The Idiot (Everyman's Library) [Hardcover]

F. M. Dostoevsky (Author), E.M. Martin (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1953 | Series: Everyman's Library

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian novelist and writer of fiction whose works, including Crime and Punishment (1866) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880), have had a profound and lasting effect on intellectual thought and world literature. His literary output explores human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. Considered by many as a founder or precursor of 20th century existentialism, his Notes from Underground (1864), written in the embittered voice of the anonymous "underground man", was named by Walter Kaufmann as the "best overture for existentialism ever written. " His characters fall into a few distinct categories: humble and self-effacing Christians, self-destructive nihilists, and rebellious intellectuals; also, his characters are driven by ideas rather than by ordinary biological or social imperatives. His other works include: Poor Folk (1846), The Village of Stepanchikovo (1859), The Insulted and Humiliated (1861), The House of the Dead (1862), The Gambler (1867), The Idiot (1869), The Possessed (1872), The Raw Youth (1875) and A Writer's Diary (1873).

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dostoyevsky was the second of six children born to Mikhail and Maria Dostoyevsky. Dostoyevsky's father Mikhail was a retired military surgeon and a violent alcoholic, who served as a doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor in Moscow. The hospital was situated in one of the worst areas in Moscow. Local landmarks included a cemetery for criminals, a lunatic asylum, and an orphanage for abandoned infants. This urban landscape made a lasting impression on the young Dostoyevsky, whose interest in and compassion for the poor, oppressed, and tormented was apparent. Though his parents forbade it, Dostoyevsky liked to wander out to the hospital garden, where the suffering patients sat to catch a glimpse of sun. The young Dostoyevsky loved to spend time with these patients and hear their stories. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 615 pages
• Publisher: Littlehampton Book Services Ltd (June 1953)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0460006827
• ISBN-13: 978-0460006828
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,838,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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