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Dostoevsky: The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859

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The first volume in this series was superb, and I was a little worried about the second volume. "The Years of Ordeal" were years when Dostoevsky wrote just about nothing at all (a few letters excepted) so I was worried that it might be tedious reading.

Not a bit of it! We get detailed discussion of the investigation --- Dostoevsky at 27 was on trial for his life and supposedly condemned to death. In this book you will find out exactly what happened and how Dostoevsky was shipped off for four years of hard labor in Sibera, and how he came brutally and abruptly face-to-face with the moral horror of the Russian peasantry in prison. Their behavior --- drunkenness, habitual theft, constant fighting, etc. --- was bad enough, but Dostoevsky learned something worse right off the bat: they hated him and everybody from his class. Much to his surprise, after his rose-colored glasses were smashed to bits, he found himself hating them right back --- and out went the Christian socialism he had almost committed treason for. Dostoevsky was still a Christian, however, and this experience of fierce hatred for a class he had previously romanticized led to a genuine "conversion experience" and the foundation of the firm convictions which served him for the rest of his life --- although he took "a long, long time" to completely work through his conversion experience.

All is this is developed and told by Joseph Frank in a completely fascinating way. It may not be as thrilling as "Crime & Punishment," but it sure beats a lot of modern novels in holding reader interest! Particularly fascinating is a detailed and very plausible account of how Dostoevsky finally managed to establish working relations with the peasants he hated so much; he had to learn to behave as they wanted and expected him to behave --- as a gentleman he could be as strict as he wanted with the peasants, but he could never commit the error of (a) pretending to be a peasant himself, or (b) failing to treat them as fellow human beings. They wanted him to act and be noble, but without a hint of nose-in-the-air snobbism. It sounds like a very delicate line to tread, but Dostoevsky finally caught on.

There is way too much to summarize here. These books have won a basketful of literary and scholarly prizes, and are very much worth your attention.

Frank has written a magisterial series on Dostoevsky, a life's work. The books move through the social, political, biographical and literary world of Dostoevsky. This reader was thrilled.