Fyodor Dostoevsky

Two of Dostoevsky's most powerful novellas of obsession, cruelty, and the fragility of the heart A pawnbroker paces beside his young wife's body, attempting to piece together the circumstances that led to her suicide. A young man is overwhelmed by his own contentment and sows his ruin in a fierce attempt to protect it. BRIEF ENCOUNTERS: classic novellas and captivating stories, to be read in a single sitting or savoured over days

Notes from the Underground is a dystopian tale of the Underground Man, a retired civil servant living in St Petersburg who retreats from society. This work is considered by many to be the first existentialist novel and influenced many classic works including Metamorphosis and Invisible Man. The tale draws on Dostoevsky's acute observation of Russian life; his thoughts on philosophy and social mores; and his reactions to the work of Nikolai Gogol. At its heart lies Dostoevsky's rumination on the need to establish one's true identity and how society can distort the perception of who one truly is. This beautiful pocket-sized gift edition contains the classic translation by Constance Garnett; a facsimile of Dostoevsky's signature on the title page; silver gilded page edges and beautifully designed endpapers. Part of the Arcturus Ornate Classics series this book makes wonderful gift for any lover of classic literature. ABOUT THE SERIES: Arcturus Ornate Classics are beautiful pocket editions of iconic literary works from across history. Presented with striking foil cover embossing, gilded page edges, and deluxe ivory paper, these editions make the perfect gift for lovers of classic literature.

Dostoevsky''s last and greatest novel, The Karamazov Brothers (1880) is both a brilliantly told crime story and a passionate philosophical debate. The dissolute landowner Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is murdered; his sons - the atheist intellectual Ivan, the hot-blooded Dmitry, and the saintly novice Alyosha - are all at some level involved.Bound up with this intense family drama is Dostoevsky''s exploration of many deeply felt ideas about the existence of God, the question of human freedom, the collective nature of guilt, the disatrous consequences of rationalism. The novel is also richly comic: the Russian Orthodox Church, the legal system, and even the authors most cherished causes and beliefs are presented with a note of irreverence, so that orthodoxy, and radicalism, sanity and madness, love and hatred, right and wrong are no longer mutually exclusive. Rebecca West considered it "the allegory for the world''s maturity", but with children to the fore. This new translation does full justice to Doestoevsky''s genius, particularly in the use of the spoken word, which ranges over every mode of human expression. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Feeling alone and abandoned by everyone, a young man and self-confessed dreamer decides to take to the streets of St Petersburg during one of its long summer nights. As he roams around the empty city, he chances on a weeping girl, whom he approaches and rescues from the unwanted attentions of an importunate gentleman. The two agree to meet again the following night on the same spot, and as they start revealing their life story to each other, the young man cannot resist falling in love with his new acquaintance.A quintessential tale of urban solitude and the desperate need for human contact, White Nights, a novella written in 1848, soon after The Double, is accompanied in this volume by the rest of Dostoevsky’s shorter fiction, including famous stories such as ‘Mr Prokharchin’, ‘The Dream of a Ridiculous Man’, ‘A Gentle Creature’ and ‘Bobok’ – all presented in sparkling new translations by Roger Cockrell.List of Stories: The Landlady, Mr Prokharchin, A Novel in Nine Letters, Another Man’s Wife and a Husband Under the Bed, A Weak Heart, Polzunkov, An Honest Thief, A Christmas Tree and a Wedding, White Nights, A Little Hero, A Nasty Story, Bobok, The Heavenly Christmas Tree, The Peasant Marei, A Gentle Creature, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man.

''One death, in exchange for thousands of lives - it''s simple arithmetic!''A new translation of Dostoevsky''s epic masterpiece, Crime and Punishment (1866). The impoverished student Raskolnikov decides to free himself from debt by killing an old moneylender, an act he sees as elevating himself above conventional morality. Like Napoleon he will assert his will and his crime will be justified by its elimination of ''vermin'' for the sake of the greater good. But Raskolnikov is torn apart by fear, guilt, and a growing conscience under the influence of his love for Sonya. Meanwhile the police detective Porfiry is on his trail. It is a powerfully psychological novel, in which the St Petersburg setting, Dostoevsky''s own circumstances, and contemporary social problems all play their part.

''White Nights'' is one of Dostoevsky’s earlier short stories but one of his most enduringly popular. It tells the story of four nights in the life of the lonely narrator, who meets and falls in love with the mysterious and beautiful Nastenka.Poor Folk was Dostoevsky’s first novel, written to try and alleviate his financial plight, and was a commercial success. It tells the story of Makar Devushkin, a clerk, and Varvara Dobroselova, a seamstress, by means of the letters they exchange; they are in love, but too poor to marry. Its exploration of humanitarian themes led to it being described as Russia’s first ‘social novel’.By contrast, Dostoevsky’s second novel, The Double was not well received. First published in 1846, it was revised and republished by Dostoevsky in 1866, but he did not consider it a success. By contrast, Vladimir Nabokov called it ''the best thing he ever wrote’ and described it as ’a perfect work of art’.

This striking gift edition presents Dostoevsky's classic work The Gambler, featuring a luxurious, silver-embossed cover design, gilded page edges and patterned endpapers. In this gripping literary classic, Alexei Ivanovich is tutor to a Russian family. They are bankrupt and eagerly awaiting the death of 'Grandmother'. Alexei falls in love twice: first, with the beautiful but impossible Polina; and second, with the game of roulette. His addiction turns out to be shared by Grandmother who suddenly appears, very much alive, and willing to gamble down to her last banknote.The Gambler is a mesmerizing and thought-provoking work that showcases Dostoevsky's unparalleled ability to explore the complexities of the human condition. This pocket-sized gift edition contains the classic and unabridged text, presented with a silver embossed cover design, ivory pages, beautifully designed endpapers and silver gilded page edges. Part of the Arcturus Ornate Classics series, this book makes wonderful gift for any lover of classic fiction. ABOUT THE SERIES: Arcturus Ornate Classics are beautifully bound editions of iconic literary works across history. These compact, foil-embossed hardbacks are printed using deluxe ivory paper and make the perfect gift.

"Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart…" Crime and Punishment is one of the greatest and most readable novels ever written. From the beginning we are locked into the frenzied consciousness of Raskolnikov who, against his better instincts, is inexorably drawn to commit a brutal double murder. From that moment on, we share his conflicting feelings of self-loathing and pride, of contempt for and need of others, and of terrible despair and hope of redemption: and, in a remarkable transformation of the detective novel, we follow his agonised efforts to probe and confront both his own motives for, and the consequences of, his crime. The result is a tragic novel built out of a series of supremely dramatic scenes that illuminate the eternal conflicts at the heart of human existence: most especially our desire for self-expression and self-fulfilment, as against the constraints of morality and human laws; and our agonised awareness of the world's harsh injustices and of our own mortality, as against the mysteries of divine justice and immortality.

‘The Eternal Husband’ is a tragicomic novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky about Trusotsky, a widower who discovers that his wife had an affair with an old friend, Velchaninov. The story follows Trusotsky and Velchaninov as they embark on a misadventure to find Trusotsky a new wife while the tension between them grows to a violent climax.

A desperate man wanders around the streets of St. Petersburg. His life having lost its meaning, he is determined to kill himself. Nothing matters anymore and there is no point in making his existence even more painful than it already is. He figures it would be best to shoot himself. A poor little girl crosses his path and begs for some help, but the miserable man sends her away.

The narrator in the story has just came back from a wedding, but he wants to take us to a Christmas party that he was at several years ago and where he witnessed how big of a difference there is between the social classes. He saw how the rich people’s children received expensive gifts while one poor boy, the son of the governess, received only a book without covers.

'I have always been ridiculous, and I have known it, perhaps from the hour I was born' A man goes mad because he is happy. A civil servant behaves like a monster at a wedding-party. A man is swallowed by a crocodile, but not eaten nor seriously damaged. Dostoevsky's stories inhabit similarly volcanic atmospheres as his novels, places of curiosity and exception. They resemble jokes and anecdotes, told by volatile, voluble, morbidly sensitive and frustrated characters. These narrators all have a tendency to express themselves in crescendos of conflicting emotions, while the stories themselves steer clear of grand conclusions. Michael Wood's selection of Dostoevsky's shorter works is drawn from the timeless translations of Constance Garnett whose work, he says in his preface, gives readers the best of several worlds.

A towering classic of Russian literature, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is a compelling story of a brutal double murder and its aftermath. An impoverished ex-student, Rodion Raskolnikov, kills a pawnbroker and her sister, apparently for financial gain. But as he encounters friends and family, strangers and adversaries, Raskolnikov is compelled to face the true forces that have led him to murder. His struggle with himself and those around him becomes a battle of the individual against society, radicalism against tradition, and ultimately the will of man against the mysteries of divine providence. A sensation in its day, Crime and Punishment has left an indelible stamp on the world of literature. This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of Crime and Punishment is translated from the Russian by Constance Garnett, with an afterword by Oliver Francis. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

A collection of powerful stories by one of the masters of Russian literature, illustrating Fyodor Dostoyevsky's thoughts on political philosophy, religion and above all, humanity. From the primitive peasant who kills without understanding that he is destroying a human life, to the anxious antihero of Notes From Underground--a man who both craves and despises affection--this volume and its often-tormented characters showcase Dostoyevsky's evolving outlook on man's fate. The compelling works presented here were written at distinct periods in the author's life, at decisive moments in his groping for a political philosophy and a religious answer. Thomas Mann described Dostoyevsky as "an author whose Christian sympathy is ordinarily devoted to human misery, sin, vice, the depths of lust and crime, rather than to nobility of body and soul"--and Notes From Underground as "an awe-and-terror-inspiring example of this sympathy." Translated and with an Afterword by Andrew R. MacAndrew With an Introduction by Ben Marcus

Dostoevsky's beautiful writing style and universal themes make this epic 19th century novel unmissable. The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving Karamazov and his three sons - the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the social and spiritual strivings in what was both a golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian history.

'The most innovative and challenging writer of fiction in his generation in Russia' Guardian Based on a real-life crime which horrified Russia in 1869, Dostoevsky intended his novel to castigate the fanaticism of his country's new political reformers, particularly those known as Nihilists. Blackly funny, grotesque and shocking, Demons is a disturbing portrait of five young men saturated in ideology and bent on destruction, and a compelling study of terrorism. 'Marvellous...a fluid and well-paced translation' Observer