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While his literary reputation rests mainly on such celebrated novels as Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and The Idiot, Dostoyevsky also wrote much superb short fiction. The Double is one of the finest of his shorter works. It appeared in 1846 (his second published work) and is by far the most significant of his early stories, not least for its successful, straight-faced treatment of a hallucinatory theme.In The Double, the protagonist, Golyadkin senior, is persecuted by his double, Golyadkin junior, who resembles him closely in almost every detail. The latter abuses the former with mounting scorn and brutality as the tale proceeds toward its frightening denouement. Characteristic Dostoyevskyan themes of helplessness, victimization, and scandal are beautifully handled here with an artistry that qualifies the story as a small masterpiece.Students of literature, admirers of Dostoyevsky, and general readers will all be delighted to have this classic work available in this inexpensive, high-quality edition.

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The two years before he wrote Crime and Punishment (1866) had been bad ones for Dostoyevsky. His wife and brother had died; the magazine he and his brother had started, Epoch, collapsed under its load of debt; and he was threatened with debtor's prison. With an advance that he managed to wangle for an unwritten novel, he fled to Wiesbaden, hoping to win enough at the roulette table to get himself out of debt. Instead, he lost all his money; he had to pawn his clothes and beg friends for loans to pay his hotel bill and get back to Russia. One of his begging letters went to a magazine editor, asking for an advance on yet another unwritten novel — which he described as Crime and Punishment. One of the supreme masterpieces of world literature, Crime and Punishment catapulted Dostoyevsky to the forefront of Russian writers and into the ranks of the world's greatest novelists. Drawing upon experiences from his own prison days, the author recounts in feverish, compelling tones the story of Raskolnikov, an impoverished student tormented by his own nihilism, and the struggle between good and evil. Believing that he is above the law, and convinced that humanitarian ends justify vile means, he brutally murders an old woman — a pawnbroker whom he regards as «stupid, ailing, greedy…good for nothing.» Overwhelmed afterwards by feelings of guilt and terror, Raskolnikov confesses to the crime and goes to prison. There he realizes that happiness and redemption can only be achieved through suffering. Infused with forceful religious, social, and philosophical elements, the novel was an immediate success. This extraordinary, unforgettable work is reprinted here in the authoritative Constance Garnett translation.A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

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Completed only a few months before the author's death, The Brothers Karamazov is Dostoyevsky's largest, most expansive, most life-embracing work. Filled with human passions ― lust, greed, love, jealousy, sorrow, and humor ― the book is also infused with moral issues and the issue of collective guilt.As in many of Dostoyevsky's novels, the plot centers on a murder. Three brothers, different in character but bound by their ancestry, are drawn into the crime's vortex: Dmitri, a young officer utterly unrestrained in love, hatred, jealousy, and generosity; Ivan, an intellectual capable of delivering impromptu disquisitions about good and evil, God, and the devil; and Alyosha, the youngest brother, preternaturally patient, kind, and loving. Part mystery, part profound philosophical and theological debate, The Brothers Karamazov represents the culmination of Dostoyevsky's life's work and ranks among the greatest novels of all time.

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A predecessor to such monumental works as «Crime and Punishment» and «The Brothers Karamazov», «Notes From Underground» represents a turning point in Dostoyevsky's writing towards the more political side. In this work we follow the unnamed narrator of the story, who disillusioned by the oppression and corruption of the society in which he lives withdraws from that society into the underground. A dark and politically charged novel, «Notes From Underground» shows Dostoyevsky at his best. In Dostoyevsky's «The Double» we see an intense psychological study of its main character Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, a government clerk who becomes obsessed with the idea that a fellow clerk has taken over his identity. «Notes From Underground» and «The Double» are two of Dostoyevsky's more popular shorter works, which exhibit the author's uncanny ability to portray the darker side of the human psyche.

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"A Raw Youth (The Adolescent)" is Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1875 novel which tells the story of the life of a 19-year-old intellectual, Arkady Dolgoruky, who is the illegitimate child of the controversial and womanizing landowner Versilov. The novel focuses primarily on the conflict that arises between Arkady and Versilov, when Arkady rejoins his family in St. Petersburg. Arkady who has been away at boarding school hardly knows his family and when he comes to learn more about them he becomes embroiled in the scandalous affairs of his father. Rich with the depictions of the complex psychological, emotional, and moral conflicts that plague the human condition and are so common to the characters of Dostoyevsky's work, «A Raw Youth (The Adolescent)» is a classic work by an author who many consider as the greatest to ever have lived.

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Published in 1862 after Dostoyevsky's imprisonment in a Siberian labor camp, «The House of the Dead» is a collection of memoirs, related by themes, that portrays the horrific life of convicts. The author drew on his own experiences in prison to depict the squalor, destitution, and severity of a Siberian camp with remorseless detail. Dostoyevsky reveals the characters of many of the other convicts, which includes the depravity many have come to expect through their mental and physical suffering. The protagonist is Aleksandr Petrovich, a gentleman who additionally struggles with the malice of the largely peasant-populated prison. He gradually comes to accept his situation, experiencing a spiritual re-awakening in the unremitting strife of penal servitude. Though told with uncharacteristic detachment, «The House of the Dead» is a work of humanity, not without sympathy or admiration of those in Siberia, that proclaims the tragedy of those institutions, both for the inhabitants and for the country of Russia, in one of Dostoyevsky's masterpieces.

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'I am a sick person. I am a spiteful person. An unattractive person, too . . .'
In the depths of a cellar in St. Petersburg, a retired civil servant spews forth a passionate and furious note on the ills of society. The underground man’s manifesto reveals his erratic, self-contradictory and even sadistic nature. Yet Dostoyevsky’s disturbing character causes an uncomfortable flicker of recognition, and we see in him our own human condition.

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The Russian Short Story Megapack: 25 Classic Tales collects some of the finest and most famous of all Russian literature, by such authors as Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo N. Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, Anton P. Chekhov, and many more. <P> Complete table of contents: <P> THE QUEEN OF SPADES, by Alexsandr S. Pushkin<BR> THE GENERAL'S WILL, by Vera Jelihovsky<BR> THE CLOAK, by Nikolay V. Gogol<BR> THE DISTRICT DOCTOR, by Ivan S. Turgenev<BR> GOD SEES THE TRUTH, BUT WAITS, by Leo N. Tolstoy<BR> HOW A MUZHIK FED TWO OFFICIALS, by M.Y. Saltykov (N. Shchedrin)<BR> THE SHADES, A PHANTASY, by Vladimir G. Korlenko<BR> THE SIGNAL, by Vsevolod M. Garshin<BR> KNIGHTS OF INDUSTRY, by Vsevolod Vladimirovitch Krestovski<BR> THE SAFETY MATCH, by Anton P. Chekhov<BR> THE DARLING, by Anton P. Chekhov<BR> THE BET, by Anton P. Chekhov<BR> VANKA, by Anton P. Chekhov<BR> HIDE AND SEEK, by Fiodor Sologub<BR> DETHRONED, by I.N. Potapenko<BR> THE SERVANT, by S.T. Semyonov<BR> ONE AUTUMN NIGHT, by Maxim Gorky<BR> HER LOVER, by Maxim Gorky<BR> THE OCEAN, by Leonid Andreyev<BR> THE CRUSHED FLOWER, by Leonid Andreyev<BR> LAZARUS, by Leonid Andreyev<BR> THE REVOLUTIONIST, by Michail P. Artzybashev<BR> THE OUTRAGE–A TRUE STORY, by Aleksandr I. Kuprin<BR> THE CHRISTMAS TREE AND THE WEDDING, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky<BR> CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky <P> And don't forget to search this ebook store for «Wildside Megapack» to see more entries in this series, covering classic authors and subjects like mysteries, science fiction, westerns, ghost stories – and much, much more!"

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Compiled in one book, the essential collection of books by<br><br>Fyodor Dostoyevsky:<br><br>Crime and Punishment<br>The Gambler<br>The Grand Inquisitor<br>The Idiot<br>Notes From The Underground<br>Poor Folk<br>Possessed

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The Gospel in Dostoyevsky vividly reveals –as none of his novels can on their own– the common thread of the great God-haunted Russian’s questioning faith. Drawn from The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, Crime and Punishment, and The Adolescent, the seventeen selections are each prefaced by an explanatory note. Newcomers will find in these pages a rich, accessible sampling. Dostoyevsky devotees will be pleased to find some of the writer’s deepest, most compelling passages in one volume. Full-page woodcuts by master engraver Fritz Eichenberg enhance the book.

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