Fyodor Dostoevsky-In the Beginning (1821-1845): A Life in Letters, Memoirs, and Criticism

Fyodor Dostoevsky's life is explored in a new book by Thomas Marullo, based on letters, memoirs, criticism, and witness testimony. The first part focuses on his early formation and schooling, the second on his early days in Petersburg, and the third on his youthful struggles and strivings. The book provides a clear and comprehensive portrait of one of the world's greatest writers, appealing to students, teachers, and scholars of Dostoevsky's early life and general readers interested in literature and history.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 306 pages
Publication date: 01 August 2022
Publisher: Cornell University Press

Fyodor Dostoevsky, the renowned Russian novelist, continues to captivate readers and critics more than a century after his passing in 1881. Numerous studies of his writing have been published, with over a dozen appearing in recent years alone. In this significant new work, Thomas Marullo presents a diary-portrait of Dostoevsky's early years, drawing from letters, memoirs, criticism, testimony, and witness of family, friends, readers, reviewers, and observers. Marullo's exhaustive search of published materials on Dostoevsky sheds light on many unexplored corners of the writer's childhood, adolescence, and youth.

Speakers of excerpts are given maximum freedom, allowing them to speak about the writer's good and bad qualities, truth and lies, with extensive footnotes providing correctives, counter-arguments, and other pertinent information.

The first part of the volume, All in the Family, focuses on Dostoevsky's early formation and schooling, encompassing his time in both city and country and his strong ties to his family, particularly his parents. The second section, To Petersburg!, delves into Dostoevsky's early days in Russia's imperial city, his years at the Main Engineering Academy, and the tragic death of his father. The third part, Darkness before Dawn, explores the writer's youthful struggles and strivings, culminating in the success of his work, Poor Folk.

This clear and comprehensive portrait of one of the world's greatest writers appeals to students, teachers, and scholars of Dostoevsky's early life, as well as general readers interested in Dostoevsky, literature, and history.

Weight: 460g
Dimension: 151 x 228 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501764592