Poor Folk - Softcover

F.M. Dostoevsky

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0882337556 ISBN 13: 9780882337555

Publisher: Ardis Publishing,U.S., 2003

Synopsis

Translated with an introduction by Robert Dessaix. Upon its first publication in 1846, 'Poor Folk' was an immediate critical triumph. The influential critic Vissarion Belinsky wrote that 'the novel reveals secrets about life and character-types in Russia of a kind never dreamt of by anyone else,' and the unknown twenty five year old author was hailed as 'the new Gogol.' Composed entirely of an exchange of letters between a middle-aged copy clerk and a young seamstress who live on opposite sides of a Petersburg tenement courtyard, the novel explores the emotional and psychological effects of a threatening urban environment on the psyches of poor people struggling to survive. 'Poor Folk' is the natural beginning point for anyone who reads Dostoevsky, and the present translation corrects numerous errors and inaccuracies of previous English language editions. The novel occupies a position of particular interest in both the history of Russian literature and Dostoevsky's work as a whole. Several lines of development in Russian prose interest: sentimentalism, naturalism, the physiological sketch, and the phenomenon of Gogol, with whom Dostoevsky maintains a dialogue throughout the novel.

About this title

About the Author:

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born in Moscow in 1821. His debut, the epistolary novella Poor Folk(1846), made his name. In 1849 he was arrested for involvement with the politically subversive 'Petrashevsky circle' and until 1854 he lived in a convict prison in Omsk, Siberia. From this experience came The House of the Dead (1860-2). In 1860 he began the journal Vremya (Time). Already married, he fell in love with one of his contributors, Appollinaria Suslova, eighteen years his junior, and developed a ruinous passion for roulette. After the death of his first wife, Maria, in 1864, Dostoyevsky completed Notes from Underground and began work towards Crime and Punishment (1866). The major novels of his late period are The Idiot (1868), Demons(1871-2) and The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80). He died in 1881.

Synopsis:

Poor Folk, Dostoevsky's first novel, released in 1846, occupies a position of particular interest and importance in the history of Russian literature, as it represents the confluence of important literary traditions, especially the influence of Gogol. While a natural starting point for anyone who reads Dostoevsky, the author made a point of saying that the style of the novel was not his. Robert Dessaix's introduction to this edition focuses on the history of styles that Dostoevsky used in this very self-consciously literary debut.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ardis Publishing,U.S.
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0882337556
• ISBN 13: 9780882337555
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144