frank, Joseph. Dostoevsky: The Miraculous Years: 1865-1871. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.