Best Selling Books by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Crime and Punishment (pre-reform Russian; post-reform Russian: is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. It is the second of Dostoevsky''s full-length novels following his return from ten years of exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is considered the first great novel of his "mature" period of writing. The novel is often cited as one of the supreme achievements in literature.Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in Saint Petersburg who formulates a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money. Before the killing, Raskolnikov believes that with the money he could liberate himself from poverty and go on to perform great deeds. However, once it is done he finds himself racked with confusion, paranoia, and disgust for his actions. His justifications disintegrate completely as he struggles with guilt and horror and confronts the real-world consequences of his deed.

A self-styled revolutionary and his followers plot to overthrow the Tsar and seize control of the government in Dostoyevsky''s cautionary tale about the destructive forces of demagoguery and unbridled rhetoric.

Considered one of the greatest achievements in Russian literature, The Idiot made its debut in 1869. Prince Myshkin, a gentle, compassionate man, falls in love with two very different women amid the intrigues of 19th century St. Petersburg society. Sayre Street Books offers the world''s greatest literature in easy to navigate, beautifully designed digital editions.

The Double: A Petersburg Poem is a novella written by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The novella was first published in 1846. The Double deals with the internal psychological struggle of its main character, Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin. The Double is the most Gogolesque of Dostoevsky''s works; its subtitle "A Petersburg Poem" echoes that of Gogol''s Dead Souls. Vladimir Nabokov called it a parody of "The Overcoat". The story is told in great detail with a style intensely saturated by phonetic and rhythmical expressiveness. The novella centers on a government clerk who goes mad, obsessed by the idea that a fellow clerk has usurped his identity. D.S. Mirsky characterized the story as a "painful, almost intolerable reading". With a biography about the life and times of Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

The reader is plunged into a world of moral degradation, childhood trauma and above all of unrequited love and irreconcilable relationships. At the centre of the story is a young struggling author, a traumatised orphaned teenager, and a depraved aristocrat.

The Possessed is a testimonial of life in Imperial Russia in the late 19th century. Dostoyevsky casts a critical eye on both the radical idealists, portraying their ideas and ideological foundation as demonic, and the conservative establishment''s ineptitude in dealing with those ideas and their social consequences. The books five primary characters represent different ideologies and by exploring their philosophies Dostoyevsky describes the political chaos seen in 19th century Russia. Fyodor Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer and philosopher whose literary works explore human psychology in the context of the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmosphere of 19th-century Russia.

This premium quality large print volume includes the complete and unabridged classic translation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky''s " Crime and Punishment" -- a work which became an enduring and still-popular classic, exerting a world-wide influence that continues today. This freshly edited and newly typeset edition features heavyweight 60# bright white paper and a large 7.44"x9.69" page size with a fully laminated cover featuring an original full color design. Also included in this volume is extensive introductory commentary, including biographical and critical essays, discussing Dostoyevsky''s life, work and literary significance, to provide useful background information for the modern reader. "Crime and Punishment..." A psychological novel written before the phrase "psychological novel" existed, "Crime and Punishment" is widely regarded as Dostoyevsky''s masterpiece, establishing his reputation as a powerful and influential novelist. Against the backdrop of the oppressive heat and smell of summer in St. Petersburg and in the shadow of religious faith, Dostoyevsky explores complex themes of alienation, criminal psychology, guilt, nihilism, expiation, atonement, and what might today be considered narcissistic personality disorder and in an earlier time might have been called megalomania. Convinced that "superior" people, like himself, are above the law, Raskolnikov believes that he could make much better use of an old woman''s wealth and decides he is entitled to rob her. When the robbery goes horribly wrong, Raskolnikov begins to doubt his superiority, and his growing guilt and a cat-and-mouse game that ensues with Porfiry Petrovich, the shrewd police investigator, drives him further into isolation and despair. Focusing on the psychological punishment Raskolnikov suffers as a result of his crime, Dostoyevsky suggests that true rehabilitation can come only through atonement and redemption, regardless of any punishment meted out by the authorities. Like Dickens in England, Dostoyevsky was embraced by the masses about whom he wrote and to whom he spoke, despite criticism by contemporary "experts" who found his subject matter unsuitable for "literature" and his work lacking in style and technical merit. And like Dickens, Dostoyevsky has become an inextricable part of the culture of his country and the essential literature of the world.

"To love is to suffer and there can be no love otherwise" - Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground The darkly fascinating novella Notes From The Underground was written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in 1864, shortly before he penned his lengthier later novels, including The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment. Considered by many to be one of the first existentialist novels it follows the complicated mind of a bitter, retired civil servant (generally referred to by critics as the Underground Man), who lives alone in St. Petersburg, Russia in the mid 19th century. Able to retire after recently inheriting some money, the narrator in full retreat from society has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In full retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory rambling narrative that runs the gamut from human morality, to logic and reason and serves as a devastating attack on emerging Western and contemporary Russian philosophy, as well as social utopianism and an assertion of man''s essentially irrational nature. These memoirs or confessions describe and explain his alienation from modern society and the work can be viewed as an attack on and rebellion against determinism, the idea that everything, including the human personality and will, can be reduced to the laws of nature, science and mathematics. One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the narrator is a doubting, alienated protagonist in a novella that introduces the moral, religious, political and social themes that dominated Dostoyevsky''s later masterworks.

The short works of Dostoevsky exist in the very large shadow of his astonishing longer novels, but they too are among literature''s most revered works and offer keys to understanding the themes in his longer works. Contained in this volume are the short stories "White Nights," "A Disgraceful Affair," and "The Dream of the Ridiculous Man," three of Dostoevsky''s most troubling, moving, and poignant works. Alongside A DISGRACEFUL AFFAIR, Harper Perennial will publish the short fiction of Stephen Crane, Herman Melville, Willa Cather, Leo Tolstoy, and Oscar Wilde to be packaged in a beautifully designed, boldly colorful boxset in the aim to attract contemporary fans of short fiction to these revered masters of the form. Also, in each of these selections will appear a story from one of the new collections being published in 2009. A story from Barb Johnson''s forthcoming collection will be printed at the back of this volume.

Dostoevsky’s classic pitting one man against society Widely considered to be the first existential novella, Notes from Underground presents the diary of a bitter, misanthropic man. The unnamed narrator has, in an act of supreme defiance, withdrawn from society completely. Formerly a civil servant, this “sick” and “wicked” man suffers from incurable ennui and forsakes all interaction. Rallying against what he perceives as human evils, like war, love, and utopianism, he exiles himself from all humanity in favor of exalted loneliness and suffering. Readers bear witness to the friends, lovers, and crippling social pressures of nineteenth-century Russia that made him this way. Notes from Underground, which preceded masterworks including Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, is among Dostoevsky’s finest works, melding fiction and philosophy. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Reproduction of the original: Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Gambler is a short novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky about a young tutor in the employment of a formerly wealthy Russian general. The novella reflects Dostoyevsky''s own addiction to roulette, which was in more ways than one the inspiration for the book: Dostoyevsky completed the novella under a strict deadline to pay off gambling debts. The first-person narrative is told from the point of view of Alexei Ivanovich, a tutor working for a Russian family living in a suite at a German hotel. The patriarch of the family, The General, is indebted to the Frenchman de Criet and has mortgaged his property in Russia to pay only a small amount of his debt. Upon learning of the illness of his wealthy aunt, "Grandmother", he sends streams of telegrams to Moscow and awaits the news of her demise. His expected inheritance will pay his debts and gain Mademoiselle Blanche de Cominges''s hand in marriage. Alexei is hopelessly in love with Polina, the General''s stepdaughter, and swears an oath of servitude to her. He told her while on a walk on the Schlangenberg (a mountain in the German town) that all she had to do was give the word and he would gladly walk off the edge and plummet to his death. This leads to her asking him to go to the town''s casino and place a bet for her. He refuses at first but, when goaded and reminded of his oath of undying love and servility, he succumbs and ends up winning at the roulette table. He returns to her the winnings but she will not tell him the reason she needs money. She only laughs in his face (as she does when he professes his love) and treats him with cold indifference, if not downright malice. He only learns the details of the General''s and Polina''s financial state later in the story through his long-time acquaintance, Mr. Astley. Astley is a shy Englishman who seems to share Alexei''s fondness of Polina. He comes from English nobility and has a good deal of money. One day while Polina and Alexei are on a walk they see Baron and Baroness Wurmerhelm. Polina dares him to insult the aristocratic couple and he does so with little hesitation. This sets off a chain of events that details Mademoiselle Blanche''s interest in the General and gets Alexei fired as tutor of the General''s children. Shortly after this, Grandmother shows up and surprises the whole party of debtors and indebted. She tells them all that she knows all about the General''s debt and why the Frenchman and woman are waiting around the suite day after day. She leaves the party of death-profiteers by saying that none of them are getting any of her money. She then asks Alexei to be her guide around the town famous for its healing waters and infamous for its casino where the tables are stacked with piles of gold; she wants to gamble. After being ushered to the roulette table, she plays and wins 13,000 Friedrich''s d''ors (7000-8000 roubles), a significant amount of money. After a short return to the hotel, she comes back to roulette tables and she starts to get the bug; before she leaves the town, she''s lost over a hundred thousand roubles in three days. Major Characters: - Alexei Ivanovich, tutor of General''s young Children Nadjenka and Misa - The General, Sagorjanski - Polina Alexandrovna Praskovja, General''s stepdaughter - Antonida Vasilevna Tarasevitcheva (Grandmother) ''la baboulinka'', General''s aunt Mademoiselle Blanche de Cominges, a.k.a. Mlle Celma, a.k.a. Madame Berberina, a.k.a. Mlle du Placet - Madame la Comtesse de Cominges, Mlle Blanche''s mother/chaperone, a.k.a. Mme du Placet - Marquis de Criet, Des Grieux - Mr. Astley, nephew of Lord Piebrook - Maria Filippovna, General''s mistress? - Potapyts, Grandmother''s butler - Fedosja, General''s nanny - Marfa, Grandmother''s maid - Baron and Baroness Wurmerhelm - Prince Nilski - Albert, army officer in Paris, Mlle Blanche''s lover

The semiautobiographical prison account of convict Aleksandr Petrovich Goryanchikov, from the author of Crime and Punishment. Originally published in 1862, The House of the Dead is based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s own four-year imprisonment in Siberia for his involvement in the Petrashevsky Circle. This masterpiece of Russian literature begins with a nameless narrator coming upon former convict Aleksandr Petrovich Goryanchikov in a remote Siberian town. Previously a nobleman and landowner, Goryanchikov had been given a ten-year sentence of hard labor for the murder of his wife, a crime of passion sparked by jealousy. After Goryanchikov’s death, the narrator finds a handwritten record of his decade of penal servitude. From his first days in the barracks, friendless and broken in spirit, to the removal of his shackles and freedom, Goryanchikov portrays the experiences of a “lost tribe of men,” and the horrors and degradation they experienced. “Episodic, rambling, full of keen and deliberately stretched-out character sketches, the book is the drama of a person working out how to reproduce prison life in prose: its longueurs, its diversions, its pleasures, traumas, and inurements . . . If Dostoyevsky’s captors had found the ribald, cacophonous commonplace book he assembled out of overheard insults and tossed-off sayings during his time in prison, they would have recognized that they were dealing with a spirit not easily suppressed.” —The Paris Review “I know no better book in all modern literature.” —Leo Tolstoy

In The Devils Dostoyevsky created a chilling and prophetic story of revolutionaries and nihilists plotting the overthrow of the Russian government and the downfall of the Russian church. It focuses on the complex and tormented character of Stavrogin, a desperate man whose loss of faith makes him dangerous. Believing he is beyond guilt and remorse, he commits terrible crimes, infects others with ideas he does not believe in and accepts love he does not deserve. Yet Stavrogin is only one of a small band of rebels whose hunger for a more democratic, Western system threatens the fabric of Russian society, and The Devils is a brilliant psychological analysis of a group of people possessed by a destructive passion for revolution.

White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Explore the depths of human emotion and existential reflection with "White Nights and Other Stories" by the literary giant Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This collection of short stories delves into the complexities of love, loneliness, and the human condition, showcasing Dostoyevsky''s unparalleled insight into the intricacies of the soul. Why This Book? "White Nights and Other Stories" offers readers a glimpse into the rich tapestry of Dostoyevsky''s storytelling, where each tale becomes a microcosm of human experience. Dostoyevsky''s exploration of love, yearning, and the search for meaning resonates with readers on a profound and emotional level. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a literary luminary, invites readers to navigate the labyrinth of human emotions and existential dilemmas, where the stories within unfold like intricate portraits of the human soul.

The Double is a novella written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published on January 30, 1846 in the Fatherland Notes. It was subsequently revised and republished by Dostoevsky in 1866. The Double centers on a government clerk who goes mad. It deals with the internal psychological struggle of its main character, Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, who repeatedly encounters someone who is his exact double in appearance but confident, aggressive, and extroverted, characteristics that are the polar opposites to those of the toadying "pushover" protagonist. The motif of the novella is a doppelganger (dvoynik)."

"The Grand Inquisitor" is a story within a story. It is contained within Fyodor Dostoevsky''s 1880 novel "The Brothers Karamazov." The story tells about Ivan Karamazov questioning his brother Alexei, a novice monk, about the possibility of a personal and benevolent God.

"The Possessed: Or, The Devils Part I" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky''s is a seminal work in Russian literature, renowned for its exploration of existentialism, Dostoevskian themes, and psychological depth. Set against the backdrop of Russian society, this novel delves into the complexities of the human psyche amidst political intrigue and societal critique. At its core, "The Possessed" is a psychological novel that delves into the moral ambiguity of its characters, showcasing their inner conflicts and existential dilemmas. Dostoyevsky masterfully weaves religious symbolism and philosophical discourse throughout the narrative, adding layers of depth to the story. The novel''s characters are intricately crafted, embodying the complexity of human nature and serving as vessels for Dostoyevsky''s exploration of existential themes. Through their interactions and struggles, the author offers a profound critique of Russian society and its underlying philosophical underpinnings. "The Possessed" stands as a timeless literary classic, celebrated for its profound insights into the human condition and its enduring relevance in contemporary discourse. With its rich tapestry of philosophical ideas, political intrigue, and character complexity, this novel continues to captivate readers and scholars alike, solidifying Dostoyevsky''s legacy as one of the greatest writers in Russian literature.

Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume.