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

Early 20th-century literary critics Joseph Collins, Hermann Hesse, and Percy Lubbock concluded that the pages of a book present a succession of moments that the reader visualizes and reinterprets. They feared that few would actually commit themselves to memory, and that most were likely to soon disappear. As you turn these pages, you will (re)discover the value of the literary canon through the Self. My objective is to examine how the Self is formed, lost, and regained through creative strategies that confront and define its shapes and distortions on nearly every page of a canonical work. You can consider Confronting / Defining the Self: Formation and Dissolution of the ‘I’ from La Fayette to Grass as offering an apology for the study of literature and the humanities in an era when technology and commerce dominate our consciousness, drive our daily expectations, and shape our career goals.

“Let me tell you, dear heart, it can happen that you go through life without knowing under your very nose there is a book in which your life is described in the minutest detail. What you have never even noticed before, you gradually remember, as you start reading such a book, and find out and discover... some books you read and read and you can’t make head or tail of them, however much you try. It is so damn clever that you can’t understand a word of it... But you read a book like that and feel as though you had written it yourself, just as though – how shall I put it? – as though you had taken possession of your own heart – whatever it might be – had turned it inside out for people to see, and described it all in detail – that’s how it is! And how simple it is, good Lord! Why, I could have written it myself! Why, indeed, shouldn’t I have written it myself!” from Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

This book comprises essays to mark the centenary of Dostoyevsky's death in 1881. The first part considers specific works and the second part ranges more widely over aspects of the great novelist's work, including essays on Dostoyevsky as philosopher, on his religious thought and on formalist and structuralist approaches to his work.