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Dostoevsky #2
Dostoevsky: The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859
The description for this book, Dostoevsky: The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859, will be forthcoming.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1983
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673 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Frank
147books129followersJoseph Frank was professor emeritus of Slavic and comparative literature at Stanford and Princeton. The five volumes of his Dostoevsky biography won a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, two James Russell Lowell Prizes, and two Christian Gauss Awards, and have been translated into numerous languages.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the ŷ database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the ŷ database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
December 18, 2016
There was a ten-year gap in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's writing career. In 1849, he was arrested for suspicion of treason for belonging to the dissident Petrashevsky Circle. Although he and his fellow co-conspirators were condemned to death, the firing squad was a charade; and the young writer was packed off to a forced labor camp in Siberia, at Omsk. There he served four years with criminals and other political prisoners.
After he had served his sentence, he was forced to serve in the army at Semipalatinsk, also in Siberia. During the whole time, he was forbidden to publish and he was still under surveillance by the Tsar's government.
dedicates an entire volume to this period, which although fallow in a literary sense, marked a sea change in his feelings about Russia. Also, during this time, the cruel Nicholas I died. His heir, Alexander II, was committed to freeing the serfs, which was Dostoyevsky's main raison d'etre for risking joining the Petrashevsky Circle.
One would think that would be relatively boring because the writer's only works during this time were the relatively unread Uncle's Dream and The Village of Stepanchikovo. While Frank has very little to discuss with Dostoyevsky's works, there was a lot happening in his life. For one thing, he got married in Semipalatinsk to his first wife, Marya Dimitrievna -- which turned into an unhappy marriage.
As I continue to read Frank's magisterial five-volume biography, I also intend to read most of Dostoyevsky's fiction around the same time.
After he had served his sentence, he was forced to serve in the army at Semipalatinsk, also in Siberia. During the whole time, he was forbidden to publish and he was still under surveillance by the Tsar's government.
dedicates an entire volume to this period, which although fallow in a literary sense, marked a sea change in his feelings about Russia. Also, during this time, the cruel Nicholas I died. His heir, Alexander II, was committed to freeing the serfs, which was Dostoyevsky's main raison d'etre for risking joining the Petrashevsky Circle.
One would think that would be relatively boring because the writer's only works during this time were the relatively unread Uncle's Dream and The Village of Stepanchikovo. While Frank has very little to discuss with Dostoyevsky's works, there was a lot happening in his life. For one thing, he got married in Semipalatinsk to his first wife, Marya Dimitrievna -- which turned into an unhappy marriage.
As I continue to read Frank's magisterial five-volume biography, I also intend to read most of Dostoyevsky's fiction around the same time.
February 12, 2017
This is probably the best literary biography you will ever read, Dost fan or not, but loving the shit out of his works will make it even better.
Volume 2 covers Dosty's period of exile in Siberia and his brief, pointless military career, when he was distant from the centers of Russian culture and flailing about dealing with a shitty first marriage and epilepsy. Much of the material here is culled from "Notes from a Dead House" and his correspondence with his brother and a few other literati. The crucial thing here, and this is where Frank's genius shines, is sifting through all this to reconstruct the beginnings of Dosty's philosophical shift towards what will be the heights of his own genius: his view of Russian culture, his view of the Russian masses as repository of that culture, redemption through a universal faith centered around love, the abysmal heights and depths of the human spirit.
Really, just exhausting in its awesomeness.
Volume 2 covers Dosty's period of exile in Siberia and his brief, pointless military career, when he was distant from the centers of Russian culture and flailing about dealing with a shitty first marriage and epilepsy. Much of the material here is culled from "Notes from a Dead House" and his correspondence with his brother and a few other literati. The crucial thing here, and this is where Frank's genius shines, is sifting through all this to reconstruct the beginnings of Dosty's philosophical shift towards what will be the heights of his own genius: his view of Russian culture, his view of the Russian masses as repository of that culture, redemption through a universal faith centered around love, the abysmal heights and depths of the human spirit.
Really, just exhausting in its awesomeness.
September 16, 2019
Este libro es una colección de 5 libros de la biografía de Dovstoievski. Siendo éste el segundo tomo ya que no encontré el primero. Nos habla de sus años en la cárcel debido a asociaciones con personas equivocadas, no es que fuese un ladronzuelo de poca monta. El tiempo que estuvo en la cárcel siempre estuvo preocupado y protegiendo a su hermano quien estaba afuera, conmueve el amor fraternal. Otra de sus preocupaciones fue el seguir leyendo y escribiendo y que fuesen a editar mal alguna obra de él. Como dato curioso conoció en la cárcel al abuelo de Nabokov y lo describe como un hombre vulgar, quizás eso nos explique la poca simpatía que tiene Nabokov hacia Dovstoievski. Este último sin duda un hombre capaz de sufrir en silencio, nunca delató a ningún compañero, un hombre con una brillante retórica que quedaba lejos de la comprensión de los otros. Sin duda el autor ha hecho un buen trabajo de investigación. Incluye algunas cartas y documentos. Espero conseguir el primer libro o el tercero pronto. Una biografía profunda y recomendada a sus acérrimos lectores.
April 6, 2016
Strong entry in this second of Frank's five volume series. The nature of the time period in Dostoevsky's life lends itself to more straight biography than literary analysis, as Dostoevsky wrote very little during these years due to his prison sentence and his service in the army. Therefore, Frank spends a great deal of time either seeking to understand Dostoevsky's life in Siberia or clarifying the zeitgeist in 1850s Russia. Both are valuable undertakings, but the general lack of Frank's pointed analysis of the literature (he does analyze three separate works) makes this volume just a bit less engaging than the first.
July 8, 2024
A fantastic book about Dostoevsky’s experience before, during, and after his mock execution and Siberian prison sentence. In this book the reader feels alongside Dostoevsky while he is going through these tormenting experiences. This book reveals how Dostoevsky transformed from a dreaming idealist into the man we know him as today. A book that stirs one’s mind, heart, and soul that will likely stick with you long after you’ve read it. Joseph Frank did a really incredible job.
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April 5, 2023“�(Dostoevsky) seems already to have begun groping his way toward that “regeneration� which, in the future, will take him from a revolt against certain social arrangements of God’s world—a revolt whose motives he will never cease to regard with a certain sympathy—to a reverent acceptance of its eternal blessedness and beauty.�, p. 31
December 3, 2020
The second in Joseph Frank’s biography on Dostoevsky, The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859 picks up where The Seeds of Revolt leaves off. After being arrested for his participation in a printing scheme whose socialist literature was judged seditious by Tsarist censors, Dostoevsky waits in prison for his summary execution. However, in a staged act of magnanimity, the Tsar pardons Dostoevsky et al. at the last moment, sending them instead to different Siberian prison camps.
Dostoevsky’s experiences and revelations in his four-year term in Siberia and his subsequent service in the military following it are the focus of The Years of Ordeal. In prison the still young (late twenties) Dostoevsky meets many peasant convicts, who he learns are nothing like what he and other upper-class intelligentsia assumed, neither needing nor wanting liberation by the Western liberal elite. In his process of discovering the psychology of those around him, Dostoevsky discovers that such things as private property, clear social hierarchy, and the moral metaphysics established by Russian Orthodox Christianity are serious needs that make the peasant convicts stronger, more resilient, and more at peace than those in his own class. Throughout the book, and pointing forward to works like Crime and Punishment and The Devils, Frank tracks Dostoevsky’s growing realization of the revolutionary socialist perspective as both naive and self-destructive.
Following Dostoevsky’s time in prison, Frank depicts the man’s attempts to reestablish himself on the literary scene while fulfilling his obligations as a soldier in the provincial town of Semipalatinsk. Bringing in writing from the time and more recent diagnoses, Frank also examines Dostoevsky’s nascent epilepsy, which runs parallel to the writer’s relationship with his first wife, Marya Dimitrievna. Married to a drunk when Dostoevsky first meets her, Dimitrievna consumes the man and establishes many identifiable themes for in his later female characters.
As in The Seeds of Revolt, Frank follows the biographical chapters with an examination of Dostoevsky’s literature during the respective years. Articulating how the literary scene (often the only place to avoid censors and discuss politics in Tsarist Russia) had developed since Dostevsky’s arrest, Frank describes the ascent of men such as Alexander Herzen, who now occupied the place in Russian culture previously held by Vissarion Belinsky, and seminarian socialist N. G. Chernyshevsky. Dostoevsky finds that the upper class values and self-doubt he previously depicted and lampooned in The Double and other works now under full attack, with a growing divide between “weak� upper class deference to tradition and “strong� willfulness to disregard it. Into this divide (which places the previously gauche Dostoevsky among such writers as Turgenev and Tolstoy, who welcome him) Dostoevsky brings his recent prison realizations about human psychology and ideology, and one can see the development of such ideas as would inform his later works.
Frank ends the book with an examination of Dostoevsky’s writing during the time, namely Uncle’s Dream and The Village of Stepanchikovo. (Because Dostoevsky would not write The House of the Dead until later years, Frank defers examining it, though he has quoted passages throughout to inform the reading of Dostevsky’s prison years.) Summarizing the books, Frank articulates how Dostoevsky’s ideas and themes have grown since Poor Folk and The Double, and he shows how time in prison has tested and nuanced Dostoevsky’s relationship with Romanticism and Naturalism (a major theme in The Seeds of Revolt), consistently hinting forward to Dostoevsky’s larger works.
Covering what Frank argues is the most formative decade of Dostoevsky’s life, The Years of Ordeal provides a fascinating look at not only how Dostoevsky became the writer he did, but also how Russia changed during these years. The work, thus, provides invaluable insight on the cultural, ideological, and political changes that would foreground Dostoevsky’s later masterpieces, as well as the later revolutions in later 19th and early 20th century Russia.
Dostoevsky’s experiences and revelations in his four-year term in Siberia and his subsequent service in the military following it are the focus of The Years of Ordeal. In prison the still young (late twenties) Dostoevsky meets many peasant convicts, who he learns are nothing like what he and other upper-class intelligentsia assumed, neither needing nor wanting liberation by the Western liberal elite. In his process of discovering the psychology of those around him, Dostoevsky discovers that such things as private property, clear social hierarchy, and the moral metaphysics established by Russian Orthodox Christianity are serious needs that make the peasant convicts stronger, more resilient, and more at peace than those in his own class. Throughout the book, and pointing forward to works like Crime and Punishment and The Devils, Frank tracks Dostoevsky’s growing realization of the revolutionary socialist perspective as both naive and self-destructive.
Following Dostoevsky’s time in prison, Frank depicts the man’s attempts to reestablish himself on the literary scene while fulfilling his obligations as a soldier in the provincial town of Semipalatinsk. Bringing in writing from the time and more recent diagnoses, Frank also examines Dostoevsky’s nascent epilepsy, which runs parallel to the writer’s relationship with his first wife, Marya Dimitrievna. Married to a drunk when Dostoevsky first meets her, Dimitrievna consumes the man and establishes many identifiable themes for in his later female characters.
As in The Seeds of Revolt, Frank follows the biographical chapters with an examination of Dostoevsky’s literature during the respective years. Articulating how the literary scene (often the only place to avoid censors and discuss politics in Tsarist Russia) had developed since Dostevsky’s arrest, Frank describes the ascent of men such as Alexander Herzen, who now occupied the place in Russian culture previously held by Vissarion Belinsky, and seminarian socialist N. G. Chernyshevsky. Dostoevsky finds that the upper class values and self-doubt he previously depicted and lampooned in The Double and other works now under full attack, with a growing divide between “weak� upper class deference to tradition and “strong� willfulness to disregard it. Into this divide (which places the previously gauche Dostoevsky among such writers as Turgenev and Tolstoy, who welcome him) Dostoevsky brings his recent prison realizations about human psychology and ideology, and one can see the development of such ideas as would inform his later works.
Frank ends the book with an examination of Dostoevsky’s writing during the time, namely Uncle’s Dream and The Village of Stepanchikovo. (Because Dostoevsky would not write The House of the Dead until later years, Frank defers examining it, though he has quoted passages throughout to inform the reading of Dostevsky’s prison years.) Summarizing the books, Frank articulates how Dostoevsky’s ideas and themes have grown since Poor Folk and The Double, and he shows how time in prison has tested and nuanced Dostoevsky’s relationship with Romanticism and Naturalism (a major theme in The Seeds of Revolt), consistently hinting forward to Dostoevsky’s larger works.
Covering what Frank argues is the most formative decade of Dostoevsky’s life, The Years of Ordeal provides a fascinating look at not only how Dostoevsky became the writer he did, but also how Russia changed during these years. The work, thus, provides invaluable insight on the cultural, ideological, and political changes that would foreground Dostoevsky’s later masterpieces, as well as the later revolutions in later 19th and early 20th century Russia.
July 19, 2021
Equally as excellent as the previous volume, though a touch more uneven. The first ~1/2 - which covers Dostoevsky's nine-months of virtual solitary imprisonment, his mock execution, and his four years in a Siberian prison camp - was riveting; the back-half traverses his post-prison military assignment up to his return to Petersburg, with a focus on his literary production of the period - it dulled in comparison. The greatness of the first half is due to a combination of the highest quality biographical material and flawless execution: Frank is given the finest of ingredients, but he turns them into an exquisite meal. And what drama lies herein! Dostoevsky faced a series of trials that few could live through without trauma, but came out of them all the stronger - beset with the convictions that would infuse his great novels and catapult him up to literary Olympus. Frank carefully traces these ever-changing contours of Dostoevsky's consciousness. Come the end of the section, it is impossible not to be convinced of Frank's take on how Dostoevsky was influenced by this period of his life.
In the main, Frank focuses on Dostoevsky's newfound conception of the Russian peasantry. Previously, he had thought of the peasant class similarly to the other members of his literary circle: as possessing some sort of innate saintliness, but in need of the wisdom and enlightenment of the educated to effectively liberate them. He now regards such a view as naive and simplistic. In reality, the peasantry was capable of a depravity which would pay no heed, and show little deference, to the arrogance of the educated; Dostoevsky experienced this through his outsider status in Siberia - he was never treated on equal terms by the peasants, and was often regarded with contempt. Yet, within the peasantry, there was a capacity for simple goodness - for genuine altruism - that did not exist within the hypocrisy, pretentiousness, and egoism of the educated classes. This view on the peasantry was concomitant with two other aspects of Dostoevsky's progression: 1) his return to a more "Orthodox" Christianity, that exalted suffering, and treated all-forgiving love as Christ's most important teaching. 2) A slavophilism that rested on the Russian peasantry's unique, intuitive fellow-feeling. Contrastingly, Europe, yoked by economic development and proletarianism, was caught in intellectualist ideologies and ultimately self-centered philosophies (it struck me that this attempt to find some sort of Slavic superiority to Europe continues today, albeit in different form).
What emerges from all of this is a depiction of how Dostoevsky interpreted the behavior of the convicts he met in prison camp. It seems to me a generally sophisticated and correct understanding; one which many members of liberal intelligentsia circles today could learn from, and apply even outside of "Russian peasantry" contexts. To go even farther, the part where Dostoevsky explains the tendency to blow a monetary windfall on a binge of vice (prostitution/gambling/drinking/drugs) -- extreme time-discounting behavior -- as a desperate attempt to assert one's freedom in a world that has altogether stripped one of that essential good, offers more insight than any "rational addiction" model of such behaviors (and I wonder if Dostoevsky's telling could provide the outline for a superior utility function representation or shows the inadequacy of any formalization of that sort).
The second half fell flatter partly because the drama of Dostoevsky's personal life in this period simply could not stand up to the first half, and partly because I did not have the desire to read Frank's evaluation of the minor literary works written during those years. Frank's attention to detail is commendable, but when the details are less exciting, it makes for a bit more tedious reading.
Anyway, this is a great volume. Between the scene where Dostoevsky writes to his brother post-faux execution and the arc of his moral sensibility in prison camp, there is much here to inspire and invigorate one's own sense of life's value.
In the main, Frank focuses on Dostoevsky's newfound conception of the Russian peasantry. Previously, he had thought of the peasant class similarly to the other members of his literary circle: as possessing some sort of innate saintliness, but in need of the wisdom and enlightenment of the educated to effectively liberate them. He now regards such a view as naive and simplistic. In reality, the peasantry was capable of a depravity which would pay no heed, and show little deference, to the arrogance of the educated; Dostoevsky experienced this through his outsider status in Siberia - he was never treated on equal terms by the peasants, and was often regarded with contempt. Yet, within the peasantry, there was a capacity for simple goodness - for genuine altruism - that did not exist within the hypocrisy, pretentiousness, and egoism of the educated classes. This view on the peasantry was concomitant with two other aspects of Dostoevsky's progression: 1) his return to a more "Orthodox" Christianity, that exalted suffering, and treated all-forgiving love as Christ's most important teaching. 2) A slavophilism that rested on the Russian peasantry's unique, intuitive fellow-feeling. Contrastingly, Europe, yoked by economic development and proletarianism, was caught in intellectualist ideologies and ultimately self-centered philosophies (it struck me that this attempt to find some sort of Slavic superiority to Europe continues today, albeit in different form).
What emerges from all of this is a depiction of how Dostoevsky interpreted the behavior of the convicts he met in prison camp. It seems to me a generally sophisticated and correct understanding; one which many members of liberal intelligentsia circles today could learn from, and apply even outside of "Russian peasantry" contexts. To go even farther, the part where Dostoevsky explains the tendency to blow a monetary windfall on a binge of vice (prostitution/gambling/drinking/drugs) -- extreme time-discounting behavior -- as a desperate attempt to assert one's freedom in a world that has altogether stripped one of that essential good, offers more insight than any "rational addiction" model of such behaviors (and I wonder if Dostoevsky's telling could provide the outline for a superior utility function representation or shows the inadequacy of any formalization of that sort).
The second half fell flatter partly because the drama of Dostoevsky's personal life in this period simply could not stand up to the first half, and partly because I did not have the desire to read Frank's evaluation of the minor literary works written during those years. Frank's attention to detail is commendable, but when the details are less exciting, it makes for a bit more tedious reading.
Anyway, this is a great volume. Between the scene where Dostoevsky writes to his brother post-faux execution and the arc of his moral sensibility in prison camp, there is much here to inspire and invigorate one's own sense of life's value.
July 1, 2020
Although the events of Dostoevsky's life are less dramatic during this second period of his life (which is saying something about his early period, as here he undergoes imprisonment, a tortuous first love affair, and a clawing journey to reinstate himself in the contemporary literary scene), the resonance between his emotional growth and the thematic focuses of his works here are far more poignant and make for, once again, extremely engaging and interesting reading. The section on his life in prison are particularly harrowing, yet simultaneously uplifting-- and although I'm not a scholar of Dostoevsky, the analyses of his works during this period (as well as House of the Dead) once again feel like they are making interesting contributions to our interpretation of Dostoevsky's work. As before, another page-turner of a biography-history-analysis!
August 26, 2022
Este es el segundo tomo de la extensa biografía que Joseph Frank dedica a investigar la vida, obra y milagros de Dostoievski. Hablamos de cinco tomos que suman un total aproximado de 3000 páginas. Obviamente no espero convencer a nadie de su lectura máxime cuando la broma sale por casi 200 euros pero aquí uno se ha propuesto leerlo y se niega a dejar de comentarlo.
Resumidísimamente este volumen se ocupa de los 10 años que Dostoievsky pasa en Siberia, primero en una prisión de trabajos forzados y más tarde, cuatro años más tarde, ocupando el más bajo escalafón del ejército.
En prisión acabó por algo, claro. A principios de los años cuarenta el clima sociocultural ruso pasó del romanticismo al realismo social y, tal como Herzen escribió cinco años después de la publicación de la primera novela de Dostoievski (que recordemos [enlace] que había sido considerada por Belinski, el crítico literario más importante de la época, como “la primera tentativa de novela social�), las obras se vieron “imbuidas por inspiraciones y tendencias socialistas�. Estas tendencias, dice Frank, “habían requerido bastante tiempo para surgir en Rusia, y tal vez puede afirmarse que fueron inicialmente estimuladas por las escandalosas injusticias cometidas con la servidumbre, institución que durante largo tiempo perturbó las conciencias de los mejores miembros de la sociedad rusa culta, y suministró uno de los motivos para la abortada sublevación de los decembristas, en noviembre de 1825�. (1) Es decir, que la cosa venía de lejos y Dostoievski, que además de haber tenido contacto personal con las brutalidades infligidas a los campesinos estaba también muy afectado por la lectura progresista, humanitaria y vagamente utópica literatura socialista de autores como Victor Hugo, George Sand o Eugene Sue, entre otros, hizo algo más que limitarse a escribir novelas sociales de inspiración socialista o participar en un movimiento exclusivamente literario: “a partir del invierno de 1848 empezó a asistir regularmente a las reuniones del círculo de Petrashevski, formado por un grupo de hombres jóvenes que se reunían en la casa de Mijail Butashevich-Petrashevski para discutir todos los grandes temas del día que la amordazada prensa rusa tenía prohibido mencionar.�
El zar Nicolás I ordenó la detención de círculo Petrashevski y con él al joven Dostoievski. Todos fueron juzgados y condenados a muerte, una pena de muerte que sería conmutada enseguida aunque igualmente, a modo de escarmiento, se organizó el fusilamiento. Sólo antes de apretar el gatillo, cuando los presos estaban frente al paredón, se les informó de que sus penas habían sido rebajadas en diferentes grados. Dostoievski, condenado inicialmente a ocho años de trabajos forzados, vio reducido este período a cuatro años, después de los cuales tendría que servir en el ejército ruso durante tiempo indeterminado. Así fue como acabó en Siberia. Dostoievski, en una la carta que escribió a su hermano Mijail el 22 de febrero de 1854, apenas una semana después de haber sido liberado del campamento de condenados, le cuenta, entre otras muchas cosas, detalles del lugar:
"Vivíamos apretujados, todos juntos en una sola barraca. Imagínate una construcción de madera, vieja y ruinosa, que se suponía debía haber sido derribada mucho tiempo atrás, que ya no era adecuada para usarse. En verano había una intolerable proximidad; en invierno, un frío insoportable. Todos los pisos estaban podridos. La mugre en los pisos tenía casi tres centímetros de espesor. Uno podía resbalarse y caer. Las ventanitas estaban tan cubiertas de escarcha que era imposible leer en ningún momento del día. Casi tres centímetros de hielo en los cristales. Goteras en el techo, corrientes de aire por todas partes. Nos hallábamos apiñados como sardinas en lata. En la estufa cabían seis leños, pero no había tibieza (el hielo dentro de la barraca casi no se derretía), sino sólo insufrible humo. Y esto duraba todo el invierno. Los reos lavaban en la barraca su ropa, y todo el lugar estaba salpicado con agua. No había espacio para darse la vuelta. Desde el anochecer hasta el amanecer era imposible no comportarse como cerdos porque, después de todo; 'somos seres humanos vivientes.' Dormíamos sobre tablas desnudas y se nos permitía únicamente una almohada. Extendíamos sobre nuestros cuerpos el abrigo de piel de oveja, durante la noche permanecían descubiertos nuestros pies. Temblábamos toda la noche. Pulgas, piojos, cucarachas, a montones. En invierno usábamos abrigos cortos de piel de oveja, con frecuencia de la peor calidad, que casi no proporcionaban ningún calor; y en nuestros pies, botas de media caña."
Gran parte del resto del tomo lo dedica Joseph Frank a relatar todo aquello que tuvo lugar en prisión y que perfectamente nos podemos imaginar. Podía ser un buen momento para hablar de “Apuntes de la casa muerta�, la novela donde Dostoievski pone en boca de una tercera sus propias experiencias, pero el autor del ensayo prefiere dejar para el tomo siguiente el análisis literario de la obra, ya que esta fue escrita algún tiempo después. Esto es debido a que otro de los castigos sufridos fue la prohibición de escribir ni una coma, por lo que producción fue casi nula, a excepción de un pequeño relato bastante mediocre y una comedia con muy poca gracia que escribió al final de este ciclo un poco de mala gana y tras haberse comprometido con la que sería su dinámica habitual: pedir un anticipo: “No se puede escribir lo que se quiere escribir, y se escribe algo sobre lo que ni siquiera se desea pensar, si no se necesitara dinero. Y debido al dinero me veo obligado a inventar relatos intencionalmente. Ser un escritor necesitado en un oficio asqueroso." Es importante destacar que lo que ocurre durante esos años es de una importancia vital, ya que es aquí dónde Dostoievski cambia de actitud -no podemos decir que radicalmente, ya que venía apuntando maneras- y sienta las bases del pensamiento que más adelante se reflejará en su obra.
También tiene lugar su famosa conversión religiosa, un tema al que Frank dedica muchas páginas y que insisten en relacionar con los ataques epilépticos que desde su encierro se multiplicaron alarmantemente. Frank no cuestiona la verdad o falsedad de las creencias que intervienen en la conversión pero sí sostiene la teoría de que las “penalidades de la vida carcelaria, a pesar de lo bien que pudo haberse adaptado a ellas con el tiempo, lo sometieron precisamente al tipo de tensión que conduce a la desorganización de las funciones cerebrales� lo que unido a las teorías neuropsiquiatricas que analizan los mecanismos piscofísicos de los cuales se obtienen las conversiones, da una idea de qué es lo que el autor cree que le llevó al cambio a esa religiosidad, una religiosidad que, según Wrangel (compañero de armas) “parece haber sido muy personal, vagamente deísta y con una pincelada de panteísmo, pero al mismo tiempo centrada en Cristo�. (2)
En cualquier caso y cuestiones de fe al margen, Dostoievski sale de prisión convertido en otro hombre. Son demasiados temas y demasiado complejos como para poder resumirlos en mil palabras, que era la intención inicial de este post, pero quédense con la idea de un Dostoievski que pasa de occidentalista a eslavófilo por culpa de un contacto directo con los siervos, en los que encuentra a la verdadera madre patria:
“Pueden ustedes haber tenido contacto durante toda su vida con los siervos—dice el narrador de “La casa de los muertos”�, pueden haberse asociado con ellos día tras día durante cuarenta años, de manera oficial, por ejemplo, de acuerdo con las regulaciones administrativas, o, simplemente, en forma amistosa, como benefactores, o en cierto sentido, como padres; pero, a pesar de todo, jamás los conocerán realmente. Será una ilusión óptica y nada más. Sé que todos los lectores pensarán que exagero. Pero estoy cabalmente convencido de esta verdad. He llegado a esta convicción, no mediante libros, no mediante teoría abstracta, sino mediante la realidad, y he tenido abundante tiempo para comprobarla"
* * * * * * * *
Este segundo tomo es, tal como ocurría en el anterior, un exceso de información imposible de resumir, ya que además de profundizar en la psique del escritor en busca de todo aquellos que de un modo u otro pudiese llevarlo a pensar de esta u otra manera, da muchísima importancia al contexto histórico. Esto se traduce en ciento de páginas de información sobre lo que ocurría dentro del marco social y político ruso. Así es como llega, en la última parte del libro, al conflicto surgido por culpa de Chernishevski con la publicación de su tesis doctoral –después de otros muchos artículos periodísticos� llamado “La relación estética entre el arte y la realidad� donde atacaba la llamada “religión del arte�:
“Los idealistas estéticos (Hegel y F. T. Vischer) consideraban el arte como una función del deseo humano de enmendar las imperfecciones de la naturaleza en nombre del ideal. Chernishevski, aportando el punto de vista opuesto, afirmaba categóricamente que "belleza es vida", y que la naturaleza, lejos de ser menos perfecta que el arte, constituía la única fuente de placer verdadero, y era infinitamente superior al arte en todo sentido. De hecho, el arte existe únicamente porque le es imposible al hombre satisfacer siempre sus requerimientos reales. Por consiguiente, el arte es útil, pero sólo como un substituto mientras lo genuino se obtiene.�
Esta encendida polémica, este “reto a la hegemonía moral-espiritual de los intelectuales liberales de la pequeña nobleza�, mantuvo entretenido al mundillo literario durante toda la década de 1860-1869, y dando a luz una serie de obras de los escritores más notorios de la literatura rusa. “La víspera� y “Padres e hijos�, de Turguenev; “Los hombres superfinos y el bilioso�, de Herzen; “¿Qué hacer?�, de Chernishevski; y “Memorias del subsuelo�, de Dostoievski fueron el resultado de este combate. Al finalizar la década, el debate fue finiquitado por “Los demonios�. Pero de todo esto ya hablaremos más adelante, durante los tomos tres y cuatro de esta biografía.
* * * * * *
Resumiendo: independientemente del cariño que uno le tenga a Dostoievski y de lo más o menos que interesen sus obras, este volumen mantiene el nivel de calidad del anterior, que ya no es poco, y a pesar de lo aparentemente aburrido de la premisa de la que arranca (el pormenorizado relato de los diez años más improductivos del escritor) el resultado es un texto apasionante unas veces, repetitivo otras pero siempre interesante.
El tercer volumen se ocupará del regreso de Dostoievski a primera línea con obras como “Humillados y ofendidos�, “La casa de los muertos�, “Memorias del Subsuelo� o “Crimen y castigo�, novelas estás que habrá que ir leyendo unas y releyendo otras y comentando con la calma que merecen.
(1) Salvo que se indique lo contrario, todas las citas pertenecen a Joseph Frank.
(2) “Las memorias de Wrangel son más bien prosaicas. La mayor parte de lo que relata de Dostoievski se relaciona con los incidentes rutinarios que les acontecían en la vida diaria, lo cual ofrece un vislumbre de un Dostoievski ordinario que raramente encontramos en otras fuentes, y es útil para que ocasionalmente recordemos que él también se comportaba como cualquier mortal común.�
Resumidísimamente este volumen se ocupa de los 10 años que Dostoievsky pasa en Siberia, primero en una prisión de trabajos forzados y más tarde, cuatro años más tarde, ocupando el más bajo escalafón del ejército.
En prisión acabó por algo, claro. A principios de los años cuarenta el clima sociocultural ruso pasó del romanticismo al realismo social y, tal como Herzen escribió cinco años después de la publicación de la primera novela de Dostoievski (que recordemos [enlace] que había sido considerada por Belinski, el crítico literario más importante de la época, como “la primera tentativa de novela social�), las obras se vieron “imbuidas por inspiraciones y tendencias socialistas�. Estas tendencias, dice Frank, “habían requerido bastante tiempo para surgir en Rusia, y tal vez puede afirmarse que fueron inicialmente estimuladas por las escandalosas injusticias cometidas con la servidumbre, institución que durante largo tiempo perturbó las conciencias de los mejores miembros de la sociedad rusa culta, y suministró uno de los motivos para la abortada sublevación de los decembristas, en noviembre de 1825�. (1) Es decir, que la cosa venía de lejos y Dostoievski, que además de haber tenido contacto personal con las brutalidades infligidas a los campesinos estaba también muy afectado por la lectura progresista, humanitaria y vagamente utópica literatura socialista de autores como Victor Hugo, George Sand o Eugene Sue, entre otros, hizo algo más que limitarse a escribir novelas sociales de inspiración socialista o participar en un movimiento exclusivamente literario: “a partir del invierno de 1848 empezó a asistir regularmente a las reuniones del círculo de Petrashevski, formado por un grupo de hombres jóvenes que se reunían en la casa de Mijail Butashevich-Petrashevski para discutir todos los grandes temas del día que la amordazada prensa rusa tenía prohibido mencionar.�
El zar Nicolás I ordenó la detención de círculo Petrashevski y con él al joven Dostoievski. Todos fueron juzgados y condenados a muerte, una pena de muerte que sería conmutada enseguida aunque igualmente, a modo de escarmiento, se organizó el fusilamiento. Sólo antes de apretar el gatillo, cuando los presos estaban frente al paredón, se les informó de que sus penas habían sido rebajadas en diferentes grados. Dostoievski, condenado inicialmente a ocho años de trabajos forzados, vio reducido este período a cuatro años, después de los cuales tendría que servir en el ejército ruso durante tiempo indeterminado. Así fue como acabó en Siberia. Dostoievski, en una la carta que escribió a su hermano Mijail el 22 de febrero de 1854, apenas una semana después de haber sido liberado del campamento de condenados, le cuenta, entre otras muchas cosas, detalles del lugar:
"Vivíamos apretujados, todos juntos en una sola barraca. Imagínate una construcción de madera, vieja y ruinosa, que se suponía debía haber sido derribada mucho tiempo atrás, que ya no era adecuada para usarse. En verano había una intolerable proximidad; en invierno, un frío insoportable. Todos los pisos estaban podridos. La mugre en los pisos tenía casi tres centímetros de espesor. Uno podía resbalarse y caer. Las ventanitas estaban tan cubiertas de escarcha que era imposible leer en ningún momento del día. Casi tres centímetros de hielo en los cristales. Goteras en el techo, corrientes de aire por todas partes. Nos hallábamos apiñados como sardinas en lata. En la estufa cabían seis leños, pero no había tibieza (el hielo dentro de la barraca casi no se derretía), sino sólo insufrible humo. Y esto duraba todo el invierno. Los reos lavaban en la barraca su ropa, y todo el lugar estaba salpicado con agua. No había espacio para darse la vuelta. Desde el anochecer hasta el amanecer era imposible no comportarse como cerdos porque, después de todo; 'somos seres humanos vivientes.' Dormíamos sobre tablas desnudas y se nos permitía únicamente una almohada. Extendíamos sobre nuestros cuerpos el abrigo de piel de oveja, durante la noche permanecían descubiertos nuestros pies. Temblábamos toda la noche. Pulgas, piojos, cucarachas, a montones. En invierno usábamos abrigos cortos de piel de oveja, con frecuencia de la peor calidad, que casi no proporcionaban ningún calor; y en nuestros pies, botas de media caña."
Gran parte del resto del tomo lo dedica Joseph Frank a relatar todo aquello que tuvo lugar en prisión y que perfectamente nos podemos imaginar. Podía ser un buen momento para hablar de “Apuntes de la casa muerta�, la novela donde Dostoievski pone en boca de una tercera sus propias experiencias, pero el autor del ensayo prefiere dejar para el tomo siguiente el análisis literario de la obra, ya que esta fue escrita algún tiempo después. Esto es debido a que otro de los castigos sufridos fue la prohibición de escribir ni una coma, por lo que producción fue casi nula, a excepción de un pequeño relato bastante mediocre y una comedia con muy poca gracia que escribió al final de este ciclo un poco de mala gana y tras haberse comprometido con la que sería su dinámica habitual: pedir un anticipo: “No se puede escribir lo que se quiere escribir, y se escribe algo sobre lo que ni siquiera se desea pensar, si no se necesitara dinero. Y debido al dinero me veo obligado a inventar relatos intencionalmente. Ser un escritor necesitado en un oficio asqueroso." Es importante destacar que lo que ocurre durante esos años es de una importancia vital, ya que es aquí dónde Dostoievski cambia de actitud -no podemos decir que radicalmente, ya que venía apuntando maneras- y sienta las bases del pensamiento que más adelante se reflejará en su obra.
También tiene lugar su famosa conversión religiosa, un tema al que Frank dedica muchas páginas y que insisten en relacionar con los ataques epilépticos que desde su encierro se multiplicaron alarmantemente. Frank no cuestiona la verdad o falsedad de las creencias que intervienen en la conversión pero sí sostiene la teoría de que las “penalidades de la vida carcelaria, a pesar de lo bien que pudo haberse adaptado a ellas con el tiempo, lo sometieron precisamente al tipo de tensión que conduce a la desorganización de las funciones cerebrales� lo que unido a las teorías neuropsiquiatricas que analizan los mecanismos piscofísicos de los cuales se obtienen las conversiones, da una idea de qué es lo que el autor cree que le llevó al cambio a esa religiosidad, una religiosidad que, según Wrangel (compañero de armas) “parece haber sido muy personal, vagamente deísta y con una pincelada de panteísmo, pero al mismo tiempo centrada en Cristo�. (2)
En cualquier caso y cuestiones de fe al margen, Dostoievski sale de prisión convertido en otro hombre. Son demasiados temas y demasiado complejos como para poder resumirlos en mil palabras, que era la intención inicial de este post, pero quédense con la idea de un Dostoievski que pasa de occidentalista a eslavófilo por culpa de un contacto directo con los siervos, en los que encuentra a la verdadera madre patria:
“Pueden ustedes haber tenido contacto durante toda su vida con los siervos—dice el narrador de “La casa de los muertos”�, pueden haberse asociado con ellos día tras día durante cuarenta años, de manera oficial, por ejemplo, de acuerdo con las regulaciones administrativas, o, simplemente, en forma amistosa, como benefactores, o en cierto sentido, como padres; pero, a pesar de todo, jamás los conocerán realmente. Será una ilusión óptica y nada más. Sé que todos los lectores pensarán que exagero. Pero estoy cabalmente convencido de esta verdad. He llegado a esta convicción, no mediante libros, no mediante teoría abstracta, sino mediante la realidad, y he tenido abundante tiempo para comprobarla"
* * * * * * * *
Este segundo tomo es, tal como ocurría en el anterior, un exceso de información imposible de resumir, ya que además de profundizar en la psique del escritor en busca de todo aquellos que de un modo u otro pudiese llevarlo a pensar de esta u otra manera, da muchísima importancia al contexto histórico. Esto se traduce en ciento de páginas de información sobre lo que ocurría dentro del marco social y político ruso. Así es como llega, en la última parte del libro, al conflicto surgido por culpa de Chernishevski con la publicación de su tesis doctoral –después de otros muchos artículos periodísticos� llamado “La relación estética entre el arte y la realidad� donde atacaba la llamada “religión del arte�:
“Los idealistas estéticos (Hegel y F. T. Vischer) consideraban el arte como una función del deseo humano de enmendar las imperfecciones de la naturaleza en nombre del ideal. Chernishevski, aportando el punto de vista opuesto, afirmaba categóricamente que "belleza es vida", y que la naturaleza, lejos de ser menos perfecta que el arte, constituía la única fuente de placer verdadero, y era infinitamente superior al arte en todo sentido. De hecho, el arte existe únicamente porque le es imposible al hombre satisfacer siempre sus requerimientos reales. Por consiguiente, el arte es útil, pero sólo como un substituto mientras lo genuino se obtiene.�
Esta encendida polémica, este “reto a la hegemonía moral-espiritual de los intelectuales liberales de la pequeña nobleza�, mantuvo entretenido al mundillo literario durante toda la década de 1860-1869, y dando a luz una serie de obras de los escritores más notorios de la literatura rusa. “La víspera� y “Padres e hijos�, de Turguenev; “Los hombres superfinos y el bilioso�, de Herzen; “¿Qué hacer?�, de Chernishevski; y “Memorias del subsuelo�, de Dostoievski fueron el resultado de este combate. Al finalizar la década, el debate fue finiquitado por “Los demonios�. Pero de todo esto ya hablaremos más adelante, durante los tomos tres y cuatro de esta biografía.
* * * * * *
Resumiendo: independientemente del cariño que uno le tenga a Dostoievski y de lo más o menos que interesen sus obras, este volumen mantiene el nivel de calidad del anterior, que ya no es poco, y a pesar de lo aparentemente aburrido de la premisa de la que arranca (el pormenorizado relato de los diez años más improductivos del escritor) el resultado es un texto apasionante unas veces, repetitivo otras pero siempre interesante.
El tercer volumen se ocupará del regreso de Dostoievski a primera línea con obras como “Humillados y ofendidos�, “La casa de los muertos�, “Memorias del Subsuelo� o “Crimen y castigo�, novelas estás que habrá que ir leyendo unas y releyendo otras y comentando con la calma que merecen.
(1) Salvo que se indique lo contrario, todas las citas pertenecen a Joseph Frank.
(2) “Las memorias de Wrangel son más bien prosaicas. La mayor parte de lo que relata de Dostoievski se relaciona con los incidentes rutinarios que les acontecían en la vida diaria, lo cual ofrece un vislumbre de un Dostoievski ordinario que raramente encontramos en otras fuentes, y es útil para que ocasionalmente recordemos que él también se comportaba como cualquier mortal común.�
September 21, 2019
This volume of Frank's magnum opus covers Dostoevsky's lengthy Siberian ordeal: his imprisonment and interrogations at the Peter-and-Paul Fortress; his mock execution, staged under direct orders of the Tsar to own the libs; his years in a Siberian penal colony; his years of exile in Semipalatinsk; his two Siberian novellas; and finally his return to St. Petersburg. Although Dostoevsky produced very little work during this time (and the volume is accordingly slim), these were crucial formative years for both Dostoevsky's personality and the Russian literary/social/intellectual scene, and Frank reconstructs both with scrupulous accuracy and inhuman thoroughness, showing that these years provide the intellectual foundation for the remainder of Dostoevsky's career, and especially the bitter ideological disputes of the 1860s. He deciphers the mystery of the "regeneration of Dostoevsky's convictions" in Katorga, covers the explosive impact of Chernyshevsky's appearance on the scene, lays out the important controversy over "weak" and "strong" character types, and excavates quite a bit of deeper meaning in Dostoevsky's seemingly farcical novellas from this era. He also provides a surprising amount of depth on Dostoevsky's epilepsy, including a survey of the relevant medical literature.
August 20, 2018
As the first volume of this massive biography was haunted by one of the last incidents it depicts -- Dostoevsky's arrest for sedition -- so is this one haunted by its first, the mock execution Dostoevsky experienced before his exile to prison and then servitude in the army in Siberia. I read his The House of the Dead (a heavily censored fictional account of his years in prison) concurrent with this volume and I think certain young podcasters who have remarked that exile to Siberia sounds like it was actually a pretty sweet gig should do the same because it's astonishing that the man emerged from the experience with the ability to believe in a future at all, let alone a literary career.
But it did afford him a chance to study other Russians closely and in detail, and his later work would have been nothing without this.
But it did afford him a chance to study other Russians closely and in detail, and his later work would have been nothing without this.
January 13, 2019
Достоевский-гийн таван боть намтрын хоёрдугаарх нь. Ерөнхийдөө уншихад их амттай санагдлаа. Д-ийн амьдралаас гадна тухайн цаг үеийн байдал, ялангуяа Оросын утга зохиолын хувьсал, Д-ийн өөрийнх нь бодол санаа, ном зохиолынх нь “агуулгыг� бас их оновчтой, дэлгэрэнгүй тайлбарласан юм шиг санагдсан. Дутагдал гэвэл агуулга талаас нь харсаар байгаад, уран зохиол, урлагийн бүтээлгэдэг талаас нь бүр сайн харж чадаагүй юм шиг. Гоголийг жаахан орхигдуулсан байсан. (Pushkin-iig bas. Joseph Frank uruu Slavicist buyu mergejliin oros sudlaach bish, europeanist, baruun europe-iin utga zohioliig iluu meddeg, ter talaas ni bol mash sain holboosuudiig ni gargaj ugsun.) Бусдаар бол гоё намтар байна, ялагуяа тэр үеийн Оросын утга зохиолд юу болж байсныг ойлгож мэдрэе гэвэл. Дараагийн 3 дугаар ботьруу нь орохыг тэсэн ядан хүлээж байна.
September 22, 2023
The 2nd volume of Joseph Frank's 5 volume biography of Dostoevsky. It is so expansive because it covers so much other biographers (of any life) would rather cut and avoid in the interest of space. But I appreciate the detailed approach. I'll highlight my favorite example from this entry: when Frank zooms in on a particular letter FD wrote to his brother Mikhail requesting the latter send him books in prison he specifically requests Mikhail "send [him] the Carus." For years scholars couldn't make sense of this script and assumed FD was requesting his brother send him the "Coran", the Muslim Holy Book, but deeper research revealed Dostoevsky was interested in Carl Gustav Carus, a predecessor to Freud whose theories of the unconscious FD found compelling.
October 3, 2017
Lacking the glitter of the St. Petersburg literary scene, this book does an excellent job of exploring how his time in the gulag catalyzed FD into the great humanist writer he became. Interesting too how little can be known, given the lack of communication from the gulag to outside world, and the way this shapes Frank's research in this volume.
November 20, 2024
Continues Frank's excellent narrative of Dostoevsky's (D's) life and work. This includes the famous mock execution, imprisonment, Siberia, and his change of understanding of the peasantry due to living with peasant convicts in Siberia, as well as a troubling marriage. It's beautifully written and bring out issues in D's work not previously considered in other D studies.
March 10, 2020
Very interesting, especially about his time in the prison camp which seems to have had a tremendous impact on him.
September 10, 2024
Read the abridged. Man this hits hard. Life changing. Need to read the full
December 30, 2015
If you didn't pick this book out of the blue from a book shelf, you already know that this book is second in the five book series of Joseph Frank's work on Dostoevsky.
Like the first book, this book is well researched and well written and details the years of Dostoevsky's life between 1850 and 1859; from the time he was convicted & Exiled to the time he came back to St. Petersburg in December 1859. The book narrates story of Dostoevsky's detention, his trial in Russia, his self-defense, his exile including four years in prison and time served in the army, his first love and first marriage, his brief literary career in Siberia and finally his home coming.
Among all the details, the most promising part of the book is Joseph Frank's explanation of what lead to transformation of Dostoevsky in these years. The book's title ('Years of Ordeal') is justified as Joseph Frank devotes a considerable part of the book to not only portraying a detailed picture of Dostoevsky's physical and mental struggle but also to the impact of that struggle on his believes and vision. The role that these years played in Dostoevsky's transformation as a writer as well as in his development as an astute observer of human psychology is clear in explanation of his life in these nine years.
A few of Dostoevsky's work are referenced in the book, namely, ' Lives of the saints', 'Diary of a writer', 'House of the dead', 'Uncle's dream', 'The village of Stepanchikovo', 'The insulted and the injured' and 'The Devils'.
This book is relatively smaller that other four books in the series (~300 pages) and contains indispensable material to understand Dostoevsky as a writer. To feel the pulse of this book, read Dostoyevsky's work before 1850, his works completed in Siberia and then his works post exile. Joseph Frank's words will resonate with your reading experience!
The first review of the series of books can be found here.
Like the first book, this book is well researched and well written and details the years of Dostoevsky's life between 1850 and 1859; from the time he was convicted & Exiled to the time he came back to St. Petersburg in December 1859. The book narrates story of Dostoevsky's detention, his trial in Russia, his self-defense, his exile including four years in prison and time served in the army, his first love and first marriage, his brief literary career in Siberia and finally his home coming.
Among all the details, the most promising part of the book is Joseph Frank's explanation of what lead to transformation of Dostoevsky in these years. The book's title ('Years of Ordeal') is justified as Joseph Frank devotes a considerable part of the book to not only portraying a detailed picture of Dostoevsky's physical and mental struggle but also to the impact of that struggle on his believes and vision. The role that these years played in Dostoevsky's transformation as a writer as well as in his development as an astute observer of human psychology is clear in explanation of his life in these nine years.
A few of Dostoevsky's work are referenced in the book, namely, ' Lives of the saints', 'Diary of a writer', 'House of the dead', 'Uncle's dream', 'The village of Stepanchikovo', 'The insulted and the injured' and 'The Devils'.
This book is relatively smaller that other four books in the series (~300 pages) and contains indispensable material to understand Dostoevsky as a writer. To feel the pulse of this book, read Dostoyevsky's work before 1850, his works completed in Siberia and then his works post exile. Joseph Frank's words will resonate with your reading experience!
The first review of the series of books can be found here.
July 12, 2008
I imagine we've all heard the term "magisterial" ad nauseum to describe really big bio's, but Frank truly deserves the encomium for his colossal 5 vol bio of Dostoevsky. I won't pretend to have read all 5 of them; just this one, vol 2 and parts of vol 5, The Prophet of the Mantle. I'm not sure I would even aspire to read all five volumes (unless I won the lotto and could retire to a life of reading), but that's ok, because the great thing about Frank's books is that you can jump in anywhere and pick up a fascinating thread about D's life and work. For all the massive accumulation of detail, I find it quite readable. Frank does marvelous job of presenting D's life in context of intellectual trends of the time, but without sacrificing the personal nature of the man -- sort of like a D. novel, one might say! (As is his description of the infamous "mock" execution D. endured.) His gloss on each novel make for great complements to the texts, especially if, like most of us, I'm sure, you have trouble keeping all the characters straight. If you're a serious Dostoevsky fan -- is there any other kind? -- then Franks "magisterial" (there, I said it) bio's are a must read.
January 6, 2024
Frank's biography is, perhaps, as good as anything by its subject. It helps that Doestovsky’s life in these years was more wild than a character in a novel.
He was arrested for printing subversive tracts, sentenced to be executed, taken out to be executed (czarist Russia didn’t keep people waiting on death row very long), granted a reprieve from the czar, and sent to a decade of labor in Siberia. He seems to have come out this genuinely lovin� the czar and sincerely grateful for not being killed.
Of course, even if he hated the czar there might not be any evidence in the records. He’d have had the same incentives to kiss the czar’s ass in his published works (they needed to be approved by the censors prior to publication), and even in correspondence (read by secret police) and notes (subject to being seized). Those things make it a bit tough to say with 100% confidence what he (or any other Russian back then) really thought.
He was arrested for printing subversive tracts, sentenced to be executed, taken out to be executed (czarist Russia didn’t keep people waiting on death row very long), granted a reprieve from the czar, and sent to a decade of labor in Siberia. He seems to have come out this genuinely lovin� the czar and sincerely grateful for not being killed.
Of course, even if he hated the czar there might not be any evidence in the records. He’d have had the same incentives to kiss the czar’s ass in his published works (they needed to be approved by the censors prior to publication), and even in correspondence (read by secret police) and notes (subject to being seized). Those things make it a bit tough to say with 100% confidence what he (or any other Russian back then) really thought.
July 1, 2008
Even more fascinating than the first � another excellent book in Joseph Frank's five-book biography. I was concerned about losing interest with this one, or falling into the inevitable tedium of nonfictional banality. My worship of Dostoevsky does have its limits. I think, however, that this work will at last be my favorite once I've finished the series: as it is the "bringing of a man to his lowest ebb" in prison and exile.
With very little of D's actual work and letters to go on, the author draws a surprisingly detailed account of D's re-molded state of mind that sets him apart in literary development. His poverty, temperament, health and spiritualism � all making him seem relentlessly awkward in his time, but lending ultra-modern ideals and motivations to his ultra-human characters.
Forgive me my obvious bias. Three more reviews like this and I'll stop my cooing. Well, maybe. My plan is to start over from the beginning � chronologically reading/rereading his works.
With very little of D's actual work and letters to go on, the author draws a surprisingly detailed account of D's re-molded state of mind that sets him apart in literary development. His poverty, temperament, health and spiritualism � all making him seem relentlessly awkward in his time, but lending ultra-modern ideals and motivations to his ultra-human characters.
Forgive me my obvious bias. Three more reviews like this and I'll stop my cooing. Well, maybe. My plan is to start over from the beginning � chronologically reading/rereading his works.
October 23, 2015
Vol 2 of Frank's stunning 5 volume intellectual biography of Dostoevsky. He is in prison in Siberia, so little of the St Petersburg literary scene here. Not much to work on since there were also few letters and no publications (until the very last year - a couple minor, comedic works). Frank still is able to keep our attention, using "Notes from the House of the Dead", others' memoirs, and later letters to fill in the years. He is also able to show us the change in Dostoevsky's outlook and philosophy, the beginnings of ideas that will be developed later in his major works. To write 300 pp on this period of Dostoevsky's life, and to make it interesting, believable and useful, is an amazing accomplishment.
June 11, 2012
Why he wrote about murderers for the rest of his life. A faith in humanity lost and found among examples of them. Would he have been a great writer without Siberia? It's hard to say yes. He came out stronger in every way. Shorn of an old idealism, because that was ignorant, and now he has knowledge, and no less belief. He himself says he is unchanged in principles. The need of the psyche for freedom - ahead of survival instincts or what they call self-interest - he witnesses. Epilepsy strikes, and love that's as disastrous.
December 28, 2007
"It was only when he arrived in the prison camp, and was forced to live cheek-by-jowl with the peasant-convicts, that some of his earlier opinions were directly challenged; only then did he begin to realize to what extent he had been a dupe of illusions about the Russian peasant and the nature of Russian social-political reality." p. 88
July 1, 2009
Continuation of the massive literary biography that I’m slowly reading. Again, probably only for Dostoevsky obsessives like me, but it’s full of interesting stuff about his life and the literary/cultural background against which it is set. This one covers the years after his arrest for political conspiracy, spent mostly in Siberia and in the army.
May 21, 2016
While I'm averaging five years per volume, I think it took longer for Frank to write these (though not much) and I find these brilliant analyses of the great (and minor) works, the life, and the intellectually history of the time. Having visited St. Petersburg (not the one in Florida) while reading this and the next volume was a real plus.
January 27, 2012
One of the greatest books about Dostoievsky's early times.
Besides the great historical research it has amazing descriptions of life in prision and how this period was important in Dostoievsky's creations, especially in "House of the dead".
My favorite one so far.
Besides the great historical research it has amazing descriptions of life in prision and how this period was important in Dostoievsky's creations, especially in "House of the dead".
My favorite one so far.
February 8, 2008
Covers Dostoevsky's life from his arrest for subversive political activity to his time in jail and army service in Siberia. Excellent.
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