The House of the Dead / Poor Folk Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky, Constance Garnett (Translator) Arrested in 1849 for belonging to a secret group of radical utopians, Fyodor Dostoevsky was sentenced to four years in a Siberian labor camp—a terrible mental, spiritual, and physical ordeal that inspired him to write the no... more »vel The House of the Dead.
Told from the point of view of a fictitious narrator -- a convict serving a ten-year sentence for murdering his wife -- The House of the Dead describes in vivid detail the horrors that Dostoevsky himself witnessed while in prison: the brutality of guards who relish cruelty for its own sake; the evil of criminals who enjoy murdering children; and the existence of decent souls amid filth and degradation. More than just a work of documentary realism, The House of the Dead also describes the spiritual death and gradual resurrection from despair experienced by the novel’s central character -- a reawakening that culminates in his final reconciliation with himself and humanity.
Also included in this volume is Dostoevsky’s first published work, Poor Folk, a novel written in the form of letters that brought Dostoevsky immediate critical and public recognition.« less