Dostoevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860-1865 [Paperback]

Joseph Frank (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0691014523 | ISBN-13: 978-0691014524 | Publication Date: November 1, 1988 | Edition: reprint

". . . a narrative of such compelling precision, thoroughness and insight as to give the reader a sense not just of acquaintanceship, but of complete identification with Dostoevsky, of looking through his eyes and understanding with his mind."--Helen Muchnic, Boston Globe "This is unquestionably the best account we have of Dostoevsky in his time."--Donald Fanger, The New Republic ". . . will rightly be considered one of the finest achievements of American literary scholarship."--Ren Wellek, Washington Post

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This is the third in a projected five-volume literary biography of Dostoevsky. The first two volumes ( LJ 9/1/76; 11/15/83) have been widely acclaimed; the present volume, which covers Dostoevsky's return to Petersburg and the resumption of his literary activities following his exile in Siberia, is no less an achievement. It is to Frank's credit that he has analyzed so carefully these formative years, usually neglected by scholars, and produced this gracefully written volume of intellectual history. It is a work of vast erudition and of absorbing interest that can hardly be recommended too highly. Essential for all major collections. Joyce S. Toomre, Russian Research Ctr., Harvard Univ.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

. . . a narrative of such compelling precision, thoroughness and insight as to give the reader a sense not just of acquaintanceship, but of complete identification with Dostoevsky, of looking through his eyes and understanding with his mind. -- Helen Muchnic, Boston Globe



This is unquestionably the best account we have of Dostoevsky in his time. -- Donald Fanger, The New Republic



. . . will rightly be considered one of the finest achievements of American literary scholarship. -- René Wellek, Washington Post

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press; reprint edition (November 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691014523
• ISBN-13: 978-0691014524
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #617,691 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellence continues!, February 17, 2011

By 

Geoff Puterbaugh (Chiang Mai, T. Suthep, A. Muang Thailand) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Dostoevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860-1865 (Paperback)

You know, I had serious doubts that I would actually read this five-volume biography of Dostoevsky, and feared that the books would simply become "bookshelf decoration."

Not a bit of it. Volume I tells us of D's early life, right up to his arrest and imprisonment for being involved in a plot to set up a small hand-press. (!) He spent a year in solitary awaiting sentencing.

Volume II is the "House of the Dead" section of Frank's biography, which covers four years at hard labor in Siberia, followed by service in the Army. It discusses in fascinating detail Dostoevsky's all-important "conversion experience," which more or less coincided with the beginning of his terrifying epileptic attacks. The epilepsy finally got him out of the Army, with retirement pay. And he slowly, slowly, made his way back to St. Petersburg from Siberia. The book also covers Dostoevsky's very unhappy first marriage.

In Volume III, a much more mature Dostoevsky sets up a literary journal with his devoted brother Mikhail. Called "Time," it establishes Dostoevsky as a critic and polemicist of note.

These volumes are filled with fascinating reflections, such as D's thoughts on "salvation" in purely material terms, something we may be facing in the First World, where suddenly even the poor people are fat, and the only people who don't have a home are the people we refer to as "the homeless:" paranoid schizophrenics, and addicts of one type or another. Dostoevsky remarks that the attainment of all reasonable material desires, without a transcendent belief to support one, can result in the most remarkable unhappiness and perverse striving, and even to a total confusion and loss of purpose.

On top of all that, these books are nearly a graduate course in 19th-century Russian literary culture, and expand outwards to European influences which many people have never heard of: George Sand, Eugene Sue, etc. etc. A helpful companion book might even be History of Philosophy, Volume 7 (Modern Philosophy), which has a thorough discussion of the philosopher Schelling.

As one example, reading this volume will enable you to read Turgenev's masterpiece, Fathers and Sons (Oxford World's Classics), with Eyes Wide Open and Clear Understanding!

These are some of the best books I have ever read!

4 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The seminal seed!, January 4, 2007

By 

Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dostoevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860-1865 (Paperback)

Maybe sound to free speculation, but to my view, Dostoevsky is spiritually the embodiment of the rebel man. Moreover, he may be regarded the authentic godfather of the existentialism in Literature. There are many arguments to support it, the conceptual, the spiritual affinities, the silence of God, the silent anguish and the clawing scream of desperation before the emptiness of the existence, so magisterially expressed in Karamazov brothers.

On the other hand, at the moment to read that notable essay of Albert Camus: "The rebel man" and the close affinity between "The happy death" and "Crime and punishment" you even may spin finer and so to establish certain parallelisms with the most radical branches of the Romanticism.

Between Dostoevsky and Camus, there are important links: Rimbaud Verlaine and Baudelaire pick up and establish important premises for the reluctant existentialism that remains latent to make its incursion with that impressive outburst after the WW1.

Joseph Franks leads the reader for admirable paths of passionate interest in order to convey us the core of the oul of this writer of writers.

Absolutely recommended.